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About News & planters' gazette. (Washington, Wilkes County [sic], Ga.) 1840-1844 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1842)
Mr. James Graham’s Letter. TO TIIE FREEMEN OF THE 12th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA. Fcllow-Citisens :—1 am in for moil some persons aro onfoavoring to excite public prejudice, and mute political capita/ out of the appropriations which Congress made to defray the Amoral expenses of President Harrison, and to pay., the balance of one year's salary to his aged and addicted wi dow. To prevent misapprehension and misre presentation l will briefly submit the facts and reasons which induced me to vote for those appropriations. The history of Con gressional legislation abounds with similar instances, approved and voted for by all parlies, from the foundation of the Govern ment down to the present session. I will mention a few prominent precedents, taken from the journals'ofCongress —and now for the law and the testimony. Gen. Washington was President of the United States from the 4th day of March, 1789, until the 4th day of March, 1797 — eight years. lie died in December, 1799 —nearly throe years after lvis Presidential term expired, and when lie was a private citizen—and yet, on the 3d day of May, 1800, Congress passed a law appropriating three thousand tieo huiufrcd dollars to defray the expenses incurred in doing honor to the memory of Gen. Washington. (See the 3d volume of the laws of the United States, page 397.) Congress likewise authorized, by joint resolutions, that a marble monument should be erected by the United States, in the Cap itol, to the memory of Gen. Washington, and a copy of those resolutions were direc ted to be transmitted to Mrs. Washington, entreating her to assent to the interment of the remains of Gen. Washington under that monument. (See the same volume, page 401.) George Clinton, the Vice President of the United States, who served during the last of Mr. Jefferson’s and the first of Mr. Mad ison’s administrations, died at Washington in the year 1912, and he was buried at the public expense. El bridge Gerry, another Vice President of the United States, died at Washington in the year 1814, while riding in a carriage from his lodgings to the Capitol ; and ho too was buried at the public expense, and a monument was also erected over his grave by a special appropriation of Con gress. In the year 1812, the city of Caraccas, in South America, was nearly destroyed and annihilated by an earthquake ; and, on the motion of Nathaniel Macon, who was remarkable for strict economy and strict construction, a resolution passed Congress, by a unanimous vole, which caused an ap propriation of fifty thousand dollars of the public money to relieve the distresses and sufferings of hundreds and thousands of hu man beings in that distant and devoted city, who were houseless and homeless:nd starv ing for daily bread. Well, if Congress had power to give and appropriate/i/iy thou sand dollars of the public money to relieve suffering humanity among distant strangers in a foreign country, I presume it was right and proper, at least, to provide one year’s allowance for an aged and distressed wid ow in our own country, who was the wife of a good and true old soldier. From the first establishment of the Seat of Government in this city down to the pre sent time, whenever a member of Congress dies here during the session, he is, at the public expense, buried in the Congression al cemetry, or burying ground, and a mon ument is erected over his grave to mark the spot where the remains of the deceased re pose, and to indicate to near relatives and pilgrim strangers the tombs of those who di ed in the service of their country, far dis tant from friends and home. The death and funeral of each member of Congress in this city costs the Government about nine! hundred dollars. Living is dear in Wash ington, but dying is much dearer. Not only Presidents and members, but the offi cers of Congress, have been buried at the public expense, when they died in the pub lic service. I will state two instances which appear upon the public journals, and are fresh in my own recollection. I allude to the cases of Overton Carr, Doorkeeper of the House, and Stephen Ilaight, Sergeant at Arms of the Senate. They were politi cal friends of President Van Buren, and died during his administration, when lie had a majority in both branches of Congress. The salary of each of these officers was fif teen hundred dollars per annum, to be es timated from the first Monday in December of every year. Overton Carr died in March, 1838, before the fourth month of his duties had” been performed, and yet Con gress directed, not only that lie should be buried at the public expense, but that bis