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The RecoKOEK is published weekly, on Han <>i 4
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AnvKKTISKMESTS conspicuously inserted at the usual
rates. Those sent without a specification of the number o
insertions, vill be puolisued until ordered oct, and charged
accordingly. .
dales of laud and negroes, by Administrators, Executors,
or Guardians, are required by law to be he on t e rs
Toes lay in tlie month, between the hours of ten in the fore
no m and.hree in the afternoon, at the Court-house of the
cotnty in which the property is situate. Notices of these
s i .ts must be given tn a public gazette SIXTY days previous
to tiie day of sale. , „ ...
Notices for the sale of personal property must be given
in dice manner, fouty days previous to tl.e day of sale.-
A .s ), notice to tiie debtors and creditors of an estate must be
published for forty days.
\ T )tice that application will be made to the Court of Ordina-
tvfir leave to sell land, must be published for four months.
' AH business in the line of PRINTING, will meet with
prompt mention at the Recorder Officf..
Letters (on business) must be post-paid.
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per '■hanged from one Post Office to another, are desired, in
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of the name of the Post Office from which they desire it
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\ N ACT to alter the 3.1,7th and 12tli sections of the first
‘article, and the 1st, 2d and 3d sections of the 3d article,
and the 15th section of the 4tli article of the Constitution of
this State. „ , _. , r ,
Whereas a part of the 3d section of the 1st article of the
Constitution is in the following words viz: The Senate
shall be elected annually; and a part of the 7th section of
the 1st article, is in the following words: The Representa
tives shall be chosen annually ; and a part of the 12th sec
tion of the 1st article is in the following words: The meeting
of the General Assembly shall be annually ; A nd whereas a
nu t of the 3d section of the 3.1 article is in the following
words: There shall be a State’s Attorney and Solicitor ap-
n fmted by the Legislature and commissioned by the Gov-
, nor, who shall hold their office for the term of three years ;
, m a p’ part of the 15th section of the 4th article is in the fol
lowing words: The same shall be published at least six
months previous to the next ensuing annual election, for
members of the General Assembly: And whereas the before
recited clauses require amendments—
Section 1- Be il enacted hy the Senate, and House of Rrprc-
iitatves of the State of Georgia in General Assembly met and
j, is herein] enacted by the authority of the same. That so soon as
f fs act shall have passed, agreeably to the requisitions of
,1,,. Constitution, the following shall be adopted in lieu ot
the foregoing clauses: In the 3d section of the 1 st article,
the following, to wit: The Senate shall be elected bi-annually,
i.lVer the passage of this art ; the first election to take place
!m the first Monday in the year one thousand eight hundred
and forty-three. In lieu of the 7th section of the 1st article,
ihe following: The Representatives shall be elected bi-an-
anally, after the passage of this act, the first election to take
place on the first Monday in October, in the year one thou
sand eignl hundred and forty three; and in lieu of the clause
In the 12th section of the 1st artic.e, the following: The meet-
of the General Assembly shall be bi-annually, aftei the
nassa.r of this act, on the first Monday in November. And
in lieu of the clause in the 3d section of the 3d article, the
following, to wit: There shall be a State’s Attorney and So-
li.-itor elected liv the Legislature, who shall hold their office
hi:-the term of four years: and in lieu of the clause in the
loth section of the 4th article, the tollnwitig : The same shall
t.e published at leas
... mat election for mem
. provisions of this act no
• thousand eight hundred
SF.C. 2. Arid be it. farther
ot w henever it shall so in
I edges. State’s Attn.
a previous to the next ensuing
s of the General Assembly ;
n go into efiect until the year
id forty-three.
ir.ted hr the. authority aforesaid,
en that the term of office of any
v or Solicitors, .-hall expire at
the General Assembly, then
i -.1- Excellency the
op. - ■.•on until the
I'.cr . . I t — ■!, when such
'■ n' by me Legislature, until
■fate's Attorney or Soiicitots
JOSEPH DAY,
Speuket of the House ot Representatives.
ROBERT M. ECHOLS,
President of the Senate.
Assented to. December 23d. 1839.
