America, among that class of our people who look to European writers for information upon their own country. He speaks of the wellinformed classes who rallied round the bank; and the common people who had formed no rational opinion upon the subject, and who joined General Jackson. Certainly the great business community, with few exceptions, comprising wealth, ability and education, went for the bank, and the masses for General Jackson; but which had formed the rational opinion is seen by the event. The "well-informed" classes have bowed not merely to the decision, but to the intelligence of the masses. They have adopted their opinion of the institution-condemned it-repudiated it as an "obsolete idea;" and of all its former itself nothing to fear from a similar demand, as the extent of its resources enables it to meet all banks is thus threatened, and their operations claims. But the existence of the provincial are restricted, since they are only able to issue a quantity of notes duly proportioned to their capital. They submit with impatience to this salutary control. The newspapers which they have bought over, and the President, whose interest renders him their instrument, attack the bank with the greatest vehemence. They rouse the local passions and the blind democratic instinct of the country to aid in their cause; and they assert that the bank directors form a permanent aristocratic body, whose influence must ultimately be felt in the government, and must affect those principles of equality-upon which society rests in America.” Now, while Mons. de Tocqueville was arrang advocates, not one exists now. All have yield-ing all this fine encomium upon the bank, and ed to that instinctive sagacity of the people, which is an overmatch for book-learning; and which being the result of common sense, is usually right; and being disinterested, is always honest. I adduce this instance-a grand national one of the succumbing of the well-informed classes to the instinctive sagacity of the people, not merely to correct Mons. de Tocqueville, but for the higher purpose of showing the capacity of the people for self-government. The rest of the quotation, "the independent exist-the people accustomed to make and unmake-startled at this obstacle-irritated at a permanent institution-attack in order to shake and control;" all this is fancy, or as the old English wrote it, fantasy-enlivened by French vivacity into witty theory, as fallacious as witty. ence I could wish I were done with quotations from Mons. de Tocqueville on this subject; but he forces me to make another extract from his book, and it is found in his chapter 18, thus: "The slightest observation enables us to appreciate the advantages which the country derives from the bank. Its notes are taken on the borders of the desert for the same value as in Philadelphia. It is nevertheless the object of great animosity. Its directors have proclaimed their hostility to the President, and are accused, not without some show of probability, of having abused their influence to thwart his election. The President, therefore, attacks the establishment with all the warmth of personal enmity; and he is encouraged in the pursuit of his revenge by the conviction that he is supported by the secret propensities of the majority. It always holds a great number of the notes issued by the provincial banks, which it can at any tíme oblige them to convert into cash. It has all this censure upon its adversaries, the whole of which is nothing but a French translation of the bank publications of the day, for itself and against President Jackson--during all this time there was a process going on in the Congress of the United States, by which it was proved that the bank was then insolvent, and living from day to day upon expedients; and getting hold of property and money by contrivances which the law would qualify as swindling-plundering its own stockholders-and bribing individuals, institutions, and members of legislative bodies, wherever it could be done. Those fine notes, of which he speaks, were then without solid value. The salutary restraint attributed to its its forcing many of them into complicity in its control over local banks was soon exemplified in crimes, and all into two general suspensions of specie payments, headed by itself. Its solidity and its honor were soon shown in open bankruptcy-in the dishonor of its notes-the violation of sacred deposits-the disappearance of its capital-the destruction of institutions connected with it-the extinction of fifty-six millions of capital (its own, and that of others drawn into its vortex);-and the ruin or damage of families, both foreign and American, who had been induced by its name, and by its delusive exhibitions of credit, to invest their money in its stock. Placing the opposition of President Jackson to such an institution to the account of base and personal motives-to feelings of revenge because he had been unable to seduce it into his support-is an error of fact manifested by all the history of the case; to say nothing of his own personal character. He was a senator in Congress during the existence of the first national bank, and was against it; and on the same grounds of unconstitutionality and of inexpediency. He delivered his opinion against this second one before it had manifested any hostility to him. His first opposition was abstract against the institution-without reference to its conduct; he knew nothing against it then, and neither said, or insinuated any thing against it. Subsequently, when misconduct was discovered, he charged it; and openly and responsibly. Equally unfounded is the insinuation in another place, of subserviency to local banks. He, the instrument of local banks! he who could not be made the friend, even, of the great bank itself; who was all his life a hard money man-an opposer of all banks-the denouncer of delinquent banks in his own State; who, with one stroke of his pen, in the recess of Congress, and against its will, in the summer of 1836, struck all their notes from the list of land-office payments! and whose last message to Congress, and in his farewell address to the people, admonished