existence, on the contrary, depends on the security and the rule both of liberty and law. Why, Sir, have we not been taught, in our earliest reading, that, to the birth of a commercial spirit, to associations for trade, to the guilds and companies formed in the towns, we are to look for the first appearance of liberty, from the darkness of the middle ages; for the first faint blush of that morning, which has grown brighter and brighter till the perfect day has come? And it is just as reasonable to say that bills of exchange are dangerous to liberty, that promissory notes are dangerous to liberty, that the power of regulating the coin is dangerous to liberty, as that credit, and banking, as a part of credit, are dangerous to liberty.

Sir, I hardly know a writer on these subjects who has not selected the United States as an eminent and striking instance, to show the advantages of well-established credit, and the benefit of its expansion, to a degree not incompatible with safety, by a paper circulation. Or, if they do not mention the United States, they describe just such a country; that is to say, a new and fast-growing country. Hitherto, it must be confessed, our success has been great. With some breaks and intervals, our progress has been rapid, because our system has been good. We have preserved and fostered credit, till all have become interested in its further continuance and preservation. It has run deep and wide into our whole system of social life. Every man feels the vibration, when a blow is struck upon it. And this is the reason why nobody has escaped the influence of the Secretary's recent measure. While credit is delicate, sensitive, easily wounded, and more easily alarmed, it is also infinitely ramified, diversified, extending every where, and touching every thing.

There never was a moment in which so many individuals felt their own private interest to be directly affected by what has been done, and what is to be done. There never was a moment, therefore, in which so many straining eyes were turned towards Congress. It is felt, by every one, that this is a case in which the acts of the Government come directly home to him, and produce either good or evil, every hour, upon his personal and private condition. And how is the public expectation met? How is this intense, this agonized expectation answered? I am grieved to say, I am ashamed to say, it is answered by declamation against the Bank, as a monster, by loud cries against moneyed aristocracy, by pretended zeal for a hard-money system, and by professions of favor and regard to the poor.

The poor! We are waging war for the benefit of the poor. We slay that monster, the Bank, that we may defeat the unjust purposes of the rich, and elevate and protect the poor! And what is the effect of all this? What happens to the poor, and all the

middling classes, in consequence of this warfare? Where are they? Are they well fed, well clothed, well employed, independent, happy, and grateful? They are all at the feet of the capitalists; they are in the jaws of usury. If there be hearts of stone in human bosoms, they are at the mercy of those who have such hearts in their breasts. Look to the rates of interest, mounting to twenty, thirty, fifty per cent. Sir, this measure of Government has transferred millions upon millions of hard-earned property, in the form of extra interest, from the industrious classes, to the capitalists, from the poor to the rich. And this is called putting down a moneyed aristocracy! Sir, there are thousands of families who have diminished, not their luxuries, not their amusements, but their meat and their bread, that they might be able to save their credit, by paying enormous interest. And there are other thousands, who, having lost their employment, have lost every thing, and who yet hear, amidst the bitterness of their anguish, that the great motive of Government is kindness to the poor!

It is difficult, Sir, to restrain one's indignation, when, to so much keen distress, there is added so much which has the appearance of mere mockery. Sir, let the system of the Administration go on, and we shall soon not know our country. We shall see a new America. On the map, where these United States have stood, we shall behold a country that will be strange to us. We shall see a class of idle rich, and a class of idle poor; the former a handful, the latter a host. We shall no longer behold a community of men, with spirits all active and stirring, contributing, all of them, to the public welfare, while they partake in it, pushing on their fortunes, and bettering their own condition, and helping to swell, at the same time, the cup of the general prosperity to overflowing. We shall see no more of that credit which reaches out its hand to honest enterprise; of that certainty of reward, which cheers on labor to the utmost stretch of its sinews; of that personal and individual independence, which enables every man to say that no man is his master. Sir, I will not look on the picture. I will not imagine what spectacle shall be exhibited, when this country not only halts in her onward march, but recedes; when she tracks back in the long and rapid strides of her forward movement; when she sets herself to undo all that she has done; when she renounces the good she has attained; when she obstructs credit, destroys enterprise, arrests commerce, and smothers manufactures.

Mr. President, I confess I find it difficult to respect the intelligence, and at the same time the mctives, of those, who alarm the people with the cry of danger to their liberties from the Bank. Do they see the same danger from other banks? I think not. With them, bank capital and bank credit is dangerous or harmless, according to circumstances. It is a lion, whose conduct and char

acter appear to depend on his keeper. Under the control of this Government, it is fearful and dangerous; but under State authority, it "roars as gently as a sucking dove; it roars as it were any nightingale."

Both the members from New York have labored to persuade us that the public liberties of this whole country are in imminent danger from a bank with thirty-five millions. And yet, Sir, they feel no fears for the liberty of the people of their own State, with a banking capital of twenty-three millions, and a proposed addition of ten millions, all lodged in banks associated under the Safety Fund system, and all under the supervision of a political board, appointed by the Government. In all this they see no danger to liberty; but their anxiety is intense, lest a bank of thirty-five millions should enslave all the people of the twenty-four States!