CHARLES J. McDonald, Governor.
March 31, 1840. _ 11 6m
CEMKAI. BANK AGU1VCY.
[AHE undersigned ofler their services as agents in the
L renewal of Notes at the Central Bank. They will at-
id to all Notes entrusted to their care, for the customary
5 of one dollar; also, to the taking out and forwarding
rants at one dollar each.
They will also attend to the offering of Notes for discount,
the distribution of the Central Bank, advertised to com-
■ nee oti the 16th July, and all orders in regard to the dis-
sition of the money will be promptly attended to
rrp Letters enclosing notes or money must be post paid.
THOMAS RAGLAND,
THO. H. HALL.
Milledgeville, June 16, 1840. 22 tf
UCP The Columbus Enquirer and Sentinel and Herald,
11 insert three times.
I'CATIiAli BANK OF GEORGIA.
MtT.LF.DGEVlLF.E, 11th June. 1840.
>ESOLVED, That a distribution of seven hundred and
V fifty thousand dollars be made among the several couit-
s of this State, to be loaned on accommodation notes, which
av be offered for discount on the days and in the order
tied in the foilwing table, viz :
'ovnty.
pling,
loch,
ke,
-b.
jmbia,
.'eta,
wford,
atur,
valb,
sy tli,
ikliii,
jer,
in,
;ne,
rty,
■tin,
ides,
pkin,
ogee,
[on,
horpe,
ling.
nond,
il'erro,
ter,
on,
Thursday
1 Gth July.
Amntnit.
County.
Amount.
$2,372
Camden,
5,606
3.013
Campbell,
5,912
7,18.3
Carroll,
5.104
10,136
Cass,
8,251
2,904
Chatham,
21,354
3,836
Cherokee,
5,598
12,521
Chattooga,
4,224
6.106
Clarke,
11,403
Thursday. 30/h July.
7,540
Dooly,
4,991
11,069
Early,
4,953
11,534
Effingham,
2.775
8,712
Elbert,
12,479
5,546
Emanuel,
3,621
13,196
F avette,
7,513
1,119
Floyd,
4,224
Thursday, 20th August.
6.359
Gwinnett.
13,495
11,650
Habersham,
9,972
1,990
Hall,
9,881
3,899
11,349
Hancock,
10.099
Thursday, 3d September.
14,863
Jackson,
13,962
5,602
Jasper,
12,040
14,762
Jefferson,
6,087
13,177
Jones.
10,473
2,182
Laurens.
6.035
Thursday, 1"
’th September.
.3,510
Marion,
McIntosh,
5,179
6,812
5,266
6,178
Meriwether,
16,122
5,849
Monroe,
15,594
7,592
Montgomery,
2,521
5,417
5,613
Morgan,
9.877
Thursday, 1 st October.
4,051
Pike,
10,191
17,641
Pulaski,
5,399
13,795
Putnam,
11,507
11,691
liabun,
Randolph,
2,494
2,981
7,137
Thursday, lath October.
13,875
Tattnall,
2,949
Telfair,
3.147
11,463
Thomas,
6.591
4.882
Troup,
16,624
15,844
Twiggs,
8,827
5,006
Union,
2,935
Thursday, 29ih October.
14.957
Washington,
10,806
5,484
Wayne,
1,704
11 984
1 Wllk-s,
11.235
2J9-
) Wilkinson,
7.653
lav
11, U<
GENERALH
eqnires that th
i -,li he loaned c.ni.v
ci v, and that the ei
shall be residents r
req. re !
kers and
rr.ATj: IN
i the cit zons
(U sera, as v. e I
.he county,
a certificate
v. l■ ■ ii may h
riated to each
i sm h counties
as the makers
Tin Board will
re idctice. both
signed by any
But ii t-<e money appropriated
CUMC- r, Spec-live \. -hail not be applied for and
1 wi'hin thin \ days from the offering days above specif
hen the above requirement of the law in relation to thd
nice of endorses ceases; and alter thattime acertiticanj
■idetioe of the maker only', will be required, 1
notes must be made payable at the Central Bank of
gia, three hundred and sixty days after dale, and musj
two or more good endorsers. . •
try vote presented for discount must be accompanied with J
n affidavit of the tiuiher, in which he shall state that the not^
i is for the only use and belief t of him, the maker, arid wo*
e use, benefit, or interest, 0 f anv other person, or person.4
ocrer; which affidavit shall be certified by a magistrate ml
officer legally authorised to administer said oath.
