to scourge the land. For the supplies even of the present quarter, your Treasury must obtain thirteen millions of dollars, or your contracts must all be violated. During the first quarter of the next year you can expect but little aid from taxes; yet your armies must be recruited and paid. Preparations of vast magnitude for the next Summer must be made; for then you must engage in a mortal struggle, upon the issue of which you have placed the existence of the country. The issuing of these notes will be your only resource. Loans, I repeat it, will be out of the question. You not only will have left the present stock a massive drug in the market, pressing to the earth the moneyed men of the country, but you will have added to its weight by masses of new stock in the form of Treasury notes. In the nature of things, therefore, you will be bound to issue all the notes in your power to put forth. Do you imagine that they can be circulated at par upon your credit alone? Those who believe so, have but little knowledge of the worthless state of public credit. They have not seen the contractors tremble, the merchants frown, the farmers scowl, and the speculators laugh, at the very name of public credit. Sir, such an expectation is utterly fallacious. H. of R. farmer must have at his elbow a Zerah Colbourn to carry on the ordinary transactions of society. To surmount these difficulties, however, the honorable gentleman proposes a resort to the tricks of the Treasury. This paper, and this alone, shall be received in taxes. Mr. Speaker, this expedient may be ingenious, but in my opinion, like the rest of the machine, it is wholly impracticable. Your Treasury notes never will be sufficiently diffused to furnish the people with a medium in which to pay the taxes. Besides, sir, such a plan, if successful, would drive back to its vaults the notes of every State bank, and render their charters nearly worthless. Hence, sir, in self-defence, to preserve their existence, you would force the State banks into a combination to resist and defeat a measure which would produce their ruin. They would all refuse your notes. The great body of influential citizens, interested in the preservation of the State banks, would be arrayed against you. Your notes might pay taxes, but good care would be taken that they should pay nothing else. In such a struggle your defeat would be certain. Distraction would be introduced into your medium; its circulation would be impeded, and an indefinite depreciation would leave you to lament the injustice of your attempt. ments; I would remind you of the assignats of France, at the mention of which. justice frowns and policy blushes-I would appeal to your own experience. Of all paper, Government bills are the most unfit for a circulating medium. I might read Mr. Speaker, never was such a circulating mefrom the pages of the great founder of your whole dium issued and sustained at par, under similar financial system, arguments conclusive, to show circumstances, by any Government. I would the wide difference between a paper medium, de-appeal to the experience of European Governpending upon the faith of Government alone, and that which is founded on the capital of a private bank. The former has no bounds to its issue, but the discretion which generally becomes another name for the exigencies of the Government. It is always suspected, always received with doubt and hesitation, and, therefore, always depreciates. While the latter, founded on solid capital, always protected, regulated, and restrained by the honor and integrity of the directors, fortified by the interest of the stockholders and the existence of the bank, all of which are jeopardized by an over issue, comes to the public with the strongest title to their confidence, and is generally received and circulated. The works of the lamented Hamil-rience. ton are now before me; I will not detain the House, but refer them to his argument upon this interesting subject. If these objections in the general are well founded, it does appear to me, that the peculiar qualities of the paper contemplated by this bill, will render it a mere burlesque on the very name of a circulating medium. Experience has proved that it is essential, perhaps a sine qua non, to a circulating medium, that it should bear its value on its face. It cannot be clogged with qualities, which render calculations of its worth a pre-requisite to its daily circulation. But these notes are to bear an interest of five and three-quarters per cent.; their value will vary with each passing day. Can a currency thus encumbered pass freely along, through the illiterate classes of the community? No, sir, it is fit only for a nation of mathematicians; and if you issue them, every It might be improper to point to the close of our Revolution, to describe the mere