widow should be paid the balance of his salary up to the end of the session, just as though he had lived to perform his year’s work for the public. /The case of Mr. Carr is a strong one, but the case of Mr. Haight is much stronger, to illustrate and sustain the appropriations now the subject of investigation. Stephen Haight, a citizen of Vermpnt, was tiie Sergeant at Arms of! the Senate ; his annual salary was fifteen I hundred dollars ; his time of service began ! on the first Monday in December, 1640, he died oil the 13th day of January, 1841, a bout one month and thirteen days after his public labors commenced, and ten months and a half before his year’s work had been finished, and before his full salary had be come due. Now, what did the Van Buren Senate of the United States say and do in relation to theirdeoeasedSergeant at Arms? I will give their own words from their own journal: “Senate of the United States, January 13, 1841. “Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate be directed tdpay, as a part of the contingent expenses of the Senate, the sum i of five hundred dollars to the order of the widow of Stephen Haight, deceased, late i Sergeant at Arms of the £fcnufe, to defray the expenses of placing his body in a prop er manner, and in a secure coffin, carefully protected, in the public vault in the Con gressional burying ground at Washington, und the expenses of the transportation of the body to his friends in Vermont, and its bu rial there ; and that the Secretary ho, and he is hereby, further directed to pay to the said widow the salary of the. deceased for the residue of the term for which he mat elected.'’ Amount paid under the above resolution to Anali Haight, widow of S Haight : For funeral expenses - - SSOO Dulance of salary - - • 1,375 Total $1,875 Now, fellow-citizens, you perceive the two oases just stated both occurred under i the administration of President Van, Burcn, and are exactly the same in principle as tiiat of the late President Harrison. They j all died before their term of service expir ! ed, and before their respective salaries be- I came due, and yet they were buried at the 1 public expense, and the widow of each of those officers was paid tha( balance of the salary which her husband would have re ceived if Providence had spared his life to the end of his official year. It appears to me that the long services and high public station of President Harrison should, at least, entitle him and his widow to the same rule of justice that has been awarded by his enemies to a doorkeeper under the admin istration of President Van Boren. It is a bad rule that won’t work both ways. This is no new principle. Precedents arc nu merous in the history of the Republic. During the last war, Oliver Hazard Per ry, a captain in the navy, won a most splen did victory for his country, and captured the entire British fleet on Lake Erie. Ve ry soon after that naval victory he joined the army under Gen. Harrison, and acted as one of his aids at the glorious battle of the Thames. Perry died in 1819, and Con gress granted to his widow an annuity du ring her natural life, and also to each of his four children until they severally came of age ; making about one thousand dollars a year to the family. Mrs. Perry is still living, and I hope may long continue to en joy the bounty which a grateful country conferred for the noble services rendered by her gallant husband. Perry and Har rison were fellow-soldiers and brother-he roes. One conquered upon the water, and the other upon land. Now, I think, if it was right to grant relief to Mrs. Perrv for life, it could not have been wrong to give Mrs. Harrison one year’s allowance. In the year 1928, Jacob Brown, the com- ; manding general of the army of the United ‘ States, whose salary was about six thous and dollars per annum, died soon after his yearly service began, and long before the end of tite year when his whole salary would have been due. Congress appropri ated to the widow of Gen. Brotrn the bal ance of the salary which would have been due her husband at the end of tiiat year.— Tiie acts for the relief of Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Harrison are nrecisely tiie same in principle. My distinguished and lament ed predecessor, the Hon. Samuel P. Car son, Gov. McDuffie, Gov. Hamilton, and many of the most prominent politicians, of that day voted for the appropriation to re lieve Mrs. Brown. The same just princi ple and patriotic policy has been practised, i not only among the high officers of the re public, but among the ftitbful soldiers.