rtincates of the taxable proper y of the makers and eu-
:rs of the notes ottered, will be regarded as the best ev-
:e of their solvency.
i note will be discounted having on it the name of any
in indebted to the State, either as principal or security,
h debt is due and unselt ed ; or who i s the maker of or
rser on, any note or bill heretofore discounted by the
ral Bank, and which is past due and unattended to.
i note will be t eceived for discount after the hour of nine
•k, A. M. of the days above specified.
ie proceeds of the discounted notes will be paid to the
k of the last endorser only.
I order of tbe Board of Directors.
A. M. JfISBET, Cash'r.
ue 16. tf
POLITICAL.
TO THE PEOPLE OF GEO IA.
Fellow-Citizf.ns :—1 lie Convention which
assembled at Milledgeville in June, among
other subjects which engaged their attention,
resolved to recommend William Henry Har
rison, of Ohio, and John Tyler, of Vir
ginia, as fit persons to fill the offices of Presi
dent and Vice-President of the United States,
and made it the duty of the undersigned to
prepare an address in support of their views.
The delay which has occurred in complying
with the requisition, has resulted from circum
stances beyond their control. It is scarcely,
however, to he regretted, because even the
short interval which has passed since the ad
journment of the Convention, has been marked
by occurrences which are calculated to guide
and to cheer them in the performance of the
duty which has been assigned to them, and to
furnish to Georgia’s patriotic sons new motives
to united exertion in the sacred cause of free
dom. We ask your attention then, fellow-
citizens, while we endeavor as briefly as may
consist with the occasion, to develnpe the
views of the Convention. We address you in
the spirit of frankness, under a deep convic
tion of the magnitude of the subject. Our
desire is to confer with you fully, freely, ho
nestly, as men and brethren, having a common
interest in a matter of great public concern
ment, not controversially, not arrogantly, not
in the language or with the arts of the dema
gogue, but as freemen may commune with
each other. We invite the aid of your coun
sels, while we offer the suggestions of our own
anxious reflection. We invoke the activity
of your patriotism, while in behalf of the Con
vention, we tender to you the assurance of
their unwavering devotion to the best interests
of our common country.
And what is the condition of our beloved
country ! The enquiry meets us at the very
threshold of our task. Would that it were
less fraught with painful and humiliating re
collections. If we confine our view within
the sphere of our personal observation, we
have the evidence of our senses. We see,
we feel, that we have indeed fallen upon evil
times. If we extend it beyond that limit, the
tidings which come to us from every portion
of the confederacy hear unequivocal testimo
ny to the universality of the suffering which
pervades it There can be no deception in
this. The unwelcome truth comes home to
the business, and to the bosom of every man.
The country is agitated from its extremities
to its centre. It heaves as under the influence
of some great internal commotion. The far-
. mer abandons his plough—the mechanic his
j workshop—the merchant his countine-room —
the student his hooks. They meet together
in vast numbers, in frequent, almost daily and
nightly assemblages, all except the money
lenders and the office-holders, and those within
the sphere of their influence. They come
with anxious looks and throbbing heaits, and
the enquiry which they address one to ano
ther is, “ How shall we accomplish our politi
cal salvation !” All this is passing before your
eyes, or the tidings are borne to you in rapid
sequence by each successive “heialdofa noisy
world.” Why is all this! When since the
foundation of our Republic, have you wit
nessed any thing like it before ? When did
such universal agitation, such deep and solemn
anxiety, pervade the American People 1 It
is foreign to the character of our countrymen,
and to the general spirit of the times in which
we live.
