it is fatal to act upon it in the business of troy, the existing charter. The extent of life. The fate of the panic-makers of 1833, his action was, to recommend to Congress should warn them of that! when every pa- the non-renewal of the charter, and afternic-making candidate for the Presidency, wards to disapprove the new charter which instead of killing Jackson and Van Buren, Congress had granted. This was the extent of killed himself off the list of candidates! his action; directed against a non-existent, And when the tug of war came, they were and not against an existing charter. Acfound to be, what the broken bank notes are cording to the Republican reading of the in the Treasury-an unavailable fund! So Constitution, the President had a right to do may it be again. The people have memo- these things; nay more, that it was his dury, and knowledge, and reason, and judg- ty to make this recommendation, and to exment; and it will not do for politicians to press this disapproval, if he thought the treat them as wanton boys do young robins, Constitution, or the public good, forbid the when they throw them gravel in place of future existence of the bank. He had a bread. The people know their own condi- clear right, under the Constitution, to do tion, and they see through the conduct of what he did; but according to the Federal others. The farmers who were selling their reading of the Constitution, as exhibited produce in 1826 for the one-third, the onehalf, or the three-fourths of what they are getting for it now, will not believe in the ruin of prices with which politicians assail their ears. by this objection, he had no such right; but was guilty of lawless violence, and waged war upon the institution, both in the recommendation, and in the exercise of the veto. This is the fair inference resulting from the Mr. B. finished the comparison, or rather accusation! Such is the progress of antithe contrasts, between the year of Republi- republican ideas among us! ideas which go can ruin, and the period of Federal to invest a moneyed corporation with a prosperity, with the expression of his confident belief that the fallacy of all the gentleman's lamentation had been completely shown. There was no ruin, but in their own imaginations. The year 1837, though not equal in the general activity of business to the bloated over-action of 1836, was yet transcendently superior to any year of Mr. Adams' administration. Making a due allowance for an increase of population, and the superiority was still far beyond that increase.. rightful claim to a perpetuity of existence,and to stigmatize as war the constitutional exercise of Executive rights and duties. With these remarks, to show the progress among us of ideas towards the royal doctrine of legitimacy, I come to the main inquiry; the truth of the charge itself. Is it true that General Jackson made war upon the Bank of the United States? Is, it true that he was in favor of that institution, and only turned against it after his election to the Presidency, and after he had failed in Having vindicated General Jackson's Ad- an attempt to convert it into a political maministration from the imputation of having chine to subserve his own political purposes? brought ruin upon the country. Mr. B. pro- These are the questions which are now to ceeded to notice some of the wars which he be answered, and happily, they will receive was charged with waging upon some pub- answers which will consign the charges.to lic institutions and some branches of indus- the lowest places in the deepest abyss of potry.. He was charged by two Senators on litical calumnies. These charges first crept this floor [Messrs. Tallmadge and Clay] with into daylight at the veto session of 1832, and having made war upon the late Bank of the attained full form and shape at the famous United States; and one of these Senators panic session of 1833-34. In both instan [Mr. Clay] had charged this war to the base ces they emanated directly from the Bank motive of revenge, because he could not of the United States itself, and in the masucceed in his attempts to seduce this virtu- tured form which they received in '33, in a ous institution into the field of politics, and report of a committee of that band, approved into the support of his own political views.. by the majority of its directory, they reThe first remark which I have to make up- ported that immediately after the elevation of on this imputed war, is upon the new idea General Jackson to the Presidency, a meetwhich it presents of the right of the bank ing was held of the principal chiefs, to conto be continued in its existence, when to sider of the means of perpetuating their new oppose that continuation of existence is authority; and the possession of the bank deemed a violation of that right, and a com- was among the objects of the parties assemmencement of hostilities upon the institu- bled. There was a combined effort to render tion. General Jackson made no movement the bank subservient to political purposes, against the existing charter of the late and to break it if it could not be bent to these Lank; he made no attempt to impair,or to des- purposes. This was the charge-one very dle receive appointments at the hands of the man whom, he now gives us to understand he held in abhorrence on account of that at tempt. specific, and very susceptible of proof, if there was any truth in it. No proof, how ever, has ever been attempted by those who made it, and no other specification under it, but the forty times exploded misrepresenta Mr. President, there are cases in which tion about Jeremiah Mason, the President of the wise maxims of the law the Mosaic, the Portland Branch Bank. The cabinet as well as the civil, and the common law meeting, and the application for the remo- require an im nediate cry, and will not val of Mr Mason, are fixed for the spring listen to a stale accusation. The instance of 1829; and as the whole attempted sedue before us is one of those cases. The vir tion or destruction of