— When a soldier dies in the public service, | or is killed battling for his country, he too jis buried at the public expense. But a grateful country does not stop there. . The Government annually makes an appropria ! tion to pay pensions to our old officers and faithful soldiers as long as they live ; and, after they are dead and gone, then many of their widows receive pensions in consid eration of the public services rendered to the country by their gallant husbands. Now, with such lights and such exam-j pies before the nation, let me ask what \ manner of man was President Harrison, that we may determine what public respect should be paid to his memory and extended to his family. Har rison had served his country in almost eve ry capacity, from an ensign to a major gen- j oral, and from a delegate to a President.— j His long and useful life had been'chiefly devoted to his country, and not to the ac- ; quisitiori of wealth. He owned a good tract j of land, and very little other property. He j once had a large family, though death had reduced the number of his children, and greatly increased and multiplied his cares and troubles by throwing on his hands and protection the widowed wives and infant or phans of his own children. There were three widows and nine or ten grandchildren, all dependant on him for support and edu cation. One of those widows was the daughter ofthe gallant Gen. Pike, who was killed in battle on the northern frontier du ring the last war with the British. Harri son had adopted into his family a poor youth, Neville, the grandson of Gen. Daniel Morgan, the hero of the battle of the Cow pens. When William HenVy Harrison, a private citizen, and farmer of Ohio, with very limited means, was laboring to sup port and educate this very interesting little (lock of fatherless and fortuneless children, he was called and elected, by an over whelming majority of the people of the Uni ! ted States, to preside over this great repub lic. He was-welcomed and installed into his high office. The confident hopes and sanguine anticipations of the future were directed towards the patriot President fresh from the people. But the uncertainty of life, like an April day, at one hour shows forth all the beauty of the sun, and by and by a cloud takes all away, teaching us mortals “wbat shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.” On the 4th day of April, 1841, President Harrison died. His sun then set to rise no more forever. The death of such a man, at sueh a time, in such an eminent station, was a national calami ty. The question still recurs, what was to ; be done with the dead body ofGeh. Harri- i son ; what for his disconsolate widow; and : what for the descendants of Harrison, Pike, t and Morgan ? i Congress not being in session when Pres- s ident Harrison died, his Cabinet issued the following order : Washington, April 4, 1841. “The Marshal ofthe District of Colum bia will superintend the funeral ceremonies oftliedate President of the United States, und will proceed to make all the necessary arrangements- Whatever expenses shall be necessarily incurred will be paid.” The Marshal (Gen. Hunter) is a decided friend of President Van Buren, and u very honorable man. He made all the neees. sary arrangements, and caused whatever expense was incurred in the funeral cere monies of President Harrison to be paid. All that Congress did in this matter was to appropriate three thousand and eighty.eight dollars and uirjects. to pay the items in the account sanctioned and presented by Gen. Hunter. That sum appears large, but it is near two hundred dollars less, than Con gress appropriated in May, 1800, to pay fu neral honors to the memory .of Gen. Wash ington. If your futher died a great dis tance from homo, among strangers, and was decently buried, you would dislike to dis pute the account if some of the items were high. When a great and good man dies while presiding over seventeen millions of people, it is not expected the funeral will be one of ordinary character ; but such ceremonies should be manifested as will be respectful to his station, and to the Govern ment and people over which he presided. But at all events, I do not think it becomes the political friends of President .Van Bu ren to endeavor to make political capital put of the amount of this appropriation, when the whole expenditure was caused and made under the direction of Gen. Hunter, one of their men party. Congress, at the beginning of the Extra session of 1841, resolved, by a unanimous vote, to hang black crape over the Speak er's chair of House; and that each member would wear crape on his left arm, for thirty days', as a mark of respect to the memory of President Harrison. All that was done at the public expense. Now, I apprehend it will puzzle loco foeo logic to convince any body tiiat it was right to vote and appropriate public money to buy crape for two hundred and ninety-four members of Congress to wear mourning for President Harrison, and yet it was not right to buy one winding sheet to enshroud the dead body of that