SENATE.] Sub-Treasury Bill. by the same bankers, have increased the difficulties, and swelled our debt in England, as the Senator from Georgia says, to one hundred and ten millions of dollars. American credit was drawing off the capital of England to this country, which was draining the Bank of England of its specie. The Bank of England had to contend against American credit, which was a contest it could not stand. Its only resource was to attempt to destroy that credit, and the only way to do that was to destroy the credit of the houses through which American credit found its way to the British market. This led to those measures on the part of the Bank of England to which the Senator alluded, intended to discredit the American houses, and strike down at a blow the price of the great American staple. These measures on the part of the Bank of England, occuring at a time when there was a pressure from other causes, brought on the great crisis in this country. The gentleman from Georgia says these results have been occasioned by the Treasury circular, and other measures of the Government; he says the Government has encouraged the importation of specie; that it has induced the deposite banks to import specie. Mr. N. knew of no such act of the Government. These transactions, both commercial and financial, were of a private character, occasioned by the enterprise of this country, and stimulated by the abuse of bank credit on both sides of the water. Mr. N. said he repeated his charge made the other day against the Bank of the United States, that it had been the principal agent which had deranged our foreign commerce, and brought the country into its present difficulties. vious to the interference of that bank in our foreign trade, it was stable; now it was deranged. It had been constantly interfering since 1831; and Mr. Biddle boasts of having, on one occasion, he believed in 1832, saved the whole commercial community from a terrible explosion, by hurrying across the Jerseys between two days-not as Washington did, pursued by the British army-to New York, where, by the use of the credit of the bank, he saved the country. Surely, our trade must rest on a sound foundation, indeed, when it is indebted to a night's journey of one individual for escaping ruin! [SEPT. 23, 1837. tended with the most serious consequences. It was only in this view of the subject, that he regarded the Treasury circular, as having had a favorable influence in preventing the exportation of specie. Mr. N. said he would allude only to one topic more. The Senator said that Mr. N. and the Senator from North Carolina [Mr. STRANGE] had approved and endorsed the reasons assigned by the President in his message for the revulsion which had overtaken the country. Mr. N. said he had in his speech barely alluded to that subject, without going into an examination of its merits. He, however, did approve, then and now, of the brief but very clear and satisfactory exposition of the causes of existing embarrassments contained in the message. He would readily endorse that portion of the message, notwithstanding the strong condemnation of the Senator. The gentleman having read this portion of the message, remarked that this might be all very well; that he knew of but one objection to it, and which was, that there was not one word of truth in the whole statement. This was certainly very strong language; but Mr. N. supposed it was only the gentleman's peculiar mode of backing his friends. Sir, what is this statement, which is thus summarily despatched by the gentleman's hostile weapons? Is there any thing new or extraordinary in it? Does the President pretend to have made any wonderful discovery, or to have looked deeper into the causes of our difficulties than other intelligent individuals? The general cause which he assigns is the natural, the ordinary cause of commercial revulsions; Pre- he might almost say that, with the exception of some extraordinary causes, such as "war, pestilence, and famine,” it was the only cause of such embarrassments. The general cause assigned was over-trading, over-action, in every department of industry, and an undue extension and abuse of credit. These causes are said to be induced by a great expansion of the paper medium. Is not the statement, so far, correct? Has there not been over-trading, speculation, and gambling, of every kind, in the foriegn trade and the domestic trade, in wild lands and city lots, in stocks, in every thing? Are not these facts universally admitted? Are they denied by any one--by the Senator himself? He (Mr. N.) did not understand that they were. And has there not been an excessive and alarming expansion of the paper medium? This is equally notorious, and cannot surely be controverted by the Senator; for he has himself stated that the currency had, within a few years, increased 200 per cent. In this important fact the message is impregnable. Well, what is there, then, in this exposition of the President, which should call forth such a bold and daring assault? What is there in the statement which should have provoked such a desperate thrust of the gentleman's deadly weapons? Why, sir, the President says that this revulsion has not been confined to the United States; that it has prevailed in England, and, to some extent, in all the commercial countries in Europe; and from this he infers that the causes have been similar; that the spirit of over-trading has been rife in England as well as in the United States, and iuduced there, also, by an expansion of the currency. In all this we are toldt he message is entirely at