The American People aie sober, reflecting,
deliberate, and this is emphatically a matter
of fact age—an age of calculation. Men now-
a-days do not run to and fro under the impulse
of mere feeling. Whence then, we repeat the
enquiry, whence this universal agitation! It
has not been gotten up by political leaders.—
Their agency is impotent to the production of
so stupendous a result. They are themselves
j driven before the tempest of popular feeling,
yielding in many instances reluctantly to its
irresistible force. The answer which is forced
upon ns by the omnipotence of Truth, is this:
The people have awakened from their
slumbers. “In the visions of the night they
| have communed with the spirits of their fa
thers,” and rising in the majesty of their
strength, throughout this extended empire,
they are now sitting in judgment upon the
conduct of their public servants, of those who
have abused the little brief authority with
which they were entrusted. Are they de
ceived 1 Is the agitation which pervades this
confederate Republic, extending from Maine
to Florida, from the seaboard to the mountains,
and westward beyond them, to the utmost limit
of this vast empire, is it the phrenzy of the
maniac! or does it truly express the just in
dignation of an oppressed, insulted, but at
length awakened people! Are their suffer
ings imaginary! Have a whole people been
goaded almost to madness by the vain ima
gination of unreal wrong ? Theie was a time,
amid scenes of distress, which brought sorrow
and sadness to the desolate home of the widow
and the orphan, when the pensioned minion
who conducts the press of the Executive Gov
ernment, obedient to the mandate of his mas
ter, had tlie audacity to assert in the face of
the American People, that there was no real
suffering which an houest man ought to regret.
That insult to our understanding, and to our
feelings, will not be repeated. The period
has gone hvwhen even the pampered insolence
of office might venture upon it. Real distress
pervades the country; actual suffering which
every man hut the office-holder and the mo
ney lender feels, is rife throughout our bor
ders. Those who would deceive us must re
sult to a new device; and it was fit that Amos
Kendall—that vain and insolent pretender to
he the representative of American democracy
—he, who in this era of corruption and mis
rule, had been elevated to a station for which
nature had never designed him, should de
scend to his own appropriate level, to the
Editorial chair of a prostituted press, to be
come the instrument of its promulgation.—
Now they tell us it is true that much suffering
exists throughout the country. We admit,
say they (since you will no longer tolerate the
contraiy assertion) its existence and its reality.
But the people have brought it upon them
selves by overtrading, by the multiplication of
Banks, by the extension of Bank discounts,
and by the indulgence of a wild spirit of specu
lation and adventure. They claim too much
from the Government when they requite its
aid to relieve them from these embarrassments.
Such is the language of Mr. Van Buren and
his pensioned press. Fellow-citizens! we
ask your candid attention to the reflections
which press upon our minds in this posture
<>f the contioversy. The Administration of
Mr. Vau Bureu is but the sequence and con*
tinuation of that which preceded it. He came
into office by the appointment of Gen. Jack-
son, and pledged to follow in his footsteps.—
During the last eleven years of our political
history, our public affairs have been under the
guidance of Genetal Jackson, or of Mr. Van
Buren, his representative and chosen succes
sor. The distress and suffering which pervade
the country, ate now admitted and acknow
ledged to be real and universal. Commerce
languishes—our artisans are thrown out of
employment—the products of agriculture are
comparatively valueless—and a deranged, de
preciated, and yet contracted currency, checks
the enterprise of our people. The question
presented to us is this—
Has the Government contributed to produce
this state of things, or has it resulted solely fioin
the folly and the madness of the people 1 The
inquiry is full of interest; upon the correctness
of its decision, and the energy with which that
decision shall he followed by united action,
will depend for a series of years, perhaps for
ever, the weal or w r oe of this great republic.
Gen. Jackson came into office in 1S29. He
came with an overwhelming popularity, the
tribute of a nation’s gratitude for his military
services. By his own confession, he found an
unexampled degree of prosperity. Our citi
zens, in the various puisuits of agriculture,
commerce, and the mechanic arts, were all
reaping a bountiful reward for their labors.