same President!. Away with all political Pharisees—they often have the people in their mounths, and but seldom in their hearts. That man must have tho dis position of a hyena who can dig into the grave arid uncoffin the dead to make politi- i cal capital for party purposes. If a bil ious, bitter party man has a natural passion to play low game, and act the demagogue, let him select some other place for his the atre than the grave-yard, and some other subject than distressed widows and help less orphans. It must be a bad cause that requires a Christian to turn Turk. Harrison was a soldier, an officer, and a President. According to the declaration of Col. 11. M. Johnson, he won more battles than any other general during the last war. His first commission was front Washington, and his last front the people of the United States. To do justice to the family of the deceased, Congress had only to follow the precedents prescribed in the cases to which I have referred; that is, the widow of Com modore Perry, the widow of Gen. Brown, the widow of Overton Carr, and the widow of Stephen Haight. To relieve the widow of the late President, (herself surrounded by indigent widows and orphans,) Congress appropriated to Mrs. Harrison the balance of the President’s salary. The whole amount of the salary is twenty-five thou sand dollars, but Congress only allowed the i widow the balance of that sum which had not been paid prior to the passage of the act. Mrs. Harrison was entitled to that appro i priatioa, not only upon former precedents and patriotic principles, but in considera tion of sacrifices made, and compensation for large sums of money expended, and debts contracted bv Gen. Harrison in ma king necessary arrangements preparatory to entering on the public duties of President of the United States. When a private man ; is compelled to leave home for four years j at one lime, be must make great sacrifices, ! and necessarily neglect much private bu | siness, as well as make large outlays to ; meet outfits before going from home. If a private individual has to encounter heavy losses and expenditures in anticipation of such a protracted absence, what must have been the enbrmous sacrifices and expendi tures of a plain farmer, of limited circum stances, like Gen. Harrison, when he was breaking up his home, and going to live in the Presidential mansion, where custom and public duty required him to see and entertain, not only hundreds of American citizens, but foreign ministers front all the coun ts of the civilized world. Upon this very same principle, when any citizen of the United States is appointed a foreign minister to any foreign country, he receives by appropriation from Congress SIB,OOO for the first year—that is $9,000 for his outfit, or peparatory arrangements, and $9,000 salary for each year he acts in that capac ity—and then one quarter of that salary when he returns home. In the year 1835, Wm. T. Barry, of Kentucky, was appoint ed by Gen. Jackson our minister to Spain. Mr. Barry left the United States, and got as far as Liverpool in England, where he died, but never readied Spain. Well, Gov ernment then paid nine thousand dollars for his outfit, his salary up to his death, and a quarterof his salary todefray the expenses of his family back to the United States, making the aggregate amount of fourteen thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. — The only difference in the two cases is this —Gen. Harrison got to Washington, took his oath of office, organized his administra tion, and acted as President one month; but Mr. Barry never got within five hundred miles of Spain, and never acted as foreign minister one minute. Now, fellow-citi zens, compare the two cases; look upon than picture, and then upon this. Mr. Bar ry and his widow received fourteen thou sand two hundred and fifty dollars, which is five thousand two hundred and fifty dollars more than a foreign minister’s yearly sala ry. Gen. Harrison and his widow both to gether only received one year’s salary, and no more. And yet, strange as it may ap pear, the very persons who approved of that largo payment to Mr. Barry and his fami ly fo> Staffing, not going to Spain, are the very same individuals who now make ob jections to relieve ai?d indemnify the widow Harrison for tho losses arid debts sustained and created by her husband in .anticipation of his public service. No principle is bet ter settled and established than than privu! o property shall not bo taken for public use without adequate compensation. Surely no just man will say it is right to sell Mrs. Harrison out of house and home because her husband was elected President o( the United States, and died before his official term expired. I cannot conceive how any man, who has the head of a patriot and the heart of a Christian, can object