ohest, sternly defending its precious con- of expending it—not for the purpose of tents against an eagar multitude, and one withholding it from the community, but for sitting by such a chest open, and distribut- the purpose of returning it in disburseing its contents with smiling face and rea- ments not for the purpose of impairing dy hand to all who asked the "accommo- the credit of banks, but of sustaining its dation." It is proposed to impose heavy own. Is it any cause of just complaint penalties on any Executive officer who may that the Government, or a bank, or an indi lend or use the public money, whereas the vidual, should keep monny enough on hand banks want it for no other purpose. The to meet claims daily presented, and carry difference of the influence exerted in stern- on business without embarrassment? But ly keeping money and kindly lending it, is if any fears are really, entertained of a misnot difficult of comprehension. Does any chievous accumulation of specie in the man believe the Executive will obtain Treasury, they can be readily obviated, more influence and power by the appo nt by providing for its investment in State ment of four Receivers and a few clerks, stocks. than he could by employing the eighty banks and conciliating eight hundred? If the President were seeking to extend his influence by operating on the private interests of men, he has resorted to the wrong means. The absurdity of the charge is evinced by the fact, that this very bank influence which he refuses to purchase, is boldly held up by those who make it as the power which is to destroy him-all the patronage of an Independent Treasury notwithstanding! How is the Independent Treasury an attack on the credit of banks? Does it propose to take from them any of their privileges, or any of their capital? No: it proposes to leave them just as they are, and just as the States choose to make them. It proposes to permit them to issue their no ́es, to pass them upon every body who is willing to take them; to use their credit and capital without let, hindrance, or control from the General Government. It will not be maintained that the banks have any right 5. It is further objected, that the Inde to the deposites of the Government or indipendent Treasury system would withdraw viduals, or have a right to require the Gothe specie of the country from circulation,vernment or individuals to take their notes. place it under the control of the Executive, Every individual in the community has a take away the basis on which the banks right not to keep his money in bank; and sustain their circulation, and fatally affect the credit system of the country. he has a right not to receive bank notes, For the exercise of these undoubted rights. he ought not to be censured, or charged with attacking the credit of the banks. So it is with the Government. To maintain its own credit under all vicissitudés, it proposes to keep its own money, and deal in its currency. This is a measure of precaution and safety for itself, and not an act of hostility to the banks. If they manage their affairs prudently, they will have credit; if not, they will lose it. If they cannot maintain their own credit, they ought to have none; and the Government would do a wrong to the people, by attempting to give them any. If Congress raise no more by taxas than is necessary for the current wants of the Government, the amount of specie on hand at any one time could not exceed four or five millions of dollars. Although the annual revenue may be twenty or thirty mil. lions, it will, if not greater than the necessary disbursements, be paid out as fast as it is paid in; and the amount on hand need be only enough to enable the Government to carry on its business with convenience and safety. The United States Bank has frequently had on hand for considerable periods, ten to fifteen millions of dollars in specie, and all the banks are in the habit of retaining large sums; yet nobody complains. Why are there not loud complaints that the banks needlessly shut up millions of specie from the uses of the community? It is because every body knows that a considera. ble sum of money on hand is necessary to enable them to sustain their credit and car ry on their operations. Why, they, should any one complain, if the Government does the same thing, and for the same purposes? It does not propose to keep specie for the purpose of hoarding it, but for the purpose expenses of the Government, the purposes "The credit system" is a very indefinite phrase. If it be intended to impute to the Administration a design to subvert credit in general, by the Independent Treasury plan, the charge has no foundation in fact. The only, object is to withdraw the public money from the credit system to prevent its being used as bank capital to prevent its being loaned out for the profit of banks-to prevent its being exposed to the hazards of private speculation and bank management, and to keep it to pay the debts and for which the people pay it into the Trea- country with their notes, thrust them into sury. Its effect would be to put an end to every man's hands, and caused them to a gross abuse of the credit system, in lend- supersede the people's currency almost en- . ing out the people's money for private tirely, suddenly stop payment with over a gain, thus hazarding its safety, and hundred millions of dollars in circulation. violating the spirit of the Constitution. The people who are the holders of this What would be said, if it were discovered currency, and generally have no other, are that collectors of the customs, receivers of obliged, inconsequence of this general viopublic moneys, or postmasters, were lend- lation of law by the banks, to use it for a ing out the public money in their hand to time, contrary to their wishes and will. It their friends to speculate upon, and pocket- is absurd to say that they prefer a paper ing the interest themselves? They would dollar, at ten per cent. discount, to a silver be denounced through the country as guilty dollar; or a ten dollar note, worth nine of a gross abuse, for which they ought to dollars, to a golden eagle. The poeple are be signally punished. Yet the principle