citizen in another, the union itself must be unnatural; I must believe that he made them upon the informaall our ties, all our glories, all that is animating in the past, all that is bright and cheering in the future, must be unnatural. Happily, such is the admirable texture of our union, that the interests of all its parts are closely interwoven. If there are strong points of affinity between the south and the west, there are interests of not less, if not greater, strength and vigor, binding the west, and the north, and the east. tion of others, of whom I can only say, that they have deceived his credulity, and are entirely unworthy of all credit. I entered into no cabals; I held no secret conclaves; I enticed no man to violate pledges given or instructions received. The members from Ohio, and from the other western states, with whom I voted, were all of them as competent as I was to form an opinion on the pending election. The McArthurs and the Metcalfes, and the other gentlemen from the west, (some of whom have, if I have not, bravely "made an effort to repel an invading foe"), are as incapable of dishonor as any men breathing; as disinterested, as unambitious, as exclusively devoted to the best interests of their country. It was quite as likely that I should be influenced by them, as that I could controi their votes. Our object was not to impair, but to preserve from all danger, the purity of our republican institutions. And how I prostrated the maxim which maintains the supremacy of the people's will, I am entirely at a loss to comprehend. The illusions of the general's imagination deceive him. The people of the United States had never decided the election in his favor. If the people had willed his election, he would have been elected. It was because they had not willed his election, nor that of any other candidate, that the duty of making a choice devolved on the house of representatives. Before I close this address, it is my duty, which I proceed to perform with great regret, on account of the occasion which calls for it, to invite your attention to a letter addressed by general Jackson to Mr. Swartwout, on the 23d of February last. The names of both the general and myself had been before the American public, for its highest office. We had both been unsuccessful. The unfortunate have usually some sympathy for each other. For myself, I claim no merit for the cheerful acquiescence which I have given in a result by which I was excluded from the house. I have believed that the decision by the constituted authorities in favor of others, has been founded upon a conviction of the superiority of their pretensions. It has been my habit, when an election is once decided, to forget, as soon as possible, all the irritating circumstances which attended the preceding canvass. If one be successful, he should be content with his success. If he have lost it, railing will do no good. I never gave gen. Jackson, nor his friends, any reason to believe that I would, in any contingency, support him. He had, as I thought, no public claim, and, I will now add, no personal claims, if these ought to be ever considered, to my support. No one, therefore, ought to have been disappointed or chagrined that I did not vote for him. No more than I was neither surprised nor disappointed, that he did not, on a more recent occasion, feel it to be his duty to vote for me. After commenting upon a particular phrase used in my letter to judge Brook, a calm reconsideration of which will, I think, satisfy any person that it was not employed in an offensive sense, if, indeed, it have an offensive sense, the general, in his letter to Mr. Swartwout, proceeds to remark, "no one beheld me seeking, through art or manage ment, to entice any representative in congress from a conscientious responsibility to his own, or the wishes of his constituents. No midnight taper burnt by me; no secret conclaves were held, nor cabals entered into, to persuade any one to a violation of pledges given, or of instructions received. By me no plans were concerted to impair the pure principles of our republican institutions, nor to prostrate that fundamental maxim which maintains the supremacy of the people's will. On the contrary, having never, in any manner, before the people or congress, interfered, in the slightest degree, with the question, my conscience stands void of offence, and will go quietly with me, regardless of the insinuations of those who, through management, may seek an influence not sanctioned by integrity and merit." I am not aware that this defence of himself was rendered necessary by If the contents of the letter to Mr. Swartwout were any charges brought forward against the general. such as justly to excite surprise, there were other Certainly I never made any such charges against him. circumstances not calculated to diminish it. Of all I will not suppose that, in the passages cited, he in- the citizens of the United States, that gentleman is tended to impute to me the misconduct which he de- one of the last to whom it was necessary to address scribes; and yet, taking the whole context of his let any vindication of general Jackson. He had given ter together, and coupling it with Mr. Kremer's ad- abundant evidence