spectre of public credit which survived, and the consequent destruction of the Government paper which filled the country. But look at the few Treasury notes which are now abroad; they are receivable in taxes; they are shortly due at the Treasury; yet you may purchase them in the market, from five to twenty per cent. under their par value. Let gentlemen read their errors in their own expe But, Mr. Speaker, the honorable gentleman did not much rely on these expedients to sustain hissystem. The bank was his grand and final reliance; the bank is the stay and staff of his plan. This bank is to act as a kind of alchymical engine, by which worthless paper is to be turned into gold, the sickly credit of the nation restored to health, and the mighty operations of the Government and of the war sustained and regulated. And this wonderful engine is to work in this wise: The books of the bank are to be opened, and the flood of paper, as it rushes from the Treasury, is to flow rapidly, and regularly, and monthly, into the reservoir, just as the deep and placid current of a mighty river flows to the bosom of the ocean. Suppose, Mr. Speaker, the river should meet some unsurmountable obstruction cast across its channel, its smooth course should be interrupted, and its flood should be beaten back towards its source. It would rush from its bed, roll over the fields which before it had nourished, and leave the country a stagnant pool, charged with pestilence and death. So, sir, if in the vicissitudes to which all mortal projects are exposed, this flood of paper should be obstructed in its course, it would settle down upon the community, full | of the seeds of fiscal pestilence and ruin. NOVEMBER, 1814. tent, risking their hard-earned fortunes in speculations novel and uncertain. When I heard the honorable gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. CALHOUN) dilating upon the wide diffusion of these notes, whereby the farmers of the North and the South, and the East and the West, would be furnished with an opportunity to participate in this great national speculation, I could consider it in no other light than as a rhetorical flourish to attract favor to his project; I considered it as a mere "springe to catch woodcocks." And the House must have been amused to observe how suddenly the honorable delegate from Missouri (Mr. EASTON) was noosed. He actually prevailed on the House to open a subscription, somewhere in the forests of the West, near, as I am informed, the fur settlement on Columbia river. Mr. Speaker, I could not but be diverted at the amusing little contest upon this subject, between the honorable gentleman from South Carolina and his friend from Vermont (Mr. FISK.) The latter gentleman did not hesitate to declare that he saw the ruin of his party lurking in the provisions of this bill. "Why," said he, "the capitalists alone can buy the Treasury notes and form the bank. Those who belong to the Administration are exhausted. The Federalists will therefore get the bank, and with it dash out the brains of the Administration." And he threatened to take his hat, make his bow, and bid good night to the Administration, sooner than to stay here and be blown up by this gunpowder institution. My honorable friend from New York, (Mr. OAKLEY,) perceiving this danger, and its obvious consequences, thinks there is a remedy within our reach. By legislative acts, he would have the Government so restricted that they should issue this paper no faster than it should be able to pass into the bank, and then the danger would be averted. Does not my honorable friend perceive, that the invention of such a provision would render the whole project a felo de se? When you have adopted this system, and voluntarily abandoned all hopes of loans, you will have no resort for supplies but to this Treasury paper; in truth, when you enter on this plan there is no retreat. "You set your life upon a throw, and you must stand the hazard of the die." According to the exigencies of the Government you must continue to issue your paper, and, if the bank fails to receive it, the evils I have described are inevitable. If there is reasonable doubt upon the subject, you ought to pause long, and reflect well, before you bazard the venture. What is it you put at hazard? Not your bank alone, but all the character and credit that remains to you; all preparation for the deadly struggle which awaits you. If there is much hazard in the game, you are made to place your life upon the issue. Should The honorable gentleman from South Carolina you lose, all is lost; the dissolution of the Union-rose to quiet the apprehensions of his friend. He the subjugation of the States are consummated. seemed to agree that the capitalists attached to In solemn truth, Mr. Speaker, the chances are all the Administration might have been somewhat against you; not one doubt of your loss remains surfeited with the paper potions they had too in my mind. liberally swallowed; but he assured his friend May I ask, said Mr. G., how these bills are ever that one sure resource remained to the party.