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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. , ■