We had a currency, such a3 no nation in the
world could boast. A committee of the Sen
ate of the United States, composed of the po
litical friends of General Jackson, thus descri
bed it in the session of 1829—30: “ Here then
is a currency as safe as silver—more conve
nient and more valuable than silver—which,
through the whole western, and southern, and
interior parts of the Umon, is eagerly sought
in exchange for silver; which, in those sec
tions, often bears a premium paid iri silver;
which is, throughout the Union, equal to silver
in payment to the Government, and payments
to individuals in business; and which, when
ever silver is needed in any part ot the coun
try, will command it, w ithout the charge of the
slightest fraction of a per centage. By means
of this currency, funds are transmitted at an
expense less than in any other country. In
no other country can a merchant do what eve
ry citizen of the United States can do—depo-
site, for instance, his silver at St. Louis, or
Nashville, or New Orleans, and receive notes
which he can carry with him 1000 or 1500 miles,
to the Atlantic cities, and there receive for
them an equivalent amount of silver, without
any expense whatever, and in no possible
event, an expense beyond a quarter of one per
cent. If, however, a citizen does not wish to
incur the anxiety of carrying these with him,
or to run the hazard of the mail, he may, in
stead of them, receive a draft payable to him
self, or his agent alone, so as to insure the re
ceipt of an equal amount, at an expense of not
one-half, and often not one-fourth, of the actual
cost of carrying the silver: the owner of funds,
for instance, at St. Louis, or Nashville, can
transfer them to Philadelphia, fir one-half per
cent.; from New Orleans, generally, without
any charge at all, at most one-half per cent.;
from Mobile, from par to one-half percent.;
from Savannah, at one-half per cent.; and
from Charleston, at from par to one-quaiter
per cent.” But Gen. Jackson had some pri
vate griefs of long standing, and the feelings
which these excited, were goaded to the mad
ness which followed, by the parasites who
ministered to his love of adulation. He de
clared open war against the currency. He
denounced it to Congress; the charge was re
pelled hy his own political friends. Never
theless, he continued his hostilities. Slowly,
but successively, timorous men and official de
pendants yielded to his will—and at length, in
the magnificence of his arrogance, he took
“ the responsibility” of openly violating the
law of the land, hy tiie removal of tiie depo
sits, in 1833. To accomplish this outrage, it
was necessary to hurl from the chief place in
the Treasury Department an independent offi
cer, his devoted political friend, but whose
stern integrity unfitted him to be the minion
of a tyrant. It was indispensable, also, to con
ciliate the monied interest of the Union. The
democracy of numbers threw itself into the
arms of the aristocracy of wealth ; the banns
were duly published, and the Treasury De
partment of the Union was speedily united in
the bonds of holy wedlock with the banking
corporations of the States. But this was not
enough. The stockholders in these State in
stitutions, their connections, dependants, and
friends, had been seemed by making the se
lected banks the depositories of the national
treasure, which had been torn by the strong
arm of power from its legal custody. The cus
tomers of those institutions were a more nu
merous class; it was now indispensable to se
cure their support, and this was accomplished
by a Treasury edict, requiring the selected
Banks to discount freely, on the national trea
sure deposited with them. The tesult was
inevitable. Concurring with a favorable state
of foreign markets for the products of our in
dustry, this impulse from within necessarily
forced up the prices of every species of pro
perty to their highest attainable limit. Obe
dient to the mandate of their chief depositor,
the existing corporations discounted Ireely.
New Banks were created, and, eager to share
“ the spoils of the victors,” gave in their ad
hesion to the dominant power. The country
was flooded with Bank paper, and thus, with
a bloated currency, and inflated prices, brought
about by this and other measures of the Govern
ment, to which the limits of this address do not
permit us to advert, we were called to encoun
ter the commercial Tevulsion of 1837. It is
not necessary to contend that the measures of
the Government produced that revulsion; it is
sufficient to show that they disqualified us to
meet it. The price of our great staple, affect
ing as it does the monetary concerns of the
world, may he admitted to be itself dependant
upon the state of the foreign, rather than of
our own domestic market—and liable, conse
quently, to be influenced by the operation of
causes, over which the fiscal movements of our
Government could have nocontiol; but the
preservation of a sound condition of things
among ourselves, was within the legitimate
sphere of the power, as well as of the duty
of the Federal Government. The power to
regulate the commerce of ihe country, both
foreign and domestic, is hy the Constitution
exclusively vested in that Government, and
the tfrant of this power carries with it the ob
ligation so to regulate the curreucy, as the in
terests of commei ce may require. The events
of 1837 are too fresh in our recollection to
permit us to forget how signally they failed in
the exercise of that powei, in the fulfilment
of that duty. The storm, however, had not
yet broken upon us, when Mr. Van Buren, by
the appointment of Gen. Jackson, and the ac
quiescence of the American people, was pla
ced in the Executive chair. The late Presi
dent went out of office, exulting in the success
of his efforts for the improvement of the cur
rency, and for the general advancement of re
publican principles, and congratulating him
self on the universal prosperity and happiness
which had rewarded his exertions. He went
into retirement, to rest from his labors, and his
works followed not him, but his successor.