— to escape from the Treasury into circulation?" Have we not," he exclaimed, "the rich yeoThink you that capitalists will buy them of you at anything like their par value? Will you put them forth as a currency under par; thus stamping them with the image of death before they issue from the womb? Nothing of this is prac- And he seemed to conclude, that his friend ticable. No, sir, if they go forth at all, they must might safely let his hat hang on its nail, and conpass to your contractors, your commissaries, your tinue to sit and to vote, until something more soldiers, and your sailors-to any of your credit- substantial should "push him from his stool." ors who prefer your paper to your parol promise. The gentleman from Vermont, though evidently Hence, it is possible they may pass to others, and puzzled by this bold appeal, appeared to me not thus obtain a partial circulation among the mer-entirely satisfied. I saw a smile on his face, chants, farmers, and mechanics. manry of the country on our side? Are they not the pride and boast of our party? And will 'not our yeomanry aid our loans, and assist in the establishment of our bank ?" which seemed contemptuously to say: "Yes, yes, But, sir, are we deluded enough to expect that we have the rich yeomanry with us; and they these men will place them in the bank? All their have their cotton fields and their corn fields, but active capital is necessary for their ordinary pur-will they convert them into loans? They also suits; essential to put in motion and extract profit have their pigs and their poultry, but will they from their own fixed property. To establish place them in your bank ?" Sir, the plain practibanks, is as far removed from all their views and cal common sense of the gentleman from Verobjects as it is inimical to their pursuits and in-mont taught him, that all the talk about the wide terests. Sometimes, when a bank has been long established, and has gained reputation for prudent management, this class of men do invest small sums in its stocks, both for profit and security; but never do you find them, to any material ex diffusion of this Treasury paper, to afford opportunities to our farmers to subscribe to the bank, was the airy creation of inexperience and enthusiasm. Does the gentleman from South Carolina, in deed, expect any material aid in establishing his bank from this worthy class of our citizens? The experience of this war should correct his error. Your late loans were authorized to support this just and necessary war; to prosecute your holy crusade against the Canadas. Of course, every motive of patriotism would impel "our yeomanry" to step forth with all their means. Your Government called loudly for the aid of its friends Was its voice heard by "our yeomanry?" Let the gentleman step to the Treasury, and see how much of the late loan has been taken by the plain farmers of Kentucky, the proud planters of Carolina, the lords of the soil of Virginia? He will find a beggarly account of pitiful subscriptions. Even now, sir, when your Treasury contains not one dollar, when this honest and glorious war is about to expire, merely for want of nourishment, where are these patriotic supporters of Administration? You have loans unfilled-your Government in tones of deep anguish call for succor, and yet "our rich yeomanry," who are able to invest millions in bank stock, are nowhere to be found. They abandoned their leaders and their war in this their darkest and most perilous hour. Did I believe that these men were exclusively supporters of this war, and that they had the ability to furnish aid, I should view them as the most sordid of mankind. But believing directly the reverse, and not having a doubt that the surplus capital, which must create loans and bank stock, rests with them but in a very limited extent, they are subject to no reproach. It is their part, to perform their political duties with fidelity, and to wrestle morning and evening with their God, to deliver their country from its two most dreadful scourges, the war and the authors of the war. Mr. Speaker, the capitalists of the country must convert the Treasury paper into bank stock, or it will remain unconverted. By capitalists, I mean those enterprising men who have accumulated masses of active and surplus capital, for the purpose of venturing it in great and advantageous speculations. Have these men, at this time, the ability to perform the process? You have nothing to hope from New England. Her citizens have their money and their capital safe at home; and you will not find them idiots