the bank, was then plan- gin bank should have screamed in June ned, and as far as seduction was concerned, 1829! It was too late to begin, faintly, in was then fully tried, a date thereby presents May 1832, after it was known that the which becomes the touchstone of the accu- veto was resolved upon, and only rise to sation. It is in the spring of the year 1829 an audible shriek in December, 1833, after that General Jackson has a meeting, and a the deposites had been removed. Such consultation, and resolves to bend the bank long delayed complaint of outrage, and to his purposes, or to break it; and it is in then a limping and halting complaint, unJune of the same year, that the vile seduc. der such circumstances, looks more like the tion is attempted, and is so indignantly re- accusation of revenge than the shriek of pulsed! Of course, from that time forward, injured innocence. It looks like the accuGeneral Jackson could feel nothing but e- sation of Potiphar's wife against Joseph. sentment against the unseducible Mr. Bid- No, sr! the accusation is false upon its dle, and Mr. Biddle could feel nothing but face. It is proven to be false by dates and abhorrence for the man that attempted his facts; but the proof does not stop here. I honor. Now mark what havoc a few stub- have another piece of evidence in my posborn dates, and a few recorded facts, will session, of character still higher, and of make of all this fine romance! The spring effect still more conclusive, to be produced of 1829 is the date of this ferocious resolu- if the Senate pleases: it is a letter from tion, or destruction and of repulse at seduc- General Jackson himself; and being a lettion. Now what does January of 1830 bring ter, it cannot be read except by the leave of forth? A nomination to the Senate of the the Senate. [Cries of leave, leave from United States, by General Jackson, of this different parts of the chamber.] Mr. B. same Mr. Biddle to be one of the Govern- would avail himself of the leave which ment directors of the bank, and nominated was granted, and would read the lette; but at the head of the list, which was tanta- he first chose to explain the circumstances mount to nominating him for the presiden- under which it came to be written. We cy of the bank. In the Senate this nomi- have many prophets in this time, said Mr. nation is unanimously voted for by the friends B. but most of them are ex post facto of General Jackson, and Mr. Biddle accepts performers in the art of divination-forethe appointment thus conferred, This is telling most accurately the whole event af one date and one fact. What next? Why, have undertaken to practice a little in the ter it had happened. I, on the contrary, in January 1831, President Jackson repeats the same nomination; his friends in the Se- old way-to divina ahead-to prophetize nate give it the same unanimous vote, and of a coming event: and so, when on my Mr. Biddle repeats his acceptance of this re- way to Congress last fall, I wrote to Gen. peated appointment. This is a second date, Jackson from my steamboat in the Ohio and a second fact. Is there any thing more? river, to inform him of this attack which Yes, sir, another nomination-another unawas to be made upon him in the Senate, nimous vote for it-and another acceptance, and to say to him that if he chose to auin Jan. 1832. So that three times, in three swer it himself, and would write to me a years, after resolving on the destruction of letter to that effect, I would dramatize the Mr. Biddle and the bank-after resolving scene, when the attack was made, by introto bend the bank to his purposes, or to break ducing him to speak for himself. The atit-this violent man, who will brook no optack has been made; and here is the anposition to his will, replaced the same Mr. Swer, a letter from the Hermitage, dated Biddle as a Government director, and indi- November 29, 1837, all written in the old cated him for the head of the instil- Gen.'s own hand, and written with the vition; and three times, in three years, gor and rapidity of an arm that was drivafter, this attempted seduction, did Mr. BidB ing the British and the Indians before it. This is the letter: HERMITAGE, Nov. 29 1837. "The charge male of my being friendly to the Bank of the United States until I found it could not be used to subserve my political purposes, when I turned against it, is one of the basest calumnies ever uttered. Such must all pronounce it who know any thing about me. I have ever opposed the establishment of this bank on grounds of both constitutionality and expediency. own. "Some short period after the visit of General Cadwallader, when the branch was established, a recommendation for the appointment of two gentlemen to fill the places of its president and cashier was shown to me, with a request that I should state my knowledge of the character of these two gentlemen. The bank being established, and the people liable to be cursed with all its attendant evils, I expressed iny confidence in the two gentlemen referred to, believing them to be honest, and that, as far "When the aristocratic few at Nashville as they had control over the institution, it first made a movement to obtain a branch would not be wielded for corrupt political there, they were forestalled by a law of the purposes. This recommendation, I have Legislature, imposing a heavy fine upon been informed, has been used to prove Ly any bank that should attempt to do business approbation of the establishment of this within the limits of the State, without be- bank. So also has my agency in forwarding ing first chartered by the Legislature there- a memorial from the mercantile interest of of. This provision of the legislature had Pensacola, in the year 1821, when I was my cordial appropriation, and prevented, Governor of Florida. On this last occasion, while it continued in force, a location of a my hostility to the bank was freely expressbranch of the bank at Nashville; but it was ed, but this did not restrain ine from ferafterwards