to the funer al expenses of a veteran warrior and a uo ble commander—or to an act to relieve and indemnify an aged widow, whose dwelling house, during the last war, was most freely and kindly thrown open to receive and com fort the sick and afflicted in our army. He who can object to, and attempt to make po litical capital out of such humane acts, I fear would begrudethe price of the shroud tiiat envelopes the dead body of his father, and deny his mother that “one year’s allow ance” which the just law of North Caroli na gives to the poorest widow in the State. Tire favor and me rcy of Divine Providence can never rest and abide with those who wrong the soldier, widow, and the orphan. Patriotism, piety, and charity forbid if.— But. if political pedlars, “regardless of so cial duty, and fatally bent on mischief,” will trade and speculate on such political capital, let them beware of the wrath to come. On this birth-day of our Independence I need make no appeal to the descendants of the Whigs in my district, who fought and conqucred*at King's Mountain and the Cow Pens. The history of those scenes we learn ed from our fathers, now silently sleeping in death, almost within cannon-shot of those battle-grounds. No son of a Whig in North Carolina will ever stand by the grave of his father and say, he objects to the funeral ex penses of a good soldier, or to one year’s allowance to his surviving widow. No, ne ver, never. I ask pardon of my constituents and coun trymen for having gone into this protracted catalogue of mortality ; but when the bit terness and madness of party spirit will spare neither the living nor the dead—net therage nor sex—neither the widow nor the orphan—l felt that a sense of duty and the cause of truth, justice, and patriotism, re quired someone to present to the people the facts and circumstances of this case, col lected and taken from the journals of Con gress and the history of the country. I now, with confidence, submit the whole matter to a virtuous and intelligent commu nity for their impartial verdict. Respectfully presented, JAMES GRAHAM. Washington July 4, 1842. From the Boston Daily Advertiser. Few persons are aware of the extent of political misery from which the State of Rhode Island seems for the present to have happily escaped. Had the treasonable en terprise of Mr. Dorr met with more exten sive support, or been crowned with half the success which he anticipated, a state ofeiv il war and anarchy would have pervaded that unhappy State, of which the commu nities of South America can alone furnish us a just idea. Some attempt at a picture ofthe possible state of things is annexed in the following : Apocryphal History of Rhode Island. 1842—June 25.—The battle ofChcpac het fought between the State troops under General McNeill and the insurgent forces under Gov. Dorr. After an obstinate con flict the former were defeated, with the loss of 250 killed and wounded. July Ist.—Dorr having been joined b}’ five hundred recruits from the neighboring States, marches upon Providence arid de mands the surrender of the town,.and a contribution of SIOO,OOO. This is refused. He threatens to sack the place. A san guinary engagement takes place, in which Dorr is worsted, and obliged to fall back upon Woonsocket. July 15th.—General Singsing arrives in Rhode Island with 800 men reerui'ed from the brothels and prisons of New York.— These men attack and pillage Bristol, and commit great excesses on the inhabitants. Universal alarm and distress prevailed throughout the State. The frontier of Mas sachusetts is covered with fugitive women and children in great misery. July 20th.—A junction is effected be tween Dorr and Singsing. The latter of fers to bring up 2,000 troops from New York, the plunder of Providence being the stipulated price. This offer is accepted, and measures taken to carry it into effect. July 30th.—Providence is attacked in the night by the combined forces of Dorr and Singsing, 4,000 strong. A desperate resistance is made by the regular troops and the inhabitants. Dorr is repulsed, and retreats towards Chepachet. But the Sing sing men perform prodigies of valor, and set fire to the town on the opposite side.— Dorr ralies and brings back his men in time for the plunder. Providence is sacked and ravaged ; the hanks, stores and dwelling houses broken open and plundered; the fe males are given up to the soldiery, and twelve hundred of the citizens who had sur rendered are shot by order of Dorr in the public streets. The University is burnt, and with it four hundred of Dorr’s soldiers in a state of intoxication. Dorr is proclaim ed Governor, and Singsing commandcr-in chief. August Ist.—A great meeting held in State-sti.et, Boston, to express sympathetic rejoicings in the glorious triumphs of tiie suffrage and plunder party in Rhode Is land. In New-York twelve thousand men offer their swords and sacred hoilors to the I same glorious cause, but cannot pay their passage. August Gth.