enough, in this tempestuous season, to venture it on the ocean, in any vessel that you can build and rig and navigate. From the capitalists south of the Hudson, and from them only, must you expect aid. It is a mistake to suppose the depressed war stock to be in few hands. The original contractors retain, comparatively, but trifling portions of the whole mass. It is widely diffused among these capitalists, and unless, by some act of yours, its market value is elevated, it will paralyze all their efforts to afford any aid to your project. The banks, too, are groaning under the weight of this depressed stock. They have received it in pledges and in payment. It lies useless in their vaults, and clogs even their operations. I have not a doubt of the fact, that from this cause, more H. of R. than any other, they have been forced to suspend their specie payments. And, I think, nothing is hazarded in saying, that they never will resume them, until this cause shall be removed. But, Mr. Speaker, if we grant the ability, shall we find the disposition? What are the inducements for any man to purchase your notes at par, and place them in the bank? Is there any profit to justify the speculation? Sir, if the friends of this bank are at all accurate in their descriptions of it, instead of inviting, it will deter any prudent man from venturing money in it. The gentleman from South Carolina thinks it will be at first a weak institution, capable of performing but little business; that it must slowly feel its way, discounting cautiously, and he hopes, by such a course, it may survive its infancy. My friend from New York (Mr. OAKLEY) says, it is strictly a six million bank, and to that capital must its business be limited. And my friend from New Hampshire (Mr. WEBSTER) has no doubt it will perish by the draining of its specie, if it should issue paper equal to one-half of its specie capital. If these gentlemen are near the truth, then it is indeed a poor bank-a very beggarly institution, well calculated to devour capital, but with a wretched capacity to return profit. To obtain dividends on six millions of capital, it is supposed that men of fortune will be so weak as to convert twenty-four millions of property into six per cent. stock, and lay it by in the vaults of the bank, safe to be sure, but almost wholly unproductive! Such fanciful hopes can never be realized. But my friend from New York has remarked, that in this respect the two plans are on a precise level. If there would be no adequate inducement for moneyed men to invest their property in this bank, neither would there be for the holders of the present stock to invest it in the bank recommended by the Secretary. My honorable friend has not treated this subject with his usual sagacity. The cases are entirely dissimilar. And so are the motives, which would excite to investments in the different banks. The present holders of the stocks are already committed. Their stock is now a drug in their hands. It threatens them with ruin. The motive they would have to comply with the terms of the bill, and obtain specie, would be, therefore, strong and irresistible-the elevation of the price of their stock, the rescue of themselves from ruin. In the present case there is no such motive. Here no risk is already incurred. The only motive is a profitable speculation-the only inducement, positive gain. It is apparent, that while on the Secretary's plan the present holders of stock would fly to the bank as a refuge from ruin, on the present plan, the nature of the institution might, and probably would, forbid any capitalist from approaching it. If, in peaceful and prosperous times, this bank might present a fair speculation, and obtain ample subscriptions; yet, can it be hoped, that prudent men would venture their fortunes in it, in these times of dismay and peril? Look around, H. OF R. Bank of the United States. NOVEMBER, 1814. The very period has now arrived so eloquently deprecated by my honorable friend from North Carolina (Mr. GASTON.) Your contractors are clamorous-give them "assignats." Your sailors demand their wages out with a new edition of Treasury notes. Your armies clamor for arrearages. Dare you refuse them? Remember the tragedy at Newburgh-it may be attempted in your day. There are Armstrongs still alive to excite rebellion, but no WASHINGTON remains to parry its fury and save the country. A new swarm of "assignats" will be the dreadful and the only remedy. sir. From abroad, invasion is menaced of every part of your extended coast. Our cities, the great depositories of our surplus wealth, have but feeble assurance of safety. The storms of war are beating on our country from every quarter of the heavens. What is our condition at home? The foul spirit of party sits like a bloated incubus upon the Cabinet, and turns all its