is not so simple. But individuals not being the same, whether the public money be able, single-handed, to resist this violation lent out by one keeper or another; by indi- of their rights, submit unwillingly to the viduals or corporations; by collectors of the loss and inconvenience, and fall, one after customs or banks. It is an application of another, into the habit of using for a cur the public funds to private uses. rency the depreciated bank notes. And the banks having thus, in violation of the Constitution and laws, and of the will of the poeple, forced their notes upon them to the exclusion of the legal currency, now turn round and say, "behold! depreciated bank notes are the currency of the people, and the Government should look for nothing better!" That is to say, "having imposed our notes on the people, substantially as a tender in payment of debts contrary to the Constitution, and in violation of the laws, the Government ought to acquiesce in the usurpation, and be content to see its fundamental principles overthrown and trampled in the dust!" And would a collector or a postmaster find any justification in saying, that to keep the money on hand would be an attack on "the credit system?" that it would be an improper shutting up and hoarding the specie of the country? that it would be an attack upon the banks? He might be laughed at for his folly, or stared at for his impudence; but would receive little credit for his fidelity or his patriotism. Yet his reasous would be just as good as those of the same character adduced against the Independent Treasury. It is further objected, that to dispense with banks altogether in the keeping of the public money, is to make one currency for the Government and another for the people" a patrician currency and a plebeian currency. This objection comes with a bad grace from those who assume to be the special friends of the banks. It has originated since the stoppage of specie payment. The Jegal currency of the United States the people's currency-the currency established by the Constitution and protected by the laws is gold and silver. Although the States may establish banks, they can make nothing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts. All the laws of the United States and of the several States recognise that currency; the courts of justice all give their judgments payable in currener. It is emphatically THE PEOPLE'S CURRENCY, established by their Costi tution, confirmed by their laws, and protected by their courts of justice. The banks are authorised to issue notes only upon condition that they shall pay them on demand in that currency. But the banks shaving, by the indulgence of the people, filled the The people created the Government to protect them, as far as possible, against wrong and outrage. They have, by their Constitution and laws, established gold and silver as the only legal currency of the land. They have sworn every public officer to obey the laws, and to protect and defend the Constitution. The public officers could not recognise bank notes as the currency of the Government without being guilty of perjury. In refusing to receive them, they were true to their oaths to obey the laws, and protect and defend the Constitution. But if their had been no such cath, public duty wonld have requir od the same course. The Government had promised to pay all contractors, and others engaged in the public service, in the lezal currency of the United States. Th public faith could not be maintained without collecting from the debtors of the Government the money to pay its creditors. As in consequence of the stoppage of the banks, nothing could be legally paid but gold and silver, so no other currency could be received. Had the officers of Government, therefore, been disposed to receive the bank paper for public dues, they could not do so because they were prevented by the Constitution and laws of the land, by their oaths of of fice, and by their obligations to preserve the public faith inviolate. and the people shall have the same currency;" and that it shall be depreciated bank notes and worthless shin-plasters, in violation of the Constitution and laws, in subversion of the public faith and in derogation of all moral principle. But it was essential that resistance Let them who raise this cry of a better should commence somewhere to the attempt currency for the Government, and a worse to subvert our fundamental laws, and im- for the people. come out and tell us what pose on the country, for an indefinite and they mean. Bank notes redeemable in unknown period, an irredeemable paper cur- gold and silver, they tell us, are a better rency. Single individuals were not strong currency than the gold and silver themenough to raise their arms against the over- selves. If the notes be redeemabl›, and whelming power with which the founda- the Government do not take them, and the tions of morality and law were suddenly as- people do, the people, according to these sailed. If became the General Govern- gentlemen's theory, will have the better ment, whose example and whose influence currency, and the office holders the worse. were likely to have great weight, to raise They cannot mean, therefore, that to give the standard of correct principle, commence the office holders specie, and the people rethe resistance to this demoralizing innova- deemable bank notes, is to give the fortion, and aid in restoring to the people their mer a better currency than is enjoyed by legal and constitutional currency. The ob- the latter. What then do they mean by ject was not to establish a better currency this catch-word? Do they mean, that the for the Government and a worse for the people are forever to have no other currenpeople, but to restore to the people the bet- cy than irredeemable banks notes and mister currency, of which they had been wrong- erable shin-plasters? Is it to make the fully and illegally deprived. It was to se- people forget their constitutional and legal cure to the people and Government both, rights, and be forever content to take for a the currency which was established by the currency, whatever paper may be thrown Constitution, and promised to be