of his entire devotion to the cause dress, it cannot be disguised that others may suppose of the general. He was here after the election, and he intended to refer to me. I am quite sure, that if was one of a committee who invited the general to a he did, he could not have formed those unfavorable public dinner, proposed to be given him in this place. opinions of me upon any personal observation of my My letter to judge Brooke was published in the paconduct made by himself; for a supposition that they pers of this city on the 12th of February. The genewere founded upon his own knowledge, would imply rai's note, declining the invitation of Mr. Swartwout that my lodgings and my person had been subjected and others, was published on the 14th in the Nationa! to a system of espionage, wholly incompatible with Journal. The probability, therefore, is, that he did the open, manly, and honorable conduct of a gallant not leave this city until after he had a full opportunisoldier. If he designed any insinuations against me, I ty to receive, in a personal interview with the gene The general remarks: "Mr. Clay has never yet risked himself for his country. He has never sacrificed his repose, nor made an effort to repel an invading foe; of course, his conscience assured him it was altogether wrong in any other man to lead his countrymen to battle and victory." The logic of this conelusion is not very striking. Gen. Jackson fights better than he reasons. When have I failed to concur in awarding appropriate honors to those who, on the sea or on the land, have sustained the glory of our arms, if I could not always approve of the acts of some of them? It is true, that it has been my misfortune never to have repelled an invading foe, nor to have led my countrymen to victory. If I had, I should have left to others to proclaim and appreciate the deed. The general's destiny and mine have led us in different directions. In the civil employments of my country, to which I have been confined, I regret that the little service which I have been able to render it, falls far short of my wishes. But, why this denunciation of those who have not repelled an invading foe, or led our armies to victory? At the very mo ment when he is inveighing against an objection to the election to the presidency, founded upon the exclusive military nature of his merits, does he not perceive that he is establishing its validity by proscribing every man who has not successfully fought the public enemy? And that, by such a general proscription, and the requirement of successful military service, as the only condition of civil perferment, the inevitable effect would be the ultimate establishment of a military government. ral, any verbal observations upon it which he might productions, common to a temperate climate, to a prohave thought proper to make. The letter to Mr.portionate amount. This canal will unite, by a navigaSwartwout bears date the 23d of February. If re-ble communication, the waters of the Ohio, Missisceived by him in New York, it must have reached sippi, Missouri, and their tributaries, with the great him, in the ordinary course of the mail, on the 25th lakes: The former affording a steam boat navigation or 26th. Whether intended or not as a "private com- of 5000 miles, now navigated by 80 steam boats, communication," and not for the "public eye," as alleg-municating with the Gulf of Mexico and the West Ined by him, there is much probability in believing that its publication, in New York, on the 4th of March, was then made, like Mr. Kremer's address, with the view to its arrival in this city in time to affect my nomination to the senate. In point of fact, it reached here the day before the senate acted on that nomina-considered as the last grand link in a chain of intertion. dies: and the latter presenting an uninterrupted sloop Fellow-citizens, I am sensible that, generally, a public officer had better abstain from any vindication of his conduct, and leave it to the candor and justice of his countrymen, under all its attending circumstances. Such has been the course which I have heretofore prescribed to myself. This is the first, as I hope it may be the last, occasion of my thus appearing before you. The separation which has just taken place between us, and the venom, if not the vigor, of the late onsets upon my public conduct, will, I hope, be al-Muskingum and its branches, abounding in coal of an lowed, in this instance, to form an adequate apology. excellent quality, and which may be procured with It has been upwards of twenty years since I first en- the greatest ease. This mineral has nowhere been tered the public service. Nearly three fourths of that found in the extensive country bordering on the time, with some intermissions, I have represented the lake, in the western part of the rich and populous same district in congress, with but little variation in state of New York, nor in the extensive and fertile its from. During that long period, you have beheld valley of the Scioto. Almost every acre, in these reour country passing through scenes of peace and war, gions, destitute of coal, is susceptible of cultivation; of prosperity and adversity, and of party divisions, lo- and fuel, at no distant day, will