Again, Sir, from the time of the veto message to the present moment, the country has been assailed with the cry of danger, from the small portion of foreign capital which is in the stock of the Bank. Republicanism, it is said, cannot exist in a country where there is a bank with dukes and marquisses, and lords, among its stockholders. And yet, Sir, have we not seen the Executive approving of an enormous loan by the cities of this District from Dutch capitalists, and sanctioning a law binding down all their citizens, and all their property, to pay the interest of this foreign debt, by provisions vastly more strict and severe than those which compel the payment of taxes to their own Government? And is not Pennsylvania now deliberating whether she will not send an agent to Europe to borrow money to meet that very exigency which the present state of things creates? And is not the new bank, too, proposed to be established in New York, to be created on foreign capital?

Sir, are arguments of this nature altogether creditable to the country? Do they exhibit us in a respectable light abroad? Do intelligent observers, elsewhere, behold our public men. addressing themselves to the people in fair discussion on the real merits of public questions; or may they not think, rather, that they see them attempting to carry favorite measures of party, by false cries of danger to liberty?

The truth is, that banks, every where, and especially with us, are made for the borrowers. They are made for the good of the many, and not the good of the few. Even their ownership, to a very great extent, is in the hands of men of moderate property. I have read a very able speech, by Mr. Cushing, in the Legislature of Massachusetts, in which he states that he has taken pains to examine the list of stockholders, in several banks in his neighborhood, and he finds a majority of the stock (I think more than two thirds) in the hands of charitable societies, guardians, widows,

Not

and traders with small capital. And, Sir, at this moment, the stockholders of the Bank of the United States have infinitely less interest in the questions which we are discussing, as stockholders, than they have as citizens of the country. The stock is constantly in the market, and daily changing hands; and any one who wishes for it may always buy it. It is not permanently vested in any hands; and this of itself shows that the corporation is, in its nature, incapable of prosecuting any purpose hostile to the public liberties. Indeed, Sir, I think it time, high time, that there should be a pause in this outcry against the Bank, as dangerous from its political power, or as favoring wealth in its masses rather than in its distribution. Sir, prejudice, excited against the Bank is a much more powerful engine for political purposes than the Bank itself. It is more than a match for ten banks. long ago, a member, not now with us, declared on this floor, that, in the course of his political struggles, some years ago, he felt sure of triumph, the moment an impression was made that the Bank had taken part against him; and that, if he were again to be a candidate, he should wish for no surer pledge of success. His own experience, thus candidly stated, seems not to have been lost on others. I full well know, Sir, the power of such prejudices. I know how easily they may be excited, and how potent is their agency. Efforts to excite them, and calculations on their efficacy, when excited, have sometimes succeeded, and must be expected sometimes to succeed, in popular governments. They are among the means by which little men occasionally become great. But they are not among the means by which lasting character is to be attained, any more than they are among the means by which substantial and important public service is to be rendered to the country.

I now proceed, Mr. President, to the state of opinion existing, both in and out of Congress, as to the remedy proper for the present condition of things.

There are three classes of persons, holding on this subject different opinions

1. Those who believe a bank to be Constitutional and necessary, and, seeing no danger from the present institution, would prefer, if they could follow their own choice, to recharter the Bank, for the usual period, with the usual powers; modified, however, in any manner that the experience of the past may suggest.

2. There are those who think a bank useful, but who do not believe Congress has the power to incorporate a bank, under any form.

3. There are those who admit the power of Congress to make a bank, and are in favor of some bank, but oppose the continuance of the present.

It is obvious, Sir, that, if any relief come to the country, it must proceed from some degree of union between these classes, or some of them.

And the question is, Is there any common ground on which these can meet? Is there any expedient which they will consent to lay hold on to save the country? Or will they leave it a prey to their differences of opinion?

Now, Sir, among those who oppose those measures of Government which have brought the present distress on the country, a great majority would prefer a continuance of the charter of the present Bank for the usual term. This would be their wish, and I am one of them. We passed a bill for such a recharter, through both Houses, two years ago, but it was negatived by the President. I would prefer a bank of fifteen or twenty years' duration; either this or a new one; for I do not act from a regard to the pecuniary interest of the stockholders in the present Bank, although I would not consent to do them any injustice.

But, Sir, I see no chance of renewing this charter, at present, for a long period. It appears to me that the minds of members of Congress are in a state to render this hopeless. I give up, therefore, my own preference; I sacrifice my opinions to that necessity which I feel to be imposed upon me by the condition of the country. I go for relief, for efficient relief, and for immediate relief. I feel this to be demanded of me, by every dictate of duty and patriotism, and by the loud voice of the country. I obey that voice, and cheerfully yield every thing to the accomplishment of the object. When I ask others to make sacrifices, I begin with making them myself.

Preferring a permanent measure, I yet agree to a temporary measure. Desirous of settling the question for a length of years, I yet consent to leave it open, in the hope of obtaining present relief and security; and I earnestly entreat all those with whom I have generally concurred in opinion, to concur in a temporary measure. If we cannot do all we would, let us do what we can. Let us make a proposition which no reasonable man, who really desires to relieve the country, can object to. That is my object, and with that single object have I prepared this bill.

And now, Sir, I will say a word to the gentlemen who have Constitutional scruples about all banks. They find a Bank actually existing. They find that this Bank, or another like it, has existed through more than three fourths of the whole period of our Government. They find Congress to have asserted the Constitutional power to establish a bank, over and over again; they find all the judicial tribunals to have sanctioned the power, and four fifths of the State Legislatures, and as great a proportion of the people, to have confirmed it. Now, Sir, as sensible and

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