—A levy en masse of the male inhabitants of Rhode Island. August 15th.—The great battle of War wick, in which Governor King and Gen. McNeil are killed. On the other side, Gen. Singsing is mortally wounded, and the command devolves on Gen. Cutthroat.— Both sides claim the victory. During this month a partisan war is curried on in all parts of the State, with frequent skirmishes. Newport is taken and re-taken five times, and finally burnt. Misery, famine and vi jjcnce reign throughout the Slate. November 6th.—An insurrection breaks out ill Massachusetts, having for its object the equal distribution of property. The ringleaders are arrested, but are rescued by the populace. A large body of insurgents entrench themselves ill Attleboro, beseiged by the government troops. Gen eral Cutthroat marches to their relief.— Massachusetts is .invaded on the North by New Hampshire. Great riot and massacre in New York during an election. The de feated candidate takes up arms, and is join ed by his adherents. Civil war rages in New York. 1845.—War between France and Rus sia. Gov. Dorr offers Rhode Island to the Emperor Nicholas in exchange for a body of troops. Admiral Whiskeroffsky, with a fleet and transports, arrives at Newport.— Rhode Island is declared a Russian prov ince. Gen. Workemoff compells the men, women, and children to labor five months in the construction of Fort Nicholas. Gov. Dorr, is made a subaltern officer, but pro ving refractory, he is sent to St. Petersburg where he received the knout, and is banish ed to Siberia. 1875.—Age ofthe American Heptarchy, the Union being broken up into se.ven dis tinct governments, as follows :—New Eng land, a monarchy under his majesty Cut throat thesecoad. New Y’ork, Pennsylva nia, &c. a free republic, tributary to the Emperor of Russia, and maintaining an Americo-Russia standing army. Virgin ia, a military republic, on the model of Guatemala, under the alternate dictator ship of the conflicting Generals Tuckahos and Coliee. The Carolinas and Georgia a grand, free suffrage, notification, republi can despotism. Louisiana, Texas, &c., Empire of Don Renegado Mestzzo, Ohio and North-western States annexed to Cana da ; and lastly Oregon a free elective re public, under President Leatherstocking.— This latter country is the only one which flourishes, having received vast emigra tions from the declining and impoverished States of the Atlantic side. NEWS AnOaITTE WASHINGTON, GA. THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1842. 03“ Last Tuesday’s election for Justices of the Inferior Court of Wilkes County ex'- cited little interest with either party, and in consequence the number of votes polled was small. The following is tiie result. J. HARRIS, 239 l Whigs (Elec- A. S. WINGFIELD, 223 \ ted.) H. P. WOOTTEN, 213 Democrats. J. KENDRICK, 185 \ (Hr We have republished the letter of Mr. Graham of North Carolina to his con stituents as it is an excellent answer to those who seek among the ashes of the dead for materials to gratify their enmity against the Whigs. (fir Messrs. A. J. Milier, Chas. J. Jem kins, G. W. Crawford, and Samuel Tarver have been nominated candidates for the le gislature by theWhigsofßichmond county. OiT The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) “Flag of the Union”—Loco-foco State paper—de clares for John C. Calhoun for next Presi dent. 03” Hon. Millard Fillmore, of New- York, one ofthe most industrious and use ful members of Congress, has declined a re-election. (Hr That excellent paper the Savannah Republican, comes to us very much impro-’ ved. The Editors give a cheering account ofthe increase of patronage since they un dertook its management, and we are sure their prospects must be bright as they arc able to afford’ anew dress these hard times. They deserve to be prosperous. (He Iho “Orion"’ for July has been re ceived and contains many interesting and valuable articles. The publisher announ ces his intention to remove the location of his magazine to Savannah from which place the “Magnolia” has removed to Charleston. Avery ridiculous objection to this pub lication is made by some papers, that its printing is done at the North, and they con tend that, although the articles are furnish ed by Southern writers, yet it is a Northern Magazine ! If the publisher finds it for his and his readers advantage to employ Nor thern printers to do his work, we cannot conceive that to be a valid objection. Peo ple, in reading an interesting publication scarcely ever care or inquire who the prin ter’s devil was! (Hr The enterprising proprietors of the “New World” have forwarded to us anoth er of their cheap extras, containing an orig inal American Novel. “Abel