become scarce and cal and general, often greatly exasperated against valuable. Inexhaustible quarries of gypsum are each other. I have been an actor in most of those found on the bays and islands of lakes Erie and Huscenes. Throughout the whole of them you have ron, and in the western part of New York. This, clung to me with an affectionate confidence which has on the contrary, has never been found in the inte never been surpassed. I have found in your attach-rior of the state of Ohio. An extensive, profitable ment, in every embarrassment in my public career, the greatest consolation, and the most encouraging sup port. I should regard the loss of it as one of the most afflicting public misfortunes which could befal me. That I have often misconceived your true interests is highly probable. That I have ever sacrificed them to the object of personal aggrandizement I utterly deny. And, for the purity of my motives, however in other respects I may be unworthy to approach the Throne of Grace and Mercy, I appeal to the justice of my God, with all the confidence which can flow from a consciousness of perfect rectitude. Your obedient servant, H. CLAY. Washington, 26th March 1825. The Ohio Canal. FROM THE COLUMBUS (OHIO) GAZETTE. Summary view of the proposed canals in Ohio; the act authorizing their construction; the situation and resources of the state; and its ability to accomplish the work. and highly advantageous commerce, in these articles, will unquestionably be carried on through the Ohio canal, in a few years after its completion. The Miami canal from Cincinnati to Dayton, which is about 67 miles in length, is located through a country not surpassed in fertility by any on the globe, and will become the channel of an extensive trade, which, with the hydraulic power created by its construction, cannot fail to make it profitable to the state, as well as highly advantageous to the country through which it passes. These canals are estimated to cost about 3,000,000 dollars. The estimates have been made with the greatest care, from accurate surveys, by engineers who have had long experience in the actual construction of the grand canal of New York, and the estimates may be relied on as correct. The state, by a solemn legislative act, has undertaken to make these canals; and no doubt can be en tertained of her ability to do so. This great work is to be carried on by borrowing the money necessary for its accomplishment. The loans are authorized The Ohio canal, as located and established by the by the legislature-commissioners are appointed with general assembly, is about three hundred miles in full power to negotiate these loans; manage the fund length, extending from the Ohio river, along the great appropriated for the payment of the interest and the Scioto valley, northwardly, until it approaches within final redemption of the principal, and to make all neabout ten miles of Columbus, the seat of the state go-cessary arrangements appertaining thereto. vernment, with which it is to be connected by a na- To provide for the punctual payment of the intevigable feeder; then, leaving the Scioto valley, it rest on the loans to be obtained, there are pledged passes in a north eastwardly direction, across the and appropriated-all the profits of the canals, and country to the Muskingum river; thence, up that ri- all grants and donations which may be made in aid ver, and along the valley of one of its branches, cros- of the object--also 40,000 dollars out of the surplus sing the summit between its head waters, and those moneys now remaining in the state treasury—30,000 which fall into the lake, and continuing a northwardly dollars out of the revenues of the present year-a tax direction down the valley of one of the latter streams is levied on all the property in the state, taxable for to lake Erie. This canal will pass through the heart of state purposes, consisting chiefly of real property, the state, and through a country of uncommon fertility; which, from year to year, shall be sufficient, together capable, in its present state of partial settlement and with the income of the canals actually collected and cultivation, of producing, for exportation, more than paid over for the year previous, to pay the interest two millions of bushels of wheat, annually, and other Idus on loaus, for any and every year-and also to produce a surplus fund for the year 1828 of 10,000 dollars, for the year 1829 of 20,000 dollars, for the year 1830 of 30,000 dollars, for the year 1831 of 40,000 dollars, the same sum of 40,000 dollars, for each succeeding, year until three years after the completion of the canals: and the sum of 25,000 dollars for each succeeding year, until the income of the canals will produce said sum of 25,000 dollars, or more, per annum, over and above the amount of interest payable on loans. These surplus sums, together with all the income of the cahals, more or less, after paying the interest on loans, and all donations made in aid of the work, are to form a surplus fund for the redemption of the principal borrowed. The auditor of state, the superintending officers of the treasury, is to determine the per centum necessary to be levied on the grand list of taxable property of the