protected out by broken banks and bankrupts of all by the laws and the courts of justice. It sorts, that these men wish to force the Gowas, instead of subjecting the Government 'vernment to receive this abominable trash? to the wrongs the people suffered, to deliv- Having crammed it down the throats of the er the people from these wrongs, and re- people, do they wish to make them constore to them their lost rights. It was to tent with their situation, by cramming it make the Government and people equal as down the throat of the Government also? to the currency; to secure to both the same We have forced the people to submit to a currency—the currency which finds its ba- violation of the Constitution and laws, sis in the Constitution, and is essential to sound policy and moral honesty-why fair trade and honest dealing. This was should not the Government submit also? not the equality which the Federalists wan- See! the people will submit forever to ted. Instead of raising the people up, they have depreciated and fraudulent currency would pull the Government down. Instead why should not the Government submit of restoring their rights to the people, they also? This is in substance the language would make both Government and people of certain politicians. the victims of a common wrong. Instead of placing them on an equality of wrong. This is what they mean when they charge the Administration with seeking to have one currency for the Government, and anofor the people. They mean that the Govcrnment and people should both be compel Jed to take depreciated bank notes. The difference between the Administration and its opponents, is this: The Administration insists that the Go#crnment and people shall have the same currency, and that it shall be gold and silver or their equivalent, as provided by the Constitution and laws of the land. Its opponents insist that the Government If this cry be not wholly insincere and hypocritical, those who utter it are striving to impose on the people forever, or at least for an indefinite period, a depreciated paper currency, and to force the Government into their policy. Instead of making the government and people equal, by restoring a currency of specie or its equivalent, they would make them equally the recipients of irredeemable and fraudulent paper. Which platform of equality will the people stand upon? Will they have a currency cie or its equivalent ? or, will they be con tent with irredeemable bank notes and shin-plasters, and compel the Government to receive and pay them out also? They of spe will answer these questions at the polls. OBJECT OF THE OPPOSITION. But the Independent Treasury and special deposites are condemned by the entire Federal party; but not more strongly than by certain individuals who claim to belong to the Republican party. The true object is disclosed with sufficient clearness in some of the resolutions adopted at a recent assemblage of some of these individuals in New York. Of the Independent Treasury and a special deposite, they say, "Both contemplate the same odious principle of hoarding the precious metals and shutting them out from circulation amor g the community to whom they rightfully belong," &c. &c. The meaning of this cannot be misunderstood. The government must not keep its own money on hand although it has no use for it! The Constitution says, "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in rursuance of appropriations made by law." These gentlenen say, that to keep the public money in the Treasury, is" hoarding the precious metals," and out it must come, appropriation or no appropriation! Out it must come, because it be longs" to the "cominunity." One would suppose that its belonging to the community would be a conclusive reason why it should not come out until wanted for public purposes. It is for no such purposes that these men insist that it shall come out, nor is it for the benefit of any other community than that of banks and borrowers. Translated into plain English, this declaration means that the Government shall lend out the public money for private uses, and lest it should be too shameless an operation to do it directly, they insist that it shall be put into banks for that purpose. It would be a crime for the Secretary of the TreaBury or the Treasurer to lend out the public money; but the banks may loan precisely the same money without impropriety or censure! Public officers cannot draw it from the Treasury without an appropriation, but the banks may give it out to whom they please!! On this point the whole controversy turns. The struggle of the peculiar advocates of the banks is, to GET THE PUBLIC MONEY FOR PRIVATE USES! This, and nothing else, when stripped of all disguises, is what they want. The banks want it to lend out, and their friends want to borrow it! This is the substance of the whole controversy. All other considera. tions, so constantly introduced, and so zeal ously urged, are mere make weights, to aid in arriving at the main object. The banks are not content to lend their own capital two or three times over, but they want the public money also. The speculators are not content to borrow all the capital of the banks, all their deposites, and all their credit, but they want the money in the United States Treasury also! To deny it to them, they call agrarianism, tyranny oppression, usurpation, and consolidation; an attack on State institutions; hostility to banks; experimenting upon the currency; the destruction of the credit system; barbarism, loco focoism, abominable, intolerable, and diabolica!!!! Just give them the use of the public money, and all is sunshine and freedom, prosperity and happiness. I beg every dispassionate man to consider, whether this is not the only principle for which certain conservative Democrats in N. Y. and elsewhere appear to be contending With the Federal party it is otherwise. Amidst their shouts of triumph after the late N. Y. elections some of them had the honesty and the boldness to denounce our free institutions, and advocate a hereditary Chief Magistrate and a restricted suffrage. To wrest the controlling power from the people by direct means, is impossible; but it may be possible