OF MR. WALKER, OF MISSISSIPPI, ON THE BILL TO PROVIDE FOR THE COLLECTION, SAFE-KEEPING, AND DISBURSEMENT OF THE PUBLIC MONEYS. SENATE U. S. JANUARY 21, 1840. WASHINGTON: PRINTED AT THE GLOBE OFFICE. F948 •SP3 SPEECH. In Senate, Tuesday, January 21, 1940-On the bill most clearly for this measure. Indeed, the State of to provide for the collection, safe keeping, trans-Georgia, even in her last Congressional election, fer, and disbursement of the public moneys. may be truly claimed as having pronounced in faMr. WALKER said: I am not certain that my vor of this bill; for, whilst the entire Union party voice is yet so entirely restored, after recovery in that State, and their candidates for Congress, had from severe illness, as to enable me fully to declared in favor of this bill, a majority of their discuss the important questions involved in opponents had also, it was understood, announced this bill. I will, however, endeavor to reply to their determination to support it, and will faithfully some of the remarks of the Senator from Kentucky, redeem this pledge. Such, then, was the voice [Mr. Clay;} and in doing so, that Senator shall of the people of the several States; such be treated by me with all the respect which is was the declared will of two-thirds of these due to his age, experience, and long services. The Senator has referred, in his speech, to the political complexion of this body; he has complained that further delay had not been granted in proceeding to the consideration of this measure, and had more than intimated that if all the vacancies were filled, and the public will respected, that this bill could not pass the Senate. Here, then, a question of poHtical statistics was presented, in examining which it became necessary to review the recent elections in this country, and to contrast the vote of the people of the several States with the condition of their representation on this floor. In making this contrast, however, no reflection will be cast by me upon the course of any Senator; for all will, no doubt, give their votes for or against this measure, from conscientious convictions of duty. In investigating the action of the people of the several States upon this question, I will examine the result of their most recent Congressional elections, as presenting the best general exponent of their views and wishes. Upon this basis, then, the following States, by their most recent elections, had declared in favor of this bill: namely, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan; in all, eighteen States, constituting not only a majority, but two-thirds of the States of this Union. If New Jersey be not counted upon either side, although the popular vote was clearly in our favor, still the result will be seventeen States for, and eight against the measure, being still a majority of two-thirds of the States. And if Michigan, since the last Congressional canVass, may have assumed the attitude of opposition But this result the Senator attributes to party in ter last legislative and gubernatorial election, movements. He says the people were opposed to Georgia, also, one of the States not enumerated in this measure, but that the party screws were apcar favor, has, by a similar election, pronounced plied, and that a few approving shrieks have been States; and such would be the vote of the Senate, if the will of the several States, in the absence of legislative instructions, should control the vote of every Senator upon this bill. In denouncing then, with so much violence, this bill and its advocates, the Senator from Kentucky should remember that he is, in fact, denouncing the people of two-thirds of the States of this Union. It is the people, emphatically, who have pronounced in favor of this measure, and that too after the most searching inquiry, the most deliberate investigation, and the fullest discussion here and throughout the country. This bill has been the question upon which the battle has been fought and won, and it is under the flag of an Independent Treasury, that we have been enabled to rescue this Administration from the overthrow with which it once seemed to be threatened, by the desertion of the timid, the treacherous, or venal. Sir, when at opening of the special session in September, 1837, I announced my determination to support this bill, both by my votes and speeches, and that, too, with the specie clause inserted, my expulsion from this body by legislative instructions was predicted as absolutely certain. For a time, Mississippi seemed to vibrate upon this question; but now, what is the result upon the fullest discussion? Why, a majority in favor of the measure greater than any obtained in any preceding canvass. The majority in favor of Mr. Van Buren in the electoral canvass, was less than three hundred, now the majority in favor of this measure, at the last election, is more than three thousand, and was believed to be augmenting every day by new accessions from the ranks of our political adversaries. extorted in favor of the bil! from its agonizing vic-[the gallery friends of the honorable Senator. tims. Sir, if it were (as it is not) in the power of This faculty of exciting a laugh in the gallery is any Administration, by mere party discipline, to one of the humblest powers of the human mind, rally a majority in support of a measure against and rarely combined with great intellectual vigor. the popular will, by what power is this mental tor-Sir, when I want to laugh, I will buy my ticket for ture applied to the opponen's of the President? the theatre, and go and listen to farce or comedy; How could the party screws be applied to them; but if I possessed the comic powers of Mathews and yet have not very many of the strongest oppo-himself, they should not be exerted in this tribunal; nents of the President; have not many entire States, and those who possessed this laughter-exciting heretofore always arrayed against us, changed their faculty, even in the most eminent degree, should entire front, and now yield to this great measure a still reflect, that it was a faculty in which every cordial and sincere support? Whence this won- barlequin was their equal, and every circus clown derful revolution in public sentiment, this abandon- greatly their superior. ment of party prejudice, this great