He exulted in his improvement of a currency,
which his own political friends had pronoun
ced equal to gold and silver before be began
to tinker with it, and the currency which he
left us, was the bills of the pot. Banks, which,
almost before these notes of exultation had
died upon our ears, were dishonored by those
who issued them. Such was his improvement
of tfie currency. He boasted of the advance
ment of republican principles under hid foster
ing care; and he illustrated it by the lawless
seizure of the public treasure, by the forcible
ejection from office of the honest and patriotic
Secretary, who was by law entitled to its cus
tody—by coercing the Senate of the United
States to the self degradation of becoming
themselves the miserable expungers of that
record, which the Constitution had required
them to keep—and by reducing the House of
Representatives to but we forbear.
We cannot speak as we would of the chosen
representatives of a free people, and we pre
fer to keep silence.
He emancipated the Executive Department
from the wholesome restraints of the Consti
tution, establishing as the sole rule of its con
duct, the sic vole, sic jubco, of the Roman ty
rant—and this was his republicanism.
He congratulated himself on the universal
prosperity and happiness which had rewarded
his exertions; and at the moment when he ut
tered the idle and insulting boast, the unfailing
precursors of general and wide spreading de
solation were abroad in the laud. Such was
the result of his efforts to advance the prospe
rity and happiness of the American people.
It was in the earliest moments of dalliance
with that sovereign power, which, by the art
and the humiliation of the parasite, he had un
worthily won, that the storm, of which the ele
ments had been gathered by his predecessor,
now burst upon the head of Mr. Van Buren.
Who does not remember the summer of 1S37,
its suffering, and its sorrow ! Mr. Van Buren
was stunned Dy the blow. He had success
fully managed the caucus machinery of New
York—nay, he had been lord of the ascendant
in the regency of Albany—but tins was a ques
tion with the whole American people, irrita
ted by the conviction of misrule and corruption,
and writhing in agony, under the pressure of
intense and instant suffering. The political
martinet was at fault; he threw himself for
support upon the representatives of the States,
and of the people, and Congress was convened.
We are now at the commencement of a
new era in our political history. To raise up
friends who would justify the lawless and for
cible removal of the national deposites, the
State Banks were taken into favor, their stock
holders and customers conciliated, and they
themselves lured to destruction, in the man
ner we have seen. They were now cast off
with contumely, to make way for the great
Bank of the Government under the denomina
tion of a Sub-Treasury. This measure was
accordingly recommended by Mr. Van Buren
at the extra session of 1S37, and accompany
ing it, was that other, and most extraordinaiy
proposition, which should forever put to si
lence every profession which he may utter of
respect for the rights of the States, the pro
posal to subject the Banking Corporations of
the States, to the operation of a Bankrupt law
ofthe United States. This was in due time,
at the opening ofthe late session of Congress
followed by the purely Democratic recom
mendation of establishing a standing army of
one hundred thousand men, to he made up by
periodical detachments from the militia of the
United States, which were to be divided for
that purpose into ten military districts, and
placed under the command of the President.