them earnestly and affectionately against the whole system of paper money-the evils of which he feelingly described as falling heaviest upon the most meritorious part of the community, and the part least able to bear themthe productive classes. gold currency ever since, and that before we got California. There were general suspensions of specie payments during its time; and none since. Exchanges were deranged during its existence: they have been regular since its death. Labor and property lived the life of "up and down"-high price one day, no price another day-while the bank ruled: both have been "up" all the time, since it has been gone. We have had a war since a foreign war-which tries the strength of financial systems in all countries; and have gone through this war not only without a financial crisis, but with a financial triumph-the public securities remaining above par the whole time; and the government paying to its war debt creditors a reward of twenty dollars upon the hundred to get them to accept their pay before it is due; and in this shining side of the contrast, experience has invalidated the decision of the Supreme Court, by expunging the sole argument upon which the decision rested. "Necessity," "necessary to carry into effect the granted powers," was the decision of the court. Not so, the voice of experience. That has proved such an institution to be unnecessary. Every granted power, and some not granted, have been carried into effect since the extinction of the national bank, and since the substitution of the gold currency and the independent treasury; and all with triumphant success-the war The object of this chapter is to correct this power above all, and most successfully exercised error of Mons. de Tocqueville, and to vindicate of all. And this sole foundation for the court's history, and to do justice to General Jackson decision in favor of the constitutionality of the and the democracy: and my task is easy. Events bank being removed, the decision itself vanhave done it for me-have answered every ques-ishes-disappears—"like the baseless fabric of a tion on which the bank controversy depended, and have nullified every argument in favor of the bank-and that both with, and without reference to its misconduct. As an institution, it has been proved to be "unnecessary," and the country is found to do infinitely better without it than with it. During the twenty years of its existence there was pecuniary distress in the country-periodical returns of expansion and contraction, deranged currency, ruined exchanges, panics and convulsions in the money market. In the almost twenty years which have elapsed since, these calamitous words have never been heard: and the contrast of the two periods will make the condemnation of one, and the eulogy of the other. There was no gold during the existence of the bank: there has been an ample vision, leaving not a wreck behind." But there will be a time hereafter for the celebration of this victory of the constitution over the Supreme Court-the only object of this chapter being to vindicate General Jackson and the people from the errors of Mons. de Tocqueville in relation to them and the bank: which is done. CHAPTER LXII. EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY in the government expenditures was a cardinal feature in the democratic policy, and every increase of expense was closely scrutinized by them, and brought to the test of the clearest necessity. Some increase was incident to the growing condition of the country; but every item beyond the exigencies of that growth was subjected to severe investigation and determined opposition. In the execution of this policy the expenses proper of the government-those incident to working its machinery-were, immediately after my entrance into the Senate, and after the army and other reductions of 1820 and '21 had taken effect—just about eight millions of dollars. The same expenditure up to the beginning of the year 1832-a period of about ten years-had risen to thirteen and a half millions: and, adverting to this increase in some current debate, and with a view to fix attention upon the growing evil, I stated to the Senate that these expenses had nearly doubled since I had been a member of the Senate. This statement drew a reply from the veteran chairman of the Senate's committee on finance (General Smith, of Maryland), in opposition to my statement; which, of course, drew further remarks from me. Both sets of remarks are valuable at this day-instructive in the picture they present between 1822-1832-and 1850. Gen. Smith's estimate of about ten millions instead of eight-though predicated on the wrong basis of beginning to count before the expenses of the army reduction had taken effect, and counting in the purchase of Florida, and some other items of a nature foreign to the support of government-even his estimate presents a startling point of comparison with the same expenditure of the present day; and calls for the revival of that spirit of economy which distinguished the democracy in the earlier periods of the government. Some passages from the speech of each senator (General Smith and Mr. Benton) will present this brief, but important inquiry, in its proper point of view. Gen. Smith said: 6 the senator, the expenditures have greatly increased during that period. I told him I thought they had not; and I now proceed to prove, that, with the exception of four years, viz., 1821, 1822, 1823, and 1824, the expenditures of the govern ment have not increased. I shall endeavor to show the causes of the reduction of expenses during those years, and that they afford no criteria by which to judge of the necessary expenses of government, and that they are exceptions to the general rate of expenditures, arising from particular causes. But even they exhibit an expenditure far above the one half of the present annual ordinary expenses. A "In the year 1822, which was the period when the senator from Missouri [Mr. Benton] took his seat in the Senate, the ordinary expenses of the government amounted to the sum of $9,827,643. $9,784,154. I proceed, Mr. President, to show The expenses of the year 