state, in order to raise the amount required, from year to year, as provided by law, for canal purposes, in addition to the amount of revenue required for the ordinary expenses of the state government. The revenue, thus raised by the canal fund, is to be kept separate and apart from all other moneys in the treasury, and is inviolably pledged for that purpose alone. The faith of the state is also pledged not to reduce or alter the tax now levied, so as to diminish the security given for the punctual payment of the interest and principal to be borrowed; and that the stock, created in obtaining the loans, shall never be taxed, or its value in any way impaired by any legis lative act. The greatest amount which it will be necessary to raise, by taxation, in one year, in order to meet the interest due on loans, whilst the work is in a state of progression, will probably not exceed $130,000. The income of the canals, when any considerable part shall be completed, will aid considerably in the payment of interest due on loans obtained for their con struction. Of the ability of the state to raise the revenue necessary to meet the interest on loans, without oppressing the people by taxes, no doubt can be entertained by any one acquainted with its situation, history and resources. The state contains an area of upwards of 40,000 square miles, or 25,600,000 acres, most of it possessing an excellent soil, and capable of sustaining as dense a population as any part of America of equal extent. There is scarcely a square mile in the state which will not admit of settlement, and afford a good farm. Not one sixth of the land in the state is now reduced to cultivation, yet it sustains a population of 750,000 inhabitants, which number is rapidly increasing, and affords a vast quantity of surplus productions for exportation. A state tax, on land alone, has been levied and collected in one year of upwards of 300,000 dollars, at a time, too, when the state did not contain more than one half of its present population. But it will probably not be necessary to raise a revenue from taxation, in any one year, over 200,000 dollars to pay the interest on canal loans, and to meet the ordinary expenses of the state government. The state is free from debt. It has a surplus of 60,000 dollars now remaining in the treasury, and its currency is sound. The bill, which provides for making the canals, was passed with an uncommon degree of unanimity in both branches of the legislature; and, although a few disappointed individuals may be displeased, and may still attempt to create dissatisfaction, an immense majority of the people are decidedly friendly to the policy. Under these circumstances, no doubt can be reasonably entertained of the security of the stock to be created, nor of the success of the work. CHRONICLE. New York. Gen. Talmadge, (lieut. governor), has been nominated by the senate of this state, (18 to 10), as a senator of the United States. The assembly, which had previously nominated Mr. Spencer, had not acted thereon at our last advices from Albany. Ballimore. Mrs. Ellen Moale died in this city a few days ago. She was the first white child born within the district which now contains 70,000 souls! Longevity. It is a remarkable fact, that there have died in the town of Little Compton, R. I, since the 1st of Jan. 1825, five men and one woman, whose united ages amounted to 566 years-the eldest was upwards of 100 years! the youngest 81 years. Whales, of a very large size, and in considerable numbers, have lately appeared off the capes of Delaware. now building at Quebec, is 5000 tons, or about a third Great ship. The admeasurement of the large ship more than the Columbus. It is to be launched in May next. nounces an aeronautic scheme, which sinks into inA grand balloon! The Courier de la Meuse ansignificance all former attempts. It is planned by a physician named Robertson; who intends, by means of it, to visit all parts of the globe. This wonderful machine, the Columbus of balloons, is to be called the Minerva, and will be 150 feet in diameter, and capable of raising 72,954 kilograms, or 149,037 French pounds. It will carry sixty persons, provisions for five or six months, furniture of all kinds, and scientific instruments. It will consist of a balloon, holding 1,767,150 cubic feet of hydrogen gas, and the vessel altogether will weigh 80,537 pounds. This stupendous aerial edifice is only retarded for want of cash! the year 1792, public crier of the court in WiltLaw anecdote. The petition of Timothy Oates, in shire, represented to the judges: "That your petitioner is this day 84 years of age, and was a crier in this court before either of your honors were born. That, small as his perquisites are, his wants are still smaller. He, alas! can cry no longer, but he may possibly live a little longer; and, during that small period, he implores to cry by proxy. His son, Jonathan, has a sonorous echoing voice, capable of rousing a sleeping juror or witness, to the remotest nook of the court-house; your petitioner begs that Jonathan may be accepted as his substitute; so that, of your petitioner, it may be said, when he is dead and gone, that, although he cried almost all the days of his life, yet he never shed a