fault. There is not one particle of truth here, says the Senator. There has been no expansion of currency in England, no over-trading, no speculation, no distress or commercial embarrassments; no failures; every thing has gone on quietly and smoothly. There has been no Treasury circulars there; no distress for money; John Bull has been at his ease, whilst Jonathan has been in trouble; Englishmen, under a more wise and beneficent Government, have been prosperous and contented, whilst the poor Yankees have had to suffer. The Senator from Georgia thought he (Mr. N.) had changed his sentiments regarding the specie circular; but he had changed them only so far as circumstances had changed. He voted for superseding it last session, believing the exigency had gone past, and still thought he was then right; but from circumstances which have since occurred, he believed the order had had a salutary influence. It has not only kept specie in the country, and saved the Western banks, but it had secured one or two millions for the uses of the Treasury, which had been an essential aid to it in the crisis it had gone through. The Secretary foresaw the coming storm, and, some weeks before the explosion took place, sent circulars to the deposite banks in the West, requiring them to keep their specie for the use of the Treasury; and a large sum has been conveyed across the mountains for that purpose. The Senator says Mr. N. approves of the Treasury circular, for its operation in preventing the exportation of specie, and condemns the Bank of the United States for measures which prevented the exportation of specie. In reply to this, Mr. N. said, that, as a general or permanent rule, he was opposed to all interference, whether by Government or by barks, with the course of trade, and was opposed to all measures intended either to encourage the importation of specie, or to discourage its exportation. But there were exceptions to general principles; and at a peculiar crisis, when the credit and paper system of two great commercial nations had been greatly and unduly extended, and both were apprehensive of an explosion, and the question was, which should explode, the sudden abstraction of specie, which sustained the floating mass of paper, might be at Such is the picture which the Senator drew of the condition of the two countries. He would not say it was a fancy sketch; it was only an instance of the Senators command over facts; but he would say that he did not think there was ever but one similar picture drawn before, and that was the Senator's own description of that hardy and meritorious class of settlers the squatters, who were transformed from an honest race of pioneers, into a predatory banditti, who stole their lands from the United States, and their provisions from the Indians. But is it really so, that there have been no failures, no distress in England? He (Mr. N.) had really supposed there had been. He had read some of their periodicals, from penny papers to stately quarterlies, and of different polities, whig and tory, radical and conservative; and all, he had supposed, admitted the existence of serious embarrassments and distress, whilst they attributed them to very different causes. But the Senator says that there has been no expansion of the paper currency in England, or not to exceed one and a half per cent., whilst in this country it has expanded two hundred per cent. This last statement was another instance of the Senators power over facts. He knew not where the gentleman got his information, or on what data the statement was based. By the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, it appears that in 1834 there was about eighty millions of paper currency; and in his report last December, he states the paper currency at one hundred and twenty millions, which would be an increase of a little over forty per cent. This was a small inaccuracy, although, perhaps, hardly worth printing. As respects the expansion in England, the gentleman had read statements from which it appeared there had been little or none, if they rested on good authority. He had heard the statements with great surprise, as he had supposed the fact was otherwise. In all the English publications he had seen, the expansion seemed to be admitted and universally regarded as the cause of the commercial difficulties; and the only dispute appeared to be where the blame belonged-one party charging it to the Bank of England, the other to the joint-stock banks. One thing was certain, and that appeared from the statement read by the Senator, there has been a great increase of the issues of the jointstock banks, amounting to some three millions of pounds, or near fifteen millions of dollars. The currency of these hanks is very frail, and very different from that of the Bank of England; and what may have been the disturbing effect of this large increase of a weaker paper medium, and corresponding diminution of a better currency, he was not financier enough to say. [SENATE. and he thanked God it was so. If it had not, credit would destroy all property, all faith, all honesty, and would overwhelm society in one indiscriminate ruin. If there had been no excess of credit in the form of currency in England, there had been a rapid enlargement of commercial credit. But the Senator says there has been no over-trading in England. What! no over-trading! How is this? There has been over-trading in the United States, and that in our foreign trade, to the amount of more than sixty millions, and this trade has been principally with England. Here are two great commercial