1823. amounted to the cause which thus reduced the ordinary expenses during these years. I speak in the presence of gentlemen, some of whom were then in the House of Representatives, and will correct me if my recollection should lead me into error. During the session of the year 1819-'20 the President asked a loan, I think, of five millions, to defray the expenses of the government, which he had deemed necessary, and for which estimates had, as usual, been laid before Congress. loan of three millions only was granted; and, in the next session, another loan of, I think, seven millions was asked, in order to enable the Executive to meet the amount of expenses estimated five millions was granted, and in the succeeding for, as necessary for the year 1821. A loan of year another loan of five hundred thousand dollars was asked, and refused. Congress were dissatisfied that loans should be required in time of the nation; and they refused to grant the of profound peace, to meet the common expenses amount asked for in the estimates, although this amount would have been granted if there had been money in the treasury to meet them, without resorting to loans. The Committee of Ways and Means (and it was supported by the House) lessened some of the items estimated for, and refused others. No item, except such as was indispensably necessary, was granted. By the adoption of this course, the expenditures were reduced, in 1821, to $10,723,479, and to the sums already mentioned for the two years, 1822 and 1823, and the current expenses of 1824, $10,330,144. The consequence was, that the treasury was restored to a sound state, so that Congress was enabled, in the year 1825, to appropriate the full amount of the estimate. The "I will now come, Mr. President, to my principal object. It is the assertion, that, since the year 1821, the expenses of the government had nearly doubled;' and I trust I shall be able to show that the senator from Missouri [Mr. Benton] had been under some misapprehension. The Senate are aware of the effect which such an asser-expenditures of 1824 amounted to $15,330,144. tion, coming from such high authority, must have upon the public mind. It certainly had its effect even upon this enlightened body. I mentioned to an honorable senator a few days since, that the average ordinary expenditure of the government for the last nine years did not exceed the sum of twelve and a half millions. But, said This large expenditure is to be attributed to the payment made to Spain in that year, of $5,000,000 for the purchase of Florida. I entertained doubts whether I ought to include this sum in the expenditures; but, on full consideration, I deemed it proper to include it. It may be said that it was an extraordinary payment, and such as could not again occur. So is the payment on account of awards under the Treaty of Ghent, in 1827 and 1828, amounting to $1,188,716. Of the same character, too, are the payments made for the purchase of lands from the Indians; for the removal of the Indians; for payments to the several States for moneys advanced during the late war; and a variety of other extraordinary charges on the treasury." The error of this statement was in the basis of the calculation, and in the inclusion of items which did not belong to the expenses proper of the government, and in beginning to count before the year of reduction-the whole of which, in a period of ten years made an excess of twentytwo millions above the ordinary expenses. I answered thus: "Mr. Benton rose in reply to the senator from Maryland. Mr. B. said that a remark of his, in a former debate, seemed to have been the occasion of the elaborate financial statements which the senator from Maryland had just gone through. Mr. B. said he had made the remark in debate; it was a general one, and not to be treated as an account stated by an accounting officer. His remark was, that the public expenditure had nearly doubled since he had been a member of the Senate. Neither the words used, nor the mode of the expression, implied the accuracy of an account; it was a remark to signify a great and inordinate increase in a comparatively short time. He had not come to the Senate this day with the least expectation of being called to justify that remark, or to hear a long arraignment of it argued; but he was ready at all times to justify, and he would quickly do it. Mr. B. said that when he made the remark, he had no statement of accounts in his eye, but he had two great and broad facts before him, which all the figures and calculations upon earth, and all the compound and comparative statements of arithmeticians, could not shake or alter, which were-first, that when he came into the Senate the machinery of this government was worked for between eight and nine millions of dollars; and, secondly, the actual payments for the last year, in the President's message, were about fourteen millions and threequarters. The sum estimated for the future expenditures, by the Secretary of the Treasury, was thirteen and a half millions; but fifteen millions were recommended by him to be levied to meet increased expenditures. Mr. B. said these were two great facts which he had in his eye, and which he would justify. He would produce no proofs as to the second of his facts, because the President's message and the Secretary's report were so recently sent in, and so universally reprinted, that every person could recollect, or turn to their contents, and verify bis statement upon their own examination or recollection. He would verify his first statement only by proofs, and for that purpose would refer to the detailed statements of the public expenditures, compiled by Van Zandt and Watterston, and for which he had just sent to the room of the Secretary of the Senate. Mr. B. would take the years 1822-23; for he was not simple enough to take the years before the reduction of the army, when he was looking for the lowest expenditure. Four thousand men were disbanded, and had remained disbanded ever since; they were disbanded since he came into the Senate; he would therefore date from that reduction. This would bring him to the years 1822-23, when you, sir (the