tear." The bench granted nem. con. Appointments by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the senate. Augustus B. Woodward, as judge of the United States for that part of the territory of Florida situated between the Apalachicola and Suwannee rivers, in place of William W. Blair, deceased. Albert J. Clagget, of Maryland, to be district attorney for West Florida, in the place of William F. Steel, removed. of the road from Canton to Zanesville, in the state Caspar W. Weaver, of Maryland, as superintendant of Ohio, under a late law of congress, entitled "An act for the continuation of the Cumberland road." revenue, for the port of Natchez, Mississippi, in the before PRINTED BY WILLIAM OGDEN NILES, AT THE FRANKLIN PRESS, WATER-STREET, EAST OF SOUTH-STREET. THIRD SERIES. No. 6-VOL. IV.] BALTIMORE, APRIL 9, 1825. THE PAST-THE PRESENT-FOR THE FUTURE. [VOL. XXVIII. WHOLE NO. 708 EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY H. NILES, AT $5 PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. bably lost as much as she has gained by migrations since the fatal year 1818, when the forty-three "independent banks" were littered; though her longestcultivated fields have not yet lost any portion of their original productiveness; and her population is still very sparse. MONEY-MANUFACTORIES AND RELIEF LAWS. I shall always have reason to congratulate myself on the adventurous stand that was taken in the REGISTER in 1818, against banks and banking, and other legislative acts for the manufacture of money, as well as those for the "relief" of the people, which naturally followed the original wrong; and I must also think The mania which commonly seized the people of that there was some little merit in opposing the great the United States soon after the peace with Great monied aristocracy that was growing up at that time, Britain in 1815, more severely raged in some of the and which threatened the destruction of all who western parts of our country than in any otherwould not send in their "adhesion" to it. The peo- and the people of Kentucky and Ohio seemed most ple, however, sustained me, and I cared but little deeply inoculated with it-except, perhaps, those what dishonest banks and dishonest bank-managers of a considerable portion of Pennsylvania: but, in could do. Most of these have passed away to their the latter, it was considerably checked by the haoriginal insignificance, but they dragged many worthy persons along with them; and, on account of the last, it was with general regret that I witnessed a fulfilment of all the predictions that had been made, as to the dreadful explosion and amount of suffering that would follow the mad doings of those days. But it is pleasant, indeed, to observe that the people of most of the states-perhaps, in every one but Kentucky, have nearly or altogether recovered from the disorder that afflicted them; and Kentucky might, also, have been healed, if a policy had not been pursued similar to that of pouring fresh potions of ardent spirits down the throat of a drunken man, for the purpose of making him sober, and of enabling him to stand erect on his feet! And even now this policy prevails. The popular voice is, (or lately was), in favor of it; and the ad captandum cry of "relief," drowns the voice of truth and scorns the lessons of experience. Political quackery is the order of the day. "But the end is not yet." Much as the people of Kentucky have suffered, they must suffer much more. As I repeatedly warned them of the condition which they were running into, that they might avoid it, perhaps some will now be more willing to "listen to reason" than they were, and may profit by reflecting on the consequences of the course which they are pursuing, and make the wonderful discovery-that the establishment of banks does not create value, or relief laws lead to economy and the rightful uses of credit! That, let speculators say what they please, there is no other way to become wealthy than through the means which well-encouraged and profitable labor affords-and no other way for the payment of debts, than economical applications of the means thus furnished. Individuals may not come within the full scope of these remarks, but they are unquestionably just with respect to every community. A grave-digger may get rich by a pestilence; and public misfortunes are not always disadvantageous to every private person. bitual caution of a "pains-taking" people. Thousands of persons forsook their farms and their workshops to become merchants. Whoever could raise a few hundred dollars in cash, hastened to expend it in the eastern cities, as well as to exhaust all the credit that he could obtain, in ill-advised purchases of foreign goods. These were hurried into the interior with as much promptitude as if every day's delay on the road was the loss of a little fortune-and so the cost of transportation was doubled, to be added to the originally imprudent expenditure. As the goods were bought on credit, they could be sold on creditand who would wear an old coat when he might so easily obtain a new one at "the store?" he could get credit, and pay "when convenient." The hum of the spinning wheel was banished from the evening's fire-side, and the sound of the shuttle no longer disturbed speculative minds. There was a plenty of every thing, because there was a plenty of credit! The needless debts thus created amounted to millions!