nations, and, in the commerce between them, one has largely over-traded, and the other has not over-traded at all. It seems, according to the gentleman's logic, that the trading has been all on one side. We have imported to excess, but England has not exported to excess; we have bought sixty millions more goods than we ought, but they have not sold any more than to supply the usual demand. He had always supposed that, in the intercourse between two nations, if one party had traded to excess, the other had necessarily traded to excess also; if one had imported to excess, the other had exported to excess. Where the fault lay, which party was most to blame, or which had acted most rashly and imprudently, was another question. So far as respects their trade with America, which, he believed, comprised more than one fifth of the whole commerce of England, it was certain that country had over-traded; and he believed in the India trade there had been a like excess, for the larger houses engaged in those two branches of trade appeared to suffer most. As to internal trade, all accounts he had seen agreed that a spirit of speculation and gambling in stocks, and every kind of property, real or imaginary, has been as rife in that country as in the United States. This part of the President's statement, Mr. N. thought, had a little more than one particle of truth in it. But the Senator informs us that there has been no distress in England, and that on this point the message is entirely mistaken. Well, how does he make this out? Why, he says that England is the creditor country, and America the debtor country; and, therefore, the commercial revulsions have not occasioned distress there; the debtors have been in distress, not the creditors. Is this correct? If debtors fail and cannot pay, do not creditors lose their debts and does that not occasion distress? In times of general commercial embarrassments and bankruptcies, it might be difficult to say which suffered most, debtors or creditors; he believed, however, that creditors, generally, had the worst of it. The Senator often illustrates his sub You But does the statement read by the Senator prove that there has been no increase of the paper circulation in England which has occasioned over-trading? Is there no other paper but the bills of the Bank of England, and the private banks, and the joint-stock banks? Is there not an-ject by throwing in an anecdote, and he (Mr. N.) would other description of paper, commonly called commercial paper, which would have perhaps the same tendency to stimulate over-trading? Are there not bills of exchange and acceptances issued by the great bankers, which form a sort of commercial currency? And would not the expansion of this have a direct tendency to over-action in trade? What had caused the explosion of the three great American houses-the three W's-which had failed for two or three millions each? Had not these houses expanded their paper to a most dangerous and ruinous extent for it had proved their ruin. The enormous extension of commercial credit by these houses, was the principal cause of our excessive importations, and the derangements of our foreign trade. Thus trade had been stimulated by credit, and carried on by credit, and this credit was principally in England. Sir, steam has been regarded as a powerful agent, and one of the greatest discoveries of modern times; but a much more powerful agent has of late been discovered, which is credit, factitious, artificial credit. The expansive power of credit is vastly beyond that of steam; it is almost as uncontrollable, and as boundless as thought. Yet even credit, that most subtle of all agents, has its limits; VOL. XIV.-16 give him one applicable to this question. It was well cause she is a creditor city. Her merchants have sold an immense amount of goods to the Senator's constituents and others, and by the knocking down of the price of the great staple of the South, they have been wholly unable to pay their debts in New York. But the loss of these debts will not affect the merchants of New York, as they are credit. ors, and creditors cannot be distressed. But, from some cause or other, New York bas been overwhelmed with bankruptcies and distress, in spite of the Senator's reasoning. Mr. N. said he had detained the Senate longer than he had intended, as he only rise to put himself right. [SEPT. 23, 1837. much from any organic dissimilarity between him and the Senator, as from the different aspect under which they regard the controversy between General Jackson and the bank. The Senator regards it, as is manifest from the whole tenor of his remarks, as a mere personal affair between General Jackson and the president of the bank; or, at best, between the Executive branch of the Government and the bank; in which, let which side prevail that might, it would be but the triumph of one individual over another, or of the bank over the Executive, or the reverse. Thus regarding it, he was not at all astonished that the Senator should indulge himself in the strong expression that he did; but he must say that he was not a little astonished that the Senator, knowing him and his past course, as he did, could for a moment suppose that he (Mr. C.) regarded it under that aspect. When did he ever utter a sentiment, or do an act, which could by possibility give countenance to the attributing such a sentiment to him, as to consider General Jackson, or the whole House, or the Executive department, as the Government? He would suppose that he was the last man to whom such a sentiment could be attributed. In making the