The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1894-11-27

can say that the trainers OF tine '"hH"-
,ution ever intended to give the Govern
mont OF the United States power over
rsrar currency or intended TO interfere
Win the right OF the States TO charter
hanks OF issue at their pleasure.
The review of this case would not De
compIete without an account or now the
United States Government has come 70
be permitted to cor troll this whole SUD
feet. In disregard and defiance OF the
Constitution, and TO the enormous det-
rinent Of the American people. Inc
roots OF this anomaly lie far back IN
social conditions. 1t is nothing bat one
Of the forms taken by the idea enter
tanned by so many people, that govern
ment is everything; the individual moth
ing. 1t is the very antipodes OF Democ-
racy.
| 1t is we'll known that when our Const-
| tuition was framed there was a powerful
| minority in this Union who abhorfed
| Democratic principle. and were believers
| in the idea Of monarchy. General Alex
| ander Hamilton was the leader OF TINS
| section of opinion. When General WASH
| ington was made President he made Cen
| eral Hamilton Secretary Of the Treasury,
| and in very mastery review or the
| financial state Of the country, General
| Hamilton brought forward proposition
| to establish United States Bank. The
| Constitution contained no provision au-
| thorizng the Government TO charter
| corporation, and its power to do so was
| called in question by the Democrats
| General Hamilton argued that the Con-
stitution gave the Government power to
do all things appropriate and necessary
to make express grants Of power effec-
tual. That the Government had power
to levy and collect taxes, carry the mails,
regulate commerce. and number of
other things. An incorporated company
might be the most appropriate means for
doing any one of these things. His view
prevailed. and the bank was chartered.
| We are not disposed to quarrel with the
| propositions upon which Hamilton found
! ed his claim. 1t is with the aims that he
had in his mind when getting conces-
| sion on so much that our quarrel is. He
was a monarchist at heart; he wished 10
make the United States Government a
| powerful, centralized and consolidated
| government, and he knew that the most
| effectual means for accomplishing the
| result was to make the Government mas
i ter of the finances of the country. He
cared very little for the United States
Bank which he was seeking TO establish
in itself. It's Importance to him was in
establishing the proposition that the
| Government had an important relation
to the currency Of the country, and he
meant to go on to placing it in thai un-
disturbed control Of 1t which the war
endowed it with. In the third volume
Of his life of Madison speaking OF the
English statesman who controlled Eng
lands financial policy after her revolu-
ton Of 1885, as his course affected Ham
ilton. Mr.. William c. Rives says. at
page l59:
THE whole policy of the Secretary
was manifestly borrowed from that era
| Of the British Government in which a
National bank was inaugurated by the
same prolific genius that laid the foun-
| dation OF the English funding system,
with a years interval only in the birta
Of the TWO projects; and both founded
| upon the insldlous plea or strengthen
| ing and consolidating ew government
| born Of a revolution, by the subsidized
support of the moneyed classes
This is q just and fair characterization
of the thing, and the idea has gone on
enlorescing until 1t has bloomed out into
bounties to sugar growers, subsidies to
steamships, pensions to deserters, and
protective tariffs, under which bloated
manufacturers may get still richer by
plundering their fellow citizens.
Burrs pistol ball removed Hamilton
from the scene, but his philosophy had
found Judgment in many willing minds
H.. md
it steadily showed itself from Hamii-
tons time down to the war. one Of its
first authoritative announcements came
from Judge Story, of Massachusetts, IN
his dissenting opinion in Biscoe VS.. The
| Bank in 1887, when, without citing any au-
thority whatever for it, he dOgmatically
asserted that Congress had the right to
control all the currency of The country.
Next came the war, with practical as
sertion by Congress Of control over 1t.
| This was a war measure, submitted TO
| by the North as a war measure, and sus-
tanned by the Supreme Court Of the
| United States we must in charity be-
| lieve, as a war measure. The matter
first came before the Supreme Court in
1863, in the case of Viazie Bank vs.. Fren-
| .
| Chase delivering the opinion of "A di-
vided court, and citing no authority
whatever for IL, laid down for the court
the doctrine that Congress had complete
| control over the currency of the coun-
| try. Then came the series Of legal ten
der cases, in which the same doctrine
was announced, but nowhere is any au-
thority cited for il. 1t is, therefore,
| case Of judge-made law, with the law
made wholly out OF judge material, and
| with absolutely nothing emanating from
! the people or the Constitution TO rest
UPON, except the declaration of the
Judges who have made it that it shall
be the law. 1t Is opposed 10 the letter and
spirit Of the Constitution, it is opposed
to every principle Of Democracy, and II
rests in an idea of politics which takes
as its pole star that government should
be all-powerful and act as II pleases
| amongst it's citizens, to confer faYors
upon one and TO put another. who in
ours it's displeasure, under disabilities
that will destroy him. 1t started with
General Hamiltons idea OF corrupting
the people 10 govern them, and 1t has
developed TO the universal state Of cor
ruption which we have seen the Republi-
can party, the offspring of General Ham
iltons loins, spread over this Union.
A word now as TO Chief Justice Mar
shall, whom Mr.. Wise refers to as
though he would have us believe that
the Chief Justice agreed 10 this idea
If there is one word in anything that