accession from The Senator from Kentucky has drawn a the ranks of our adversaries? It is the result of gloomy picture of the present condition and future the most fixed and deliberate conviction on the part prospects of the country, and attributes it all to the of the people in favor of this great measure. I, measures of this Administration. No such thing, too, Mr. President, have seen the screws applied; he says, occurred prior to the war upon the Bank of I, too, have seen the struggling victim writhing in the United States. Has the Senator forgo ten his agony; I, too, have heard his shrieks, piercing as speech in 1824, when the then existing condition those of the wild sea-mew; but the e shrieks were of this country was represented by him in quite as extorted by no application of the party screws. No, gloomy colors as those with which he darkened the sir, it was the banks that had applied the screws of present picture? So close, indeed, is the resemincorporated and moneyed power. It was these blance between these two addresses, that the Senathat had tempted their victim, in an evil hour, from tor's speech of yesterday may well be considered the path of industry into the mad career of wild but as the echo of the speech of 1824-it was the and extravagant speculation; it was these that had same portrait, scarcely retouched by the same replaced the paper dice within his grasp, that seduced maikable artist-it was the same tragedy, rehim onward with dazzling visions of unbounded hearsed upon nearly the same boards, with scarcefortune, and then, when the hour of peril came, ly a change of parts, by the same distinguished consigned him to hopeless bankruptcy. orator. That the Senate may know the tacts, I The Senator had, in his speech, again indulged will read an extract from the speech of that Sein the exercise of his prophetic powers. He has nator of the 31st of March, 1824, in favor of a again predicted the overthrow of this Administra-protective tariff. cumstance which fixes our attention, and challenges our deep tion, and the installation of General Harrison in [Here Mr. WABLER read the following extract March, 1841. The Senator had often, previously, from Mr. CLAY's speech of 1824, as published in predicted the overthrow of this Administration, as Niles's Register of that date, vol. 28, pages 378, well as of that which preceded it; and, so lately as 387, as follows:] in 1838, he had foretold that the present Congress "In casting our eyes around us, the most prominent cir. would open with a majority of two-thirds against est regret, is the general distress which pervades the whole the Administration. Thus far, not one of the pre-country. It is forced upon us by numerous facts of the most dictions of that Senator has ever been realized; but a result directly opposite had always followed. So invariably had this been the case, that the prophecies of that Senator should be interpreted as dreams; that is, to set down a result directly the reverse of that foreseen in the vision; and thus, if that Senator foretold a defeat, we might always ex-ployment, and a consequent reduction of the wages of labor; by pect a victory. incontestible character. It is indicated by the diminished ex- the ravenous pursuit after public situations, not for the sake of The Sena or from Kentucky had thought proper to compare General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren to the Stuarts, to the Charleses of England, two of the most licent ous and despotic monarchs. But England was disgraced by a monarch yet more arbitrary and profligate than either the first or second Charles. It was a Henry. I shall institute "The truth is, that no class of society suffers more, in the present stagna ion of business, than the laboring class. That no comparison between this monarch and the is a necessary effect of the depression of agriculture, the prinSenator from Kentucky. None such, in truth, cipal business of the community The wages of ab'e bodied can be made; and yet the resemblance is quite as men vary from five to eight dollars per month; and such has been the want of employment, in some parts of the Union, striking as that of either of the Stuarts to the late that instances have not been unfrequent, of men working mere and present Chief Magistrate. As little similarity.ly for the means of present subsistence. If the wages for labor also, was there in the original to the picture drawn here and in England are compared, they will be found not to be essentially different." by the honorable Senator of the American Presi- Now, this picture of distress and ruin was drawn dent, driving through the rain with his umbrella by that Senator during the very climax of the and India rubber coat, reckless of the situation of power of the Bank of the United States; and yet all his fellow citizens. No doubt this portrait was this seems to have been forgotten by him, and I a'ready in the hands of the li hographer, for a now understand him as asserting that we were excaricature, as it seemed to have amused so much empt from all such calamities during the existence, and under the regulation, of a Bank of the United | the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Stites. WEBSTER] Here Mr. W. read from Mr. WEBSTER'S speech of 1824, as contained in Niles's Register, vol. 26, page 411, as follows: aware, who maintain that the events to which I have alluded "About the time of these foreign events, our own bank sys [Mr. CLAY here explained as not having asserted that no such distress as the present had existed, during the charter of the National Bank; but that never, during its existence, had this distress been attribu "The paper system of England had certainly communicated ted, as it now was, to the power over us of the an artificial value to property. It had encouraged speculation, tanks and currency of England.] and excited overtrading. When the shock, therefore, came, and this violent pressure for money acted at the same moment Mr. W. said he had not so understood the Se-on the continent and in England, inflated and unnatural prices nator, but received with pleasure his explana- could be kept up no longer. A reduction took place, which nat on. One thing, however, was certainly proved if not 40, per cent. The depression was universal; and the has been estimated