by circumvention. We see that the pover which controls the currency sits enthroned in Philadelphia and New York. Give the banks the public moneys, and that power has hold of the sinews of the Government, and can control the destinies of the country. If they be given to a National Bank, then some Nicholas Biddie becomes, like Cæsar, einperor or sole monarch of the land, with the pageant of a Republic at his heels; if to the State Banks, then the supreme dominion is in the leading men of those institutions in Philadelphia and New York. The objects of the ancient Federalists will then have been accomplished in devising a plan to take the control of the Government out of the hands of the people, and place it in the hands of a few rich men, bankers and brokers. A Federal monarchy in the shape of a N. Bank, a conservative oligarchy in the shape of S. Bks. and both dependent on foreign power; or a representative Republic, in the shape of an Independent. Treasury, controlled by public officers responsible to the people, are the alternatives which are now present: d for adoption. On the choice now to be made may depend the character of our Government, if not its existence, the progress of liberal principles, aud freedom itself. GENERAL REMARKS. There never was an Administration, the members of which devoted themselves inore industriou-ly and honestly to the discharge of their public duties, and yet none has ever been more violently or incessantly assailed. Usurpation! violation of law! disregard of the Constitution! have been rung through the land. By whom? By men who are applauding and supporting banks, for openly and notoriously setting the Constitution and law at defiance, and abusing the members of the Administration for sternly refusing to become their coadjutors! Corruption! corruption! has been a conticual cry. Whence does it arise? From presses and men who have received their thousands and tens of thousands from the Bank of the United States and other banks, 10 secure their personal service and legisCative assistance. If corruption could have reached General Jackson, do you think we should have heard of the veto? If the friends who stood by him in the removal of the deposites could have been bought by bank accommodations and gratuities, do you think that step would ever have been taken? If mercenary considerations could reach the present Administration, do you believe we should ever hear of an Independent Treasury? The means of corrupon, the disposit on to corrupt, and the actual corruption, are all on the other sile. Signal instances have been exhibited to the community, and the recipients of the vile bribes are the lou est in charging the Administration with corruption! Inconsistency! inconsistency! is another war-cry. Because the friends of the Ad ministration were in favor of depositing the public funds in State Banks when they were in good credit, and were believed competent to the public duties they undertook, and are opposed to it now when they have proved their utter incompetency-have violated all their legal contract obligations kave stopped payment in mass in a time of profound peace, and thrown upon the counry a depreciated paper currency, and one fter another are acknowledging their inability to pay their promises even in the promises of their neighbors after all this it is, that the friends of the Administ:ation are charged with inconsistency! The ground on which they stood has been swept away by a flood, and yet they are charged with inconsistency because they do not stand upon it! The house in which they took shelter, has been overthrown by an earthquake; yet they are stigmatized because they did not abandon it! The boat in which they embarked, has burst her boilers; be cause they decline another trip in the same boat with the same boilers! There was no hostility to the banks in the Administration. It never asked nor expected their support, nor deprecated their political hostility. It looked upon them as public agents, to be encouraged and sustained as long as they faithfully performed their public duties, and to be discountenanced and discharged when they faile 1. Their failure has been geneeral, complete and overwhelming. The friends of the Administration propose to let them go their way in peace, and try the only remaining alternative short of a Bank of the United States. Although they may once have preferred the State banks to an Independent Treasury, is there any incon sistency is preferring the latter to a bank of the United States? If they once preferred sound State banks to an Independent Treasury, is there any inconsistency in preferring the latter to broken State banks? Every honest Democrat who joins in this imputation of inconsistency, is unwillingly promoting the cause of the Bank of the United States. A moment's reflection will show him, that the Administration did not abandon the State banks until they had made it impossible longer to employ them, by suspending specie payments. They are guilty of the same inconsistency as when they employ an individual in the public business, thinking him well qualified and honest, and discharging him when proved, by experience, to be totally unfit for the service. There are many other allegations against the Administration, which are equally destitute of candor and truth; but I have not time to expose them. We are told that they have greatly increased the public expenditures, when millions upon millions have been appropriated by Congress and required to be expended by law, which the Executive never asked for or wanted. The increase of the ordinary expenditures within the last nine years has not kept pace with the increase of population, and extension of our settlements. Nearly the whole real increase has been in the unsolicited appropriations, and certain unusual incidents, such as Florida war and the removal of the Indian tribes. But if the Administration is to be charged with the whole expenditure, ought it not to have credit for the whole income? Ought it not to bave cre dit for the immense augmentation of reve uue which enabled it to pay off the public debt, meet the extraordinary appropriations, and deposit thirty-seven millions with the |