counsels to rashness and folly. Like the fabled Gorgon, this foul fiend daily mounts this very Capitol, and scattering the snakes of discord among the people, he calls them, in tones of fury, to civil commotion and bloody violence. The Constitution has received deep, perhaps mortal wounds. War, in his iron chariot, is rolling through the land, crushing, with its heavy wheels, our civil institutions, those bulwarks of civil liberty. The Government totters from untimely decrepitude. And the very temple of our Union, toppled from its base, is ready to be dashed to the earth, and The widow and the orphan of him who in your to leave the country encumbered with its frag- battles has laid his bones amid the snows of the ments. This country resembles the strong man North, must sacrifice their little all for a lean subfilled with wine, his head full of delirious vis-sistence. Some of you witnessed, we all have ions, and mad projects of ambition and vengeance, revolving vast projects, and deciding on prompt and vigorous exertion; but his limbs are palsied, his nerves are withered, and he lies, supine on the earth, huge, disgusting, and impotent. To what fate we are destined is unknown to man. We have been borne along to our destruction almost with the rapidity of the lightning. And it is not for human foresight ever to conjecture whether the God of our fathers has finally forsaken us, and whether the end of our Republic is at hand. In such "crazy times," think you that men, who possess sane minds, will embark their fortunes in any vessel whose safety depends on such commanders, such pilots, and such a crew as you can furnish? Your paper will rapidly reach its lowest point of depression. And now it is that the remorseless speculator will begin to prowl for his prey. The war-worn soldier, as he halts slowly and painfully from Canada, must surrender the price of his blood for half its value. read and have wept, the fate of the ruined soldiers of the Revolution. The same picture will be now presented, only on a larger canvass, and with more tragical coloring. I appeal to those who belong to the dominant party. Have you forgotten the history of those days when the debt of our independence was funded? Your party then, with the present Chief Magistrate at its head, professed to be the soldier's friend and champion; and the country rung with your clamors for a discrimination of the debt. So strongly did you then profess to feel for the soldier, that you were ready to violate the most solemn contracts to save him from the loss of depreciated money. What is now your conduct? You are about to adopt a system which will bring the soldiers of your present armies to the same loss and the same condition. You are not contented even with this. In this bill, you consummate the whole transaction; you not only frame the engine by which the soldier may be defrauded, but you provide an asylum to which the agents who shall defraud him may fly with their spoils and set at defiance all human justice and power. You do not intend this cry But, Mr. Speaker, suppose I am mistaken in all this. If there are men able and willing to purchase the Treasury paper and transmute it to bank stock-the very process of transmutation will be destructive to the country. Such men, if they exist at all, exist for the most part in our cities, and are closely connected by the strong band of common interest. In these moneyed operations, their interests lead them to act united and in concert. What will be their conduct ining iniquity. this business? Finding your Treasury notes wholly unsupported, and beginning to descend, they will leave them to take their downward course. Nay, they will aid their descent, certain that they will remain at all times within the reach of their coin. The strong interests of these men will impel them to such a course, and they will surely pursue it. And thus the whole machinery becomes disordered by the very agents upon whom you rely to keep it in motion. Immediately, and of necessity, your paper will greatly depreciate. Will the Government, then, suffer me to repeat the question, Will the Government then stop its issues? It has no alternative-the gate must continue hoisted, and the stream must continue running. No, when the crisis shall arrive, when your paper shall sink to half its nominal value, when, like voracious sharks prowling the ocean, the speculators shall range through every village, seizing the miserable victims of their cupidity, then will you step boldly forth, and cheered by the approving voice of the people, which now would thunder indignation against the measure, you would consummate your goodly work, by that unpardonable political sin a tender law. This bill will lay the sure foundation for such a measure. 