to have been at least equal to a fall of 30, by this speech, that, in 1824, during the existence change was felt in the United States severely, though not and full operation of the Bank of the United States, equally so in every part of them. There are those, I am there was greater and more universal distress-did not cause the great fall of prices; but that fall was natural more stagnation of busines—more laborers unem-and inevitable, from the previously existing state of things, the ployed, and a greater reduction of wages, than at abundance of commodities, and the want of demand. But that would only prove that the effect was produced in another way, the present period. Wages, we were then told by rather than by another cause. If these great and sudden calls the Senator, were at but "from five to eight doi-for money did not reduce prices, but prices fell, as of themlars per month," being no greater than in England.selves, to their natural state, still the result is the same; for And yet all this occurred when the Bank of the not be kept longer at their unnatural height. we perceive that, after these new calls for money, prices could United States had reached the zenith of its power when its late distinguished president (Mr. Bd-tem underwent a change; and all these causes, in my view of the subject, concurred to produce the great shock which took die) preside over its operations-when it was in place in our commercial cities, and through many parts of the the eighth year of its chartered exi tence-when it country. The year 1-19 was a year of numerous failures, and enjoyed the Government patronage, and re-very considerable distress, and would have furnished far better grounds than exist at present for that gloomy representation of ceived on deposite all the public revenues, our condition which has been presented. Mr. Speaker has and when που a hand or voice was raised alluded to the strong inclination which exists, or has existed, in against it. Where, then, was its boasted regulat-of great existing difficulties. I regard it rather as a very provarious parts of the country, to issue paper money, as a proof ing power? where its ability to have prevented, fr even miligated in any degree, the catastrophe which then overwhelmed us. And to what, among other causes, did the Senator then attribute the embarrassments of 1824? It was to the "perilous use of paper money;" and to the sime cause may we just as truly trace the present disasters. Paper money was the fatal cause of all the disasters of 1824; it produced the explosion of 1814, of 1818-foundation of all honest acquisition." 19, of 1837, and of 1839, and will continue to pro- Many important admissions are here made by duce here, as it ever has done elsewhere, periodical the Senator from Massachusetts. The disasters of revals ons, suspensions, and disasters, so long as 1824 are plainly attributed by him chiefly to our the system is continued. Eradicate the paper sy-systems of paper credit," and the reaction upon tem, and you will remove the great cause of all it of "the paper system of England." We are disour evils; and any thing short of this will be but tinetly tell that our paper system had produced temporary expedients; resumption will be but the here "artificial" prices and "extravagant speculasigra' for another suspension, until these revalsions tion;" that the same system in Engiand had there shall become annual, and the system die by its own "communicated an artifical value to property," hand, the dean of the suicide; or expel all the pre- and when the shock took place in England, prices cious metals, destroy the standard of value, con- fell there, and the "change was felt in the United vert bank paper into a legal tender, not merely to States sever-ly." What change? Why, that the Governmen', but to the people, and thus over-change and fall of prices in England, which the throw the Constitution, subvert the liberties of the country, and the rights of the people, and e-tablish the reign of a bankocracy, more sordid, ruinous, and despotic, than that of any monarch, however absolute. ductive cause of those difficulties; and the committee will not fail to observe that there is, at this moment, much the loudest est atteinpt to relieve it by systems of paper credit. And, on complaint of distress precisely where there has been the greatthe other hand, content, prosperity, and happiness are most obthe least endeavor to administer relief by law. In truth, Roservable in those parts of the country, where there has been thing is so bane ful, so utterly ruinous to all true industry, as interfering with the legal value of money, or attempting to raise artificial standards to supply its place. Such remedies suit well the spirit of extravagant speculation, but they sap the very Senator distinctly asserted was produce! by "those great and sudden calls for money," arising out of the contractions of the English banks, which reacted upon our paper system, and finally produced here the same fall of prices aud catastrophe with But the Senator now asserts, in his explanation, which England was first overwhelmed. Here, that although there may have been distress during then, in this very speech of the Senator from Mascareer of the National Bank, yet never during its sachusetts, designed to be read by me for a differexistence had we heard of our dependence upon ent purpose, the position of the Senator from KenEnglish banks and currency, and the reaction pro-tucky is overthrown, and it is shown that, in 1824, deced here by their contractions and expan ions. during the climax of the power of the National The Senator is mistaken. This same reaction of Bank, the then existing catastrophe was distinctly British power opon our prices and our prosperity, attributed to the reaction upon our paper money was beard of and described in this very year, 1824. and prices, produce! by the curtailment of the BriHad I anticipated the assumption of this position, tish Bank, and the fall of prices first in that EmI could have encountered it by extracts from vari-pire. But as the Senator from Massachusetts is ous speeches; but it will be sufficient to quote from deservedly the highest authority with the Whig a speech delivered in Congress in April, 1824, by! party of the Union, because possessing the greatest |