repealed. I was absent at the warding a memorial of the citizens for the time the subject of repeal was discussed, establishment of a branch. As Governor of but reached the seat of Government the the Territory, I deemed it my duty to make ́ night before the final vote on its passage in known the wishes and feelings of the peothe State Senate, and in time to expostulate ple, however different they were from my with Robert C. Foster, Esq. then the presiding officer over that body. I warned him ·Having early imbibed the jealousy of of the danger of repealing that law, and those who framed the Constitution, in resstated to him that the object of those who fa- pect to the dangers of monopolies to the freevored the repeal was the introduction of the dom of the citizen, and to the sovereignty . U. States Bank, and that the results of the and efficacy of our State Governments, I operation of this institution in Tennessee, have been always unfriendly to the Bank of would be to drain the State of its precious the United States. Nor have I stopped here. metals for the benefit of the foreigners who My views have been equally repugnant held its stock. The circumstance that there to the establishment of State Banks of mere was at this time but one or two individuals paper isssues, as all must recollect who have in this State who owned any stock of the any knowledge of my conduct as a citizen institution, enabled me to press the argu- of Tennessee, and particularly of the part I ment on this score with considerable force. took when its late State Bank was incorpoBut Mr. Foster, if now appealed to, must rated. My position now is, and has ever vouch for the fact, that my objections to the been since I have been able to form an opibank, were founded principally on my con- nion on this subject, that Congress has no viction that its charter was not authorized power to charter a bank, and that the States by the Constitution of the United States. are prohibited by the Constitution from isMy admonitions were, however, unheeded: suing bills of credit, or granting a charter the penalty was repealed; and, as I foresaw by which such bills can be issued by any and predicted, steps were soon taken to ob- corporation or other body." tain the location of a branch at Nashville. Having read the letter, Mr. B. said he A memorial to this effect was presented to should make but three remarks upon it : me for my signature, which 1 peremptorily first, that it contained a peremptory contrarefused to sign. General Cadwallader short- diction of this whole story of turning against ly afterwards came to Nashville as agent of the bank, because he could not bend it to the bank, and visited and dined with me. his purposes: secondly, that it shows Gen. My opposition to the bank, and repugnance to its establishment at Nashville, were, on this occasion, as free and unreserved as they had been before. Jackson to have been always opposed to any Bank of the United States, and against the recharter of the late one: thirdly, that it carries home a thorough knowledge of all this to the bank itself in the person of its confidential agent, its frequent director, and the friend and connection of Mr. Biddle. า down the first bank, had committed the error of falling back upon the local banks i national paper currency. Instead of re lishing the currency, of the Constitution for the federal treasury, and especially restoring the gold currency, by correcting the errone ous standard of that inetal, and thereby preserving an adequate supply of the precious metals for the use of the whole country, the great error was committed of falling back upon the paper currencies of the States. The fruit of that error was, the speedy reduction of the Federal Government to th use of broken bank paper, the involvement of the whole community in the same calamity, and a resort to a second National Bank to supply a national paper currency. The second bank was brought forward, in the extremity of their distress, by the Republican Administration, to help them out of the mud and mire of a broken bank currency, and to aid them in the operations of the Government. It was then to be a mace on their side. As such, it was supported by Penublicans; as such, it was opposed by Federalists, a reversal of party position having ta ken place in relation to the bank, and each party having fallen into the delusive belief that a National Bank could be the supporter of a Republican Administration! Parties changed position, a few individuals standing firm on each side; but the masses crossing over, taking each other's places, and freely dealing out the accusations of inconsistency-desertion-abandonment of friends-compromise of prin ciple, &c. &c. It would be tedious to verify this statement by a citation of speeches, and the reading of yeas and nays; nor is is it necessary to cite much. A single quotation from the speeches of the two eminent members, one of the Senate and one of the House, and both present membeis of this body-then on opposite sides in relation to the bank, now both on the same side in favor of it-will illustrate the point in issue, and establish every thing necessary to be known about it. By one of these speeches the creation of the bank was advocated as a political power, necessary to be posse sed by the Federal Government, as a counterpoise to the polititical power which the local banks gave to t'e States, and the loyalty of the State in which the mother bank was placed, was relied upon to prevent a concurrence in any The creation of the second bank, in 1816, scheme for subverting the Federal Governwas also contested as a political institution, ment. By the other speaker, the creation but with an almost total reversal of parties. of this bank, with a participation in its ma Mr. Madison's administration, in putting nagement and direction by the appointment General Jackson is cleared of the foul imputation, and how stands the matter of fact with that bank? Is it, or is it not, a political machine, and as such constantly working