declaration he did, he viewed the subject far more comprehensively. He regarded the controversy under all its circumstances, and looked to results as testing the relative strength of the Government and the banks. He saw the most popular and powerful President that ever filled the chair of State, with boundless patronage, and sustained by a well-formed and campact majority in the Union, and both Houses, (of which the Senator was one,) waging war against the bank, and striving, with all his energy and power, to put it down. Whether right or wrong, (wrong he believed him to be, and still believed,) he was backed by the entire power of the Government, and a great majority of the people. Now, sir, I ask if, after all this, that bank should prove to be so indispensable to the Government as to force itself on it, notwithstanding all these powerful opposing obstacles, greater than can ever again be arrayed against any similar institution, would it not prove that the bank had become stronger than both Government and people? And would it not go far, as he confessed himself, to make the bank the Government! It was under this aspect that he obviously regarded the struggle; and he must say, that, if the Senator, looking on it in the same light, did not regard it with similar sentiments, he could neither envy him his feelings nor his patriotism. Mr. CALHOUN rose and said that he greatly regretted that the Senator from Georgia had thought proper to make the motion to postpone the bill. Its effect, should the motion succeed, would be highly injurious to the country generally, and especially to the South. It was conceded that there was a vast amount of capital locked up, waiting the decision of Congress on this highly important subject; not less, probably, than from sixty to one hundred millions; which would flow into the business channels of the country as soon as the decision was made. This, he would remind the Senator, was the commencement of the business season for the great staples of the South. The cotton and rice would soon be prepared for market, and the tobacco would follow them. The entire machine of commerce, by which these great products were to be exchanged with the world, is deranged, he might say broke, and would not be reconstructed till it was ascertained what was to be done here. If the question is postponed till the regular session, there will be no final action till the spring; during all of which time, comprehending the almost entire business season, things would remain in their present uncertain and deranged condition. The consequences would be a very heavy loss to the planting interest of the South, not to mention other portions; a loss, he would venture to say, of many millions to the planters alone; which would be of vast detriment to that great interest, embarrassed as it now is by heavy debts. After full reflection, he did not think the loss on the coming crop of cotton alone, from delay of action here, would be less than one or two cents the pound, and more than a million and a half on the whole crop. But there was another reason, to his mind, still more powerful against the postponement. We are on the eve of a great revolution in regard to the currency. The first step in that revolution is the separation of the Government and the banks, which he sincerely believed the good of both required. That once made, and each left to move in its Mr. TIPTON rose and said, the question now under own proper sphere, unembarrassed by the other, the change consideration was of so much importance to the people of in the credit system, which he held to be inevitable, would, the State which he had in part the honor to represent here, in all probability, be gradual, and without a shock, or in- that he felt it to be his duty to claim the indulgence of the jury to any of the great interests of the community. But, Senate a short time, while he gave his views on some of if the question of separation be left open; if it is to run the topics that at this time engaged the public attention into the politics of the country, and be made an engine to from one end to the other of the country. In a time of act on the presidential election, there is no answering for profound peace, surrounded, as we thought, by all the eleconsequences. A direct issue will be made; and, when ments of prosperity, we are suddenly arrested in our onpassions were roused, there would ensue a conflict between ward march by a wide-spread desolation, commerce cripthe Government and the banks, which may become violent pled, public credit injured, private fortunes ruined, and the and convulsive, and shake our system to the centre. For public Treasury bankrupt. The late session of Congress these reasons he deemed it highly desirable, on all sides, had but just closed, the members had scarcely had time to that the motion to postpone should not succeed. return to their homes, when we are summoned to return to Washington to legislate the Government out of its difficulties, and we find ourselves here in September instead of December, engaged in deliberation on the mode and manner of relieving the distresses of our country. The Senator made a remark which had a personal bearing, which he (Mr. C.) could not pass unnoticed. He expressed great abhorrence at the declaration that he (Mr. C.) would not (if there were not other and powerful reasons against it) agree to employ Mr. Biddle's bank as our fiscal agent, because it would give that institution a triumph over the Government, and go far to make it the Government itself. There was (said Mr. C.) no disputing about taste. We were