-but "pay-day" came at last. The city merchants pressed the country dealers, and they pressed their customers every one pulled and hauled, and, "get what you can"-"save himself who may," was bellowed through the land. In this state of things, it was found out that the whole difficulty was caused by the want of money! A "circulating medium" was required. Banks must be established-and there was nothing wanting for them but acts of incorporation and paper mills! The people called for banks, and banks were made; they loaned money freely, and, for "a little season," the oppressed, having, by new credits, paid off some part of their old debts, rejoiced at the relief" afforded. A fig for the old fashioned way of doing business, said they-there is nothing like credit. But this did not last long. The bills of most of the new-made banks would not "pass"-it was discovered that they were paper-mere paper; and then there was the very "mischief to pay." Brokers and shavers jumped up like mushroons, and they It is very far from my intention to interfere with gave "relief," out of sheer kindness to a suffering the local politics of Kentucky, or any other state. I people! They began at 10 per cent. discount and do not understand them, and have not taken any trou- ended at 95!-shaving away the greater portion of ble that I might, ever since the wild barking and the little means that were left for the honest payment "relief" laws were passed. But some general obser- of debts. The banks, by this time, had obtained vations on the present state of things in this common- judgments-the sheriffs were as busy as "Old Nick in wealth, with a brief notice of the various proceed- a gale of wind," and a general sweep of ruin was ings which brought it about, may be useful-if not to threatened in several of the states. In most of them, cause a return to good principles in Kentucky, at a majority of the people were now convinced of the least, as holding a beacon to prevent the people of folly of their conduct, and they said let it come—we will other states from falling into the slough of contend-meet it as well we can. This was a noble stand-and ing interests and depreciated credit, which has, for the consequence is, that, wherever it was taken, a several years past, so much vexed the citizens of this highly favored section of our country, and materially influenced capital and labor to seek safety and success in other parts of the union. Kentucky has proVOL. XXVIII.-6. trace of the ravages of the storm of speculation is hardly to be found-or, if found, it is rapidly disappearing. Pennsylvania, Ohio, &c. may be said to have recovered, because they rejected additional po tions of the madening quality to heal existing mad-late the greatest seat of paper-money manufactories ness-but in Kentucky the majority appears to have in the west, is now without any of them-and yet, been of the debtor class, and replevin and relief laws perhaps, the most growing and prosperous city in the "of all sorts and sizes," were to do what the "inde- west. But Kentucky, so abundant in personal coupendent banks" had failed to accomplish! These rage and generous feeling, wanted that moral couwere turned and twisted into every shape to meet rage and plain sense of right which has distinguished different contingencies; and the obligation of con- and redeemed her flourishing neighbor. tracts was put to scorn. But the judiciary interfered, and the judiciary must be destroyed; and, what could not be effected by impeachment, was to be brought about by a simple law. The old court of appeals was annihilated by the legislature, and a new court organized-and then the "relief" party thought themselves safe-yet now there are two courts of appeal, each pretending to the same jurisdiction, so ihat, in fact, there is no present court at all: for which is the true court will have to be decided at some future period, in some way and manner that I know 1 ot of. By the way, I forgot to mention in its proper place, that after the "independent banks" had tumbled down, and the replevin and relief laws would not pay off the people's debts! the legislature made a mammoth bank of the commonwealth, the bills of which, though a "legal tender," are passed in the very bank itself, at the rate of 50 cents in the dollar of their nominal value, in exchange for specie, or the bills of speciepaying banks!!! To enter upon a general argument about relief laws and banks, would occupy much more room than at present can be spared for an examination of them; and I shall simply remark—that nothing but extreme necessity, such as foreign invasion or domestic commotion, ought to sanction any measure that interferes with the obligation of contracts-that interposes new difficulties in the way of a creditor pursuing his right,* or that grants new advantages to the debtor that he may avoid the accomplishment of his promises: and that banks are every where a curse, when resorted to by an agricultural people, for ordinary borrowings of money. As to the former, I can give personal testimony, from long and