Parsons or the Brother’s Revenge.” We have had no opportunity to examine, it, but doubt not, from the well known good taste ofthe pub lishers, that it is well -worth ten price asked lor it. ♦ State Bonds. As the advocates of the Central Bank have at length been pressed into a defence of that Institution, and are making delusive statements to deceive the people as to its solvency and the rectitude of its manage ment, we should like to have them, in the course oftlieir defence, make some showing relative to the fund provided for the redemp tion of its currency by the Legislature of 1840. That Legislature, as most of our readers will recollect, empowered the Governor to execute a million of dollars in State bonds, at an interest of 8 per cent, redeemable in five years, which bonds were to be used ex clusively for the redemption of the bills of the Central Bank then’ in circulation, and those to be putin circulation to defray the expenses and appropriations of the Legisla ture, and for no other purpose whatsoever. The next Legislature was democratic. They repealed only the first section of the Act of 1840, which restricted the Central Bank somewhat in its capacity to do evil, but left the power to issue bonds for the re demption of its bills untouched. Now it appears by the statements of tho democratic papers that the circulation of the Bank, instead of being redeemed and di minished, has been increased five or six hundred thousand dollars, and we are in formed by them that a large part of this in crease was owing to the issues made to meet the appropriations of the Legislature of’ 1840, which appropriations, we are told by the Democrats, were “ enormous’” but which were in reality more than SIOO,OOO less than the democratic legislatures were in the habit of spending annually. Had the requisitions of the law been complied with, the increase of the circulation on ac count of the legislative appropriations of 1840, would have beer, long ago taken up by the bonds, and therefore this statement of the democrats amounts to a confession that the bonds have not been appropriated to the purpose for which they were intend ed, or that, if applied to the redemption of the Bills ofthe Central Bank, that its circu lation has not been thereby diminished— the Bills, Aipon being thus'taken up, having been immediately thereafter re-issued to serve some purpose of the democrats which they think proper to hide from the people. Some circumstances seem to show that the $1,000,000 of bonds is nearly exhaust ed, although the circulation of the Central Bank instead of being reduced, has, as we said before, increased. The bonds are at ien per cent less discount in the market than tiie Central money, although they have yet three or four years to run before becom ing due, are not so available in payment of dents, and capitalists who may wish to invest in (item are well aware of the risk of repudiation if the Locofocos.continue in power. From this we think it fair to infer, in the absence of all direct information con cerning them, that the bonds have been nearly all used for some purpose, and that in addition to the $600,000 increased cir culation-of the Central Bank the democrats havespent about one million in State Bonds. If the democratic prints think our infer ence unfair, let them show what has been done with the bonds. Not a word is said about them in their statements of the condi tion ofthe Bank—all allusion to them seems carefully to be avoided. That they have not been appropriated to the purposes for which they were designed appears certain. The people will require some explanation as to what has become of so large an amount of their money, they are determined to tear away the veil of mystery which has here tofore shrouded tiie Central Bank—that monster which has swallowed up so much of the wealth of the State—it shall soon stand forth to tiie world in all its corrupt and disgusting deformity, in spite of the cun ning efforts of an unscrupulous party to shield it from the light. Hawkinsvi/le Bank. —The bills of tiiis In stitution have, within a lew days past, very materially improved in value. They are now redeemed at the Agency in this place, in Central bills, and are taken generally by our merchants in paj’mentof debts and for goods. They are in reality worth more than Central Bank bills, for the Directors have made arrangements to resume busi ness in the Jail, upon the same basis as the other banks—so that if we should have a circulation redeemable in specie, the Haw kinsvillo Bank will be prepared to resume on the same te r ms with the most favored Institutions. These facts are obtained from an authentic source, and may be re lied on. The papers at a distance, by al tering their quotations of the value of this money, may be benefiting the public:—Ma con Messenger. , ■