with a political party, and with that party whose tenets favor the fundamental principles of that corporation? I hold the affirmative of these inquiries, and shall in. sist that the bank was created for a political machine; that it always has been, and forever will be such a machine; and that it belongs to the party whose latitudinarian doctrines, and whose passion for a strong and splendid Government find a natural support in an institution whose principles are, concentration of wealth, exclusive privileges, monopoly, perpetuity of existence, irresponsibility to the people, and succession of membership. National banks owe their establishment, in these United States, to General Hamilton a frank and a brave man, who scorned to deny or to dissemble his objects. He made his first report to Congress, in favor of a national bank, in December 1791; and in that original proposition for creating the institution, he boldly avows its political charac ter. These are his words: "Such a bank is not a mere matter of private property, but a POLITICAL MACHINE of the highest importance to the State." Created then for a political machine; it immediately entered upon the fulfilment of its destination, and this first bank, thus created, is said by Marshall, in his Life of Washington, "To have contributed to that complete organization of those distinct and visible parties, which, in their long and dubious conflict for power, have since shaken the U. States to their centre." A political machine defining parties, and acting with the federalis's during the whole period of its existence, the first Bank of the United States sunk under the odium of its party character. The Republicans, in the ascendent, refused to renew its charter in 1811. The question of renewal, as the debates of the time fully show, largely turned upon the political character and conduct of the institution: and a a member of the Senate, then and now on this floor, [Mr. Clay,] characterized the Federal Senators present as the Macedonian Phalanx of the bank. of five directors—its capital of thirty-five millions and the control and influence which the Government would have over it, presented it as an object of vice and deformity; and as giving to the Government a power over the institution, and over individuals, which would enable it to bring any man into terms, and to compel the bank itself to do whatever the Administration pleased. Mr. B. then read a passage from a speech of Mr. Clay delivered in Kentucky, after his return from Congress in 1816, and explaining the reasons for his change of opinion in relation to a National Bank.-The passage was in these words: he pointedly condemned, on account of the * * * * * * "If political power be incidental to banking corporations, there ought, perhaps to be, in the General Government, some counterpoise to that which is exerted by the States. Such a counterpoise might not, indeed, be so necessary, if the States exereised the power to incorporate banks equal- Such are the grounds on which the esly, or in propo:tion to their respective po- tablishment of the second Bank of the Unipulations. But that is not the case. A ted States was Contested in 1816. The ingle State has a banking capital equiva- Republicans advocated it, because they lent, or nearly so, to one-fifth of the whole saw no other way to get out of the slough banking capital of the United States. Four of irredeemable paper money; The FedStates combined have the major part of eralists opposed it, because they feared the the capital of the United States. In bank would be an engine of power and inthe event of any convulsion in which the fluence in the hands of the Republican Addistribution of banking institutions might ministration. A few year's oxperience cisbe important, it may be urged that the mis- pelled this fear. At the first reorganiza. chief would not be alleviated by the creation of parties. the bank developed as a potion of a National Bank.. since its location litical power on the Federal side. This must be in one of the States. But in this was at the Presidential election, in the respec', the location of the bank is ex- House of Representatives, in February tremely favorable, being in one of the mid-1825. The bank then took the field, on dle States, not likely from its position, as the side opposed to the candidate who had well as its loyalty, to concur in any scheme the plularlity of the people's votes in his for subverting the Government; and a suf- favor. It has kept the field ever since, and ficient security against such contingency is if it is now unable to resume specie pay, to be found in the distribution of branches ments, 't must be principally on account of in different States, acting and reacting up- exoenses and losses incurred in thirteen on the parent institution and upon each years' warfare against the people of the other." United States, against their form of Government, and against the persons whom they have elected to carry on the Govern. ment. The bank is now the head, and the support of the Federal party; all the Federalists who opposed its creation have gone over to it. It is their leader and their pointe d'appui. Any catastrophe to it, would be destruction to them, and would annihilate them as a national party. Away then with vain denials, of which nobody is the dupe. The bank is a political machine-a Federal political machine; and no denial of the tact can alter or conceal its truth. The leopard had as well deny the Mr. B. then read a paragraph from a speech of Mr. Webster, delivered in the House of Representatives, April 4, 1816, in opposition to the charter of the second Bank of the United States. "Mr. Webster said this was a subject on which a great change of opinion had tak en place on both sides of the House, an animadverted on what he called a compromise of principle on a great moneyed institution, and the desertion, not only of principles, but of friends, which had char acterized the proceedings on the bill. He then spoke some time against the bill, which |