Vice-President), was Secretary of War. What was the whole expenditure of the government for each of those years? It stood thus: The "Now, deduct these pensions from the years to which they refer, and you will have just about $8,000,000 as the expense of working the machinery of government at the period which I had in my eye. But the pensions have not yet totally ceased; they are much diminished since 1822, 1823, and in a few years must cease. revolutionary pensioners must now average seventy years of age; their stipends will soon cease. I hold myself well justified, then, in saying, as I did, that the expenditures of the government have nearly doubled in my time. The remark had no reference to administrations. There was nothing comparative in it; nothing intended to put up, or put down, any body. The burdens of the people is the only thing I wish to put down. My service in the Senate has extended under three administrations, and my periods of calculation extend to all three. My opinion now is, that the machinery of this government, after the payment of the public debt, should be worked for ten millions or less, and two millions more for extraordinaries; in all twelve millions; but this is a point for future discussion. My present object is to show a great increase in a short time; and to show that, not nominations were made-Henry Clay of Kento affect individuals, but to show the necessity tucky, for President; and John Sergeant of of practising what we all profess-economy. I am against keeping up a revenue, after the debt Pennsylvania for Vice-President: and the nomiand pensions are paid, as large, or nearly as large, nations accepted by them respectively. Afteras the expenditure was in 1822, 1823, with these wards, and according to what was usual on such items included. I am for throwing down my occasions, the convention issued an address to load, when I get to the end of my journey. I the people of the United States, setting forth am for throwing off the burden of the debt, when I get to the end of the debt. The burden of the the merits of their own, and the demerits of the debt is the taxes levied on account of it. I am opposite candidate; and presenting the party for abolishing these taxes; and this is the great issues which were to be tried in the ensuing question upon which parties now go to trial be- elections. So far as these issues were political, fore the American people. One word more, and I am done for the present. The senator for they were legitimate subjects to place before the Maryland, to make up a goodly average for 1822, people: so far as they were not political, they and 1823, adds the expenditure of 1824, which were illegitimate, and wrongfully dragged into includes, besides sixteen millions and a half for the political arena, to be made subservient to the public debt, and a million and a half for pensions, the sum of five millions for the purchase party elevation. Of this character were the topics of Florida. Sir, he must deduct twenty-two of the tariff, of internal improvement, the remillions from that computation; and that de- moval of the Cherokee Indians, and the renewal duction will bring his average for those years to of the United States Bank charter. Of these agree very closely with my statement." four subjects, all of them in their nature unconnected with politics, and requiring for their own good to remain so unconnected, I now notice but one-that of the renewal of the charter of the existing national bank ;—and which was now presented as a party object, and as an issue in the election, and under all the exaggerated aspects which party tactics consider lawful in the prosecution of their aims. The address said: It was something at the time this inquiry took place to know which was right-General Smith, or myself. Two millions, more or less, per annum in the public expenditures, was then something—a thing to be talked about, and accounted for, among the economical men of that day. It seems to be nothing now, when the increases are many millions per annum-when personal and job legislation have become the frequent practice-when contracts are legislated to adventurers and speculators-when the halls of Congress have come to be considered the proper place to lay the foundations, or to repair the dilapidations of millionary fortunes: and when the public fisc, and the national domain may consider themselves fortunate sometimes in getting off with a loss of two millions in a single operation. CHAPTER LXIII. BANK OF THE UNITED STATES-RECHARTER. In the month of December, 1831, the "National Republicans" (as the party was then called which afterwards took the name of "whig), assembled in convention at Baltimore to nominate candidates of their party for the presidential, and vice-presidential election, which was to take place in the autumn of the ensuing year. The "Next to the great measures of policy which most important question, connected with the protect and encourage domestic industry, the economical policy of the country, is that of the bank. This great and beneficial institution, by facilitating exchanges between different parts of the Union, and maintaining a sound, ample, and healthy state of the currency, may be said to supply the body politic, economically viewed, with a continual stream of life-blood, without which it must inevitably languish, and sink into exhaustion. It was first conceived and organized by the powerful mind of Hamilton. After having been temporarily shaken by the honest though groundless scruples of other statesmen, it has been recalled to existence by the general consent of all parties, and with the universal approbation of the people. Under the ablest and most faithful management it has been for many years past pursuing a course of steady and contion which the President has gone out of his way stantly increasing influence. Such is the instituin several successive messages, without a pretence of necessity or plausible motive, in the first instance six years before his suggestion could with Congress as a sort of nuisance, and consign, as any propriety be acted upon, to denounce to far as his influence extends, to immediate destruction. |