so dissimilarly constituted, that what was sweet to one was sometimes bitter to another. But he was inclined to think that in this case the difference did not result so The inquiry naturally addresses itself to every mind, why is this so? What has produced it, and what is the remedy to be adopted? The honorable Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. CALHOUN,] when he proposed his amendment to the bill under consideration, a few days ago, told us that this question should be met boldly and manfully; to use his own words, let every one (said he) show his hand. I (said Mr. T.) respond to that noble sentiment of the honorable Senator; the question should be met boldly and fairly; this is a time of deep anxiety with our constituents; there should be no skulking among their public servants; every one should speak freely of the causes which have produced the present embarrassment, and act promptly on such measures as will relieve the people. It was his opinion that the putting down of the Bank of the United States was the first step to the present embarrassment; the transfer of the public deposites from that bank to the local or State banks stimulated these institutions to extravagant issues, far beyond their ability of redemption; they discounted notes on the public deposites, extending their lines of discount beyond the bounds of prudence the people in the neighborhoods of the banks, finding that bank accommodations could be had with facility, entered largely into speculations in public lands, town lots, and other property; extravagance in living as well as in dressing increased their indebtedness; in a word, sir, the whole country overtraded, ceased to labor, and contracted debts beyond their ability to pay; speculations were uppermost in the minds of every one. The Executive of the United States, seeing the public domain rapidly exchanging for credit on the books of the banks, determined to check it, and issued his Treasury order of July 11, 1836, directing that nothing but gold and silver should be received in payment for the public lands. Under the operations of this order, those engaged in purchasing public lands had to procure bank paper, draw the specie from bank and transport it to the land offices; it was no sooner paid into the land offices than the receivers of public moneys deposited it again in the banks to the credit of the Government; thus the indebtedness of the banks was daily and rapidly increasing; the bankers, fearing that the public deposites would be called for in metal, became alarmed at their own condition, closed their doors, and suspended specie payment, thereby putting it out of the power of this Government to pay the public dues according to law, in specie or its equivalent. This (said Mr. T.) is a brief statement of the causes which have produced the present embarrassment and distress that surround us; it was an unfortunate tampering with the currency and the public deposites by the Executive of the United States. Our troubles have come sooner, but come lighter than they would have done had the Treasury order never existed. [SENATE. institutions; many of these banks were perfectly solvent and safe; none more so than the banks of the State from which he came. The banks of Indiana were waiting to see what Congress, the Executive, and other banks could or would do, intending, at an early day, to resume specie payment, and honestly to redeem all their paper; and he could give no vote to discourage or procrastinate so desirable an object. It was true that the banks had not acted well in suspending specie payment and embarrassing the Government, but we should deal mercifully with them; a single breath from the Executive, saying to the State banks we will no longer receive your paper in payment of duties and sales of the public lands, will strike fifty per cent. off the value of ail the property of our constituents vested in these banks, indeed of all the property of every description; and he was not prepared to sanction such a course. In the language of the West, give us land-office money; whatever will buy land is as good as gold-is at par in all moneyed transactions in the Western States. No matter however old or ragged paper may be, if it contains words, letters, and figures enough to be receivable for public lands, it is as good as gold, and it matters not what kind of money it may be; if not received in the land office, it is of uncertain and changeable value. It finds its way into the hands of the poorer classes of the community; they are liable to be imposed on and shaved by the rich, in whose hands the better currency was always found. This would be the cffect on the Western people, if we refuse to receive the paper of their banks in payment for the public lands; and he left it for Senators representing the interests of banks east of the mountains to say what would be its effect on the interests of their constituents, should the General Government refuse to receive their bank paper in payment for revenue; above all things, Congress should establish and maintain a uniform currency. Have gentlemen forgotten how forcibly the honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] described the influence of this Government on currency the other day, when he said if the United States would but endorse the note of the beggar, it will pass at par? And will that Senator now say to a very large proportion of the people of this country, we cannot receive the paper of your banks for public dues, when by that single act he will bankrupt thousands who have strong claims both on the justice