1 appeal to the friends who sit around me. Are you ready to support a system which will press on to this consummation of ruin, with a step "steady as time, certain as death?" The plan of the Secretary may be vicious. NOVEMBER, 1814. Bank of the United States. H. OF R. But if that be hurtful in detail, this is the very of Kentucky, Hubbard, Hungerford, Hulbert, Irving, essence of ruin in its principles. If that would Jackson of Rhode Island, Kent of New York, King of injure the country, this is the very box of Pan- Massachusetts, Law, Lewis, Macon, Markell, Miller, dora, from which will surely issue the most dread-Moseley, Pearson, Pickering, Pitkin, Pleasants, Potter, ful evils which ever scourged and cursed a people. Better that our Republic be struck at once from "the great firmament of nations," than that she should linger a few months of rayless existence, and then plunge into such an abyss of embarrassment and misery. John Reed, William Reed, Rhea of Tennessee, Rob- The requisite number having required the main question to be put, it was put on the engrossing the bill for a third reading; and was decided in the negative. For the motion 49, against it 104, as follows: Mr. Speaker, I may be mistaken in all these forebodings of evil. If the bill shall pass, and prove beneficial, my country will owe me no thanks for the boon. But if it shall produce the evils I have anticipated, here, in the face of the YEAS-Messrs. Alexander, Alston, Barnett, Bines, nation, I wash my hands of all the consequences. Bradley, Caldwell, Calhoun, Cannon, Chappell, Clark, When Mr. GROSVENOR concludedCondict, Crawford, Creighton, Crouch, Culpeper, CuthMr. JOHNSON, of Kentucky, assigning as a rea-bert, Duvall, Earle, Findley, Forney, Gaston, Gourdin, son therefor his anxiety to expedite the public business, and proceed to the adoption of those measures which the times imperiously demand, required the previous question. some The call was sanctioned by a vote of 73 to 71; but some misapprehension of the question having taken place, a second count took place, after little confusion, and there appeared to be 62 for the previous question, and 70 against it. So the call was not duly sanctioned. After a few remarks from Mr. MACON and others, as to the effect of striking out the first section of the bill-which some appeared to think would have the effect to destroy the bill Mr. HANSON, to save difficulty in that respect, withdrew his motion to strike out the first section of the bill. Mr. JOHNSON then renewed his demand of the previous question-which precludes all further amendment as well as debate-which demand was seconded by a vote of 62 to 59. The previous question was then put in the following form, viz: "Shall the main question be now put?" and decided by yeas and nays. For the previous question 75, against it 67, as follows: Griffin, Harris, Hasbrouck, Irving, Kent of Maryland, NAYS-Messrs. Anderson, Avery, Barbour, Bard, So the House decided that the bill should not be read a third time-in other words, that it should be rejected. YEAS-Messrs. Alston, Anderson, Avery, Barbour, Bard, Barnett, Bines, Brown, Caldwell, Cannon, Chappell, Clark, Comstock, Condict, Conard, Crawford, Creighton, Crouch, Cuthbert, Davis of Pennsylvania, Denoyelles, Desha, Earle, Eppes, Evans, Findley, Fisk Mr. FORSYTH, of Georgia, then rose, and said of Vermont, Forney, Franklin, Gholson, Goodwyn, he had voted in the majority against the bill; Gourdin, Griffin, Humphreys, Ingersoll, Ingham, Irwin, and was, therefore, at liberty to move a reconJohnson of Virginia, Johnson of Kentucky, Kennedy, sideration of the vote just taken. This motion Kent of Maryland, Kerr, Kershaw, Kilbourn, King of he did make with a view to retain the bill still North Carolina, Lefferts, Lowndes, Lyle, McCoy, McKee, McKim, McLean, Montgomery, Moore, Murfree, in possession of the House, in order to recommit Nelson, Newton, Parker, Pickens, Piper, Rea of Penn-it-that the House might not be deprived of an sylvania, Rich, Roane, Sage, Sevier, Seybert, Skinner, opportunity of passing a bank bill during the Smith of Pennsylvania, Smith of Virginia, Strong, present session. Tannehill, Udree, Ward of New Jersey, Williams, and Wilson of Pennsylvania. NAYS-Messrs. Alexander, Baylies of Massachusetts, Bayly, of Virginia, Bigelow, Bowen, Boyd, Bradley, Brigham, Burwell, Calhoun, Cilley, Clopton, Cox, Dana, Davenport, Davis of Massachusetts, Duvall, Ely, Farrow, Fisk of New York, Forsyth, Gaston, Grosvenor, Hale, Harris, Hasbrouck, Hawes, Hopkins Mr. MILLER, of New York, observed, that he was opposed to the reconsideration of the vote which the House had just given. Gentlemen who favored the establishment of a National Bank, had urged a reconsideration, with a view to ascertain if they could not meet on some middle ground, and reconcile their conflicting opinions. Those who were in favor of a bank, but differed |