mournful experience, pro and con, that there is much more to be feared from fraudulent debtors than hard-hearted creditors-and for the best of all reasons, that the latter are more interested in sustaining than in oppressing those who owe them: and in respect to the latter, the farmer who goes into bank, except on some special emergency, hardly ever gets out of it, unless by the sale of his Who are the parties to the relief or anti-relief mea-property. The time lost in attending to his notes, sures and paper banking in Kentucky, I know not. together with the interest paid on them, eats him up: I am really ignorant which of the parties has the and if not so, makes him a dependent being, though, present ascendeucy, or what either design to do. The by abstaining, he Light have been an independent gentlemen from that state with whom I have had the one-caring no more about "discount-day" than for honor to converse, have not expressed their feelings the anniversary of Nebuchadnezzar's birth. to me as to the local excitements that prevail therein;} "Blessed is he who bringeth consolation!" If what and hence I cannot be influenced by other than broad is told to me of the state of the public mind in Kenand general views of the subject at large. I learn, how-tucky is true, there is a greater shew of feeling in that ever, that there are great and furious contentions, and commonwealth than has caused the revolution of an the public newspapers inform us of acts and counter empire. Indeed, it would seem that so much exciteacts without number, to sustain or destroy the existing ment could not exist in any other than a free state, system. My best wishes are with the latter-for, in surrounded by other equally independent but less agimy opinion, an act too violent to cure the state of its tated communities. Perhaps, there is nothing better diseases and restore the people to peace, can hardly calculated to shew the advantages which we derive be committed!-save a violation of the public faith, from the confederation than the case now presented. pledged as to the bills of credit" issued by the bank A state may be shaken to its centre by conflicting opiof the commonwealth. These bills, it is true, may be nions and interests, without at all affecting the genewithdrawn in a few years; but the longer they are ral peace! It is always pleasant to find out fresh circulated at a depreciated value, the greater will be the amount of the evil caused by the establish-ries-one steam paper mill-two breweries-two ment of that institution. Look at Ohio-she was copperas manufactories-one air foundry, in which as much vexed with a disgraced currency as Ken-are cast all kinds of hollow ware-one steam engine tucky now is: when her banks "blew up," the peo- manufactory-one cotton and woollen machinery ple, as if by common consent, refused to circulate manufactory-two wool carding machines for countheir paper-and the consequence has been, that the try work, one of which is propelled by steam. These currency of Ohio is as sound as that of any other employ a large number of persons, and the food and state; and industry and economy will soon make it materials consumed by them give life and spirit and as "plenty" therein as it is elsewhere. Cincinnati, "plenty" of money, because it circulates freely, to the whole district. Productive industry may be aided by banks-but banks, without the support of productive industry, will ever "make to themselves wings and fly away." They do no more than handle and turn money-they make none. *The manufactories of Steubenville, especially the celebrated establishment of Messrs. B. Wells and company, who send to the Atlantic states many thousand dollars' worth of superior supertine cloths every year and a large amount in other woollen goods, more ellectually relieve the neighborhood, than it would be relieved if all the [paper] banks in the world were located in the district. It was these creations of value that enabled the banks at that place to maintain their credit during the wreck of such institutions in the western country; and it is proudly mentioned in the "Herald," that it was the "only town between Lancaster in Pennsylvania, and the Mississippi, which could boast of two banks, sustained altogether by private capital and credit." Besides the great woollen manufactory above alluded to, which is called the *I mean as to past transactions. The laws between "pride of the west," there are, in Steubenville and its debtor and creditor might be much amended; and, immediate neighborhood, as we learn by the "Herald," possibly, if the whole of them were done away, after two steam flour mills-two steam.cotion manufacto-due warning, society would be the better for it. What is said in general of Steubenville may be observed of Pittsburg-which, perhaps, is the greatest manufacturing town in the United States, though it suffered dreadfully a few years ago, when a general bankruptcy seemingly threatened the nation, on account of the enormous influx of British goods, imported for the express purpose of breaking down our infant establishments. But Pittsburg is rapidly recovering her former prosperity, and, though individuals have been ruined, others are doing well and the society is flourishing. |