and the clemency of this Government? Mr. T. said he would not detain the Senate by an at Now for the remedy. The bill reported from the Com-tempt to show what effect the measures before it would mittee on Finance, imposing additional duties on public officers, as he understood it, intends to cut loose the Government from all banks, and to authorize the Treasury Department to keep and disburse, as well as collect, the whole revenue of the Government, dispensing with banks as fiscal agents altogether. This policy, he thought, might well be questioned; it would strike a portion of the American people like a shock of electricity, on account of the increased patronage and power it must confer on the Executive arm of the Government. He would not declare in advance that he would not go for it, but he would be slow in yielding it his support; and he hoped that a better remedy could be found. He had never been an advocate for using a litter of State or local banks as fiscal agents of the Government; they contain within themselves antagonist principles, each possessing separate views, and looking to the interest of their own stockholders: they cannot or will not act together in transmitting or disbursing the public money of the United States; and so long as they are used as depositories of the public money, embarrassments and occasional losses may be expected. Mr. T. said that he was opposed to taking any course here that would have a tendency to cripple or to break down the State banks; the people were encouraged to establish State banks, to keep down a Bank of the United States; they had vested their capital to a very large amount in these have on our commerce or exchanges; he left that to abler hands. He pretended only to take a plain cominon-sense view of the mischievous tendency on the interest of his immediate constituents, and to enter his protest in their behalf against the ruinous consequences that must follow the passage of the bill with the amendments proposed. He said the course that he had marked out for himself to pursue compelled him to vote against the amendments proposed to this bill by the honorable Senators from South Carolina and Missouri. Their amendments, if adopted, looked to a refusal on the part of this Government, at an early day, to receiving or using, in the ordinary transactions of this Government, the paper of all banks, and a return to a metallic currency. This, said he, looks well on paper, but it was impossible, in his opinion, to reduce it to practice. There surely was not metal enough to answer one-half the business transactions of this great and growing country. It was on a mixed currency, partly paper issued on a metallic basis, that our country reached the summit of its prosperity; and who could ask more than to be placed where we were in 1831 ? He would vote for the proposition offered by the Senator from Virginia when it came up. It looked more like preserving the property of the people vested in the State banks. Let us collect from the late depositories the public money now in their vaults; but, in doing so, let us give SENATE.] Sub-Treasury Bill. time for them to pay us without crushing these institutions. This would enable the banks to indulge their creditors, and go far to relieve the embarrassment under which our country was suffering. He cared not what those in high places thought; he considered the duty of this Government to relieve the people, when that could be done with an eye to public justice. Congress now had the power of relief, and, in his opinion, this was a proper occasion on which to exercise it. The frequent charges thrown out by the late President in his messages to Congress against the Bank of the United States had a tendency to discredit it with the people, and we all witnessed its downfall. The constant lauding of the State banks by the President and his Secretary of the Treasury, as depositories of the public moneys, encouraged the people to take stock in these banks. They grew up, as it were, under Executive favor; and will Congress now lend itself to break them down? The regulation of the currency, and the deposites of public money, if we intend to avoid embarrassment and loss, should be under laws passed by the joint wisdom of Congress, and not left to the whim of a President and his Secretary of the Treas ury. If the bills which had passed the Senate authorizing an issue of Treasury notes, and that authorizing the collection from the deposite banks, became laws, he would be glad to see this extra session come to a close, and let us return to our masters, the people, and consult them on what is further to be done. He did not stand here to register the Executive will; he looked to the boys of the West, those with hard hands, warm hearts, and strong arms, who fell the forest, hold the plough, and repel foreign invasion, for his instructions; it was their voice he felt bound to obey; it was their wishes and interests he came here to represent. If the Executive desires the additional responsibility of keeping and disbursing, as well as of collecting, the reve nue of the country, he now enjoys it under the regulations of the Treasury Department since the suspension of specie payments by the deposite banks; and he warned honorable Senators, who, like himself, wished to sustain the present administration, provided its conduct entitled it to the support of the people, to be careful how they entered on new and dangerous experiments. If he were bent on breaking down an administration, he would give up to it the unlimited control of the public money of this Government. could not vote for the bill reported from the Committee on Finance, but he would vote for the motion of the Senator from Georgia to potspone this whole subject to the next session of Congress, when we shall have an opportunity to ascertain the wishes of our constituents: it is good for us occasionally to consult the sovereign people. He Mr. RIVES ro e, and said he would ask leave of the Senate to say a few words which he meant to say yesterday, but was prevented by the speaking of another Senaator [Mr. BENTON.] Mr. R. said he rose to protest against the manner in which this question had been, and continued to be, treated by the Senator from South Carolina. That gentleman argued as if there were some proposition before the Senate to re-establish the Bank of the United States, or to confer upon the existing Pennsylvania Bank of the United States some special and important privilege. But, sir, is there any question of that sort really before the Senate? The question presented by the proposition on your table is, whether the notes of banks generally, when they shall have resumed specie payments, ought not, under certain limitations, to be received in payment of the public dues, as they heretofore have been from the origin of the Government down to the present time, or whether they shall be altogether excluded in future, and nothing be received in payment of the public revenue but gold and silver? The question, then, is one which involves alike the whole eight hundred State banks in the Union, constitu [SEPT. 23, 1837. ting that system of credit under which, whatever may have been its occasional excesses, the country has heretofore attained an unparalleled height of prosperity, and has no special reference whatever to the Bank of the United States. But the honorable Senator, in his remarks yesterday, which the rising of another gentleman to speak, before I could get the floor, then prevented me from answering, said that Mr. Biddle had his eyes steadily fixed on recovering the Government deposites, that all his measures were shaped with that view, and that if the proposition I had offered should be adopted, he would unquestionably accomplish his object. Now, sir, my proposition has not one solitary word or provision in it relating to the Government deposites. It relates exclusively, and this far more for the convenience of the people than for the interest of the banks, to the receivability, under certain limitations, of bank notes, when convertible into specie, in payment of the public revenue. This is a question altogether distinct from that of the Government deposites. It is comparatively a small boon, and one already enjoyed by the banks under existing laws, whenever they resume specie payments-by the Pennsylvania Bank of the United States, as well as by any other bank which shall redeem its notes in specie. I have already stated to the Senate what seems to me conclusive considerations to show that a large majority of the State banks are in a far better situation to make an early resumption of specie payments than the Pennsylvania Bank of the United States. In regard to the Government deposites, on which the honorable Senator says Mr. Biddle has his eyes steadily fixed, I repeat that my proposition, which that gentleman so earnestly opposes, has not a solitary word on the subject. It relates to another matter wholly distinct, and leaves the question of the Government deposites where the law now places it, which, the Senator well knows, refers the selection of the banks to be charged with the public deposites, in the first instance, to the judgment of the Executive. Surely the honorable Senator is not afraid that either the President or the Secretary of the Treasury would select the Pennsylvania Bank of the United States. On that subject, the gentleman may, I think, feel perfectly secure, as the country most assuredly has every reason to do. cause. It does seem to me, Mr. President, that this perpetual and gratuitous introduction of the Bank of the United States into this debate, with which it has no connexion, as if to alarm the imaginations of grave Senators, is but a poor evidence of the intrinsic strength of the gentleman's Much has been said of argument ad captandum in the course of this discussion. I have heard none that can compare with this solemn stalking of the ghost of the Bank of the United States through this hall to "frighten Senators from their propriety." I am as much opposed to that institution as the gentleman or any one else is or can be. I think I may say I have given some proofs of it. The gentleman himself acquits me of any design to favor the interest of that institution, while he says such is the necessary consequence of my proposition. The suggestion is advanced for effect, and then retracted in form. Whatever be the new-born zeal of the Senator from South Carolina against the Bank of the United States, I flatter myself that I stand in a position that places me, at least, as much above suspicion of an undue leaning in favor of that institution as the honorable gentleman. If I mistake not, it was the Senator from South Carolina who introduced and supported the bill for the charter of the United States Bank in 1816; it was he, also, who brought in a bill in 1834, to extend the charter of that institution for a term of twelve years; and none were more conspicuous than he in the well-remembered scenes of that day, in urging the restoration of the Government deposites to this same institution. In every situation of public trust in which I have been placed I have been the constant and unvarying oppo |