It was pari and parcel of the same system,
to destroy tbe revenue derived by the Govern
ment fiom the sale of the public lands, by con
verting them into political capital, according
to the scheme of Mr. Benton. The first of
these measures, after three years of steady re
sistance on the part of the People, has, by the
force of patronage, and the denial to the So
vereign State of New-Jersey of her right, of
representation on the floor of Congress, been
clothed with the forms of law. Those which
remain, are yet open to resistance, but that
resistance, to be successful, must lay the axe
to the root. It must begin by the dismis
sal from office, of those who originated them.
Let us for a moment enquire, what is this
Sub Treasury scheme which has been thus
pertinaciously forced upon a reluctant peo
ple ! On its face, it purports to be merely a
proposal to collect the revenues and to pay
the debts of the Government in gold and sil
ver, with such regulations for the practical en
forcement of the measure, as were deemed
necessary by its authors. Its advocates have
sought to delude us by the incessant repetition
of certain catch-words, as a Constitutional cur-
in deceiving themselves. The success of the
rency, a Divorce of the Government from the
Banks, Sac, &c. They have not succeeded even
measure has been brought about, not by a con
viction of tbe benefits which will flow from it
to the American people, but by the belief, that
the evils with which its advocates perceive it
to be fraught, will be compensated to them,
by the power and patronage of the Govern
ment, and by ptreserving the preponderance
of their party. The President wills it. He
has staked himself upon it. Will any good
democrat, whatever may be his own opinion,
desert his leader in this hour of trial ! The
President has pledged himself to this mea
sure. It is the bond of Uniou, between Mr.
Calhoun and himself. Will any good Demo
crat dissolve tho-e bonds ; sever a union so
pure in its conception, so maiked by integrity,
and singleness and sincerity of purpose, so
characterized by the affectionate respect, and
reciprocal confidence felt by the high contract
ing parties for each other! Take away the
capitalists who have money to put out to usu
ry, and those who, from their counexion with
the Banks, can borrow it for that purpose, who
are sighing for the return of the golden age of
five per cent.per month, to whom distress in the
money market is as certainly productive of a
rich harvest, as fruitful showers and a genial
sun are to the agriculturist—take away these
who are the natural advocates of a Sub-Trea
sury system, its sworn allies, whose unswerv
ing fidelity is secured by the strong tie of inter
est—withdraw the Presidential mandate to
all faithful followers—-secure Mr. Calhoun’s
adhesion, by the adoption of some other equal
ly cherished, but less pernicious vagary of his
prolific brain, one that will equally flatter, and
equally delude his aspirations forthe Presiden
cy relieve the Janisaries from the appre
hension that the predominance of their party
depends upon the present adoption of this
measure, whatever may be its ultimate result,
and our honest conviction is, that the sub-trea
sury scheme might be safely submitted to the
decision of the administration party alone,
with the certainty of its rejection. Who can
doubt this, who will dispassionately examine
the subject ! Its object is to banish credit from
all commercial transactions ; to limit us to a
metalic currency, and if the quantity of gold
and silver in circulation shall not suffice for
our wants, the result will be, that prices will
come down, till they have attained their low
est depths, and then we can resort to the an
cient and approved system of barter. This
is obviously the great principle of the bill.—
That which it proclaims throughout, is that no
paper money is entitled to credit except that
of the Government, and that is the consumma
tion which it is destined to accomplish. Gen.
Jackson destroyed the existing currency, a
currency which was competent to all our wants,
by the removal of the deposites in 1833 —
This was accomplished by employing the
agency of the State banks, and enlisting their
stockholders in his support, by making the
banks depositories of the National treasure,
and their customers, by directing the enlarge
ment of their discounts. The currency which
he substituted was the bills of the selected
Banks, which both he and the Secretary de
clared to he a perfectly good currency, while
they united in assuring us, that the business
of exchange was most advantageously arrang
ed under the auspices of the State Banks.—
Such was the state of things from 1833 to 1837.
In this latter year the veil was lifted. The
State Banks which had been so recently de
clared to be entirely adequate to all the wants
of the country, both as related to currency
and exchange, were then denounced as uttter-
ly unfit for all the purposes of the Government.
The watchword of the party was then, “ The
divorce of the Government from the Banks.”
Mr. Van Buren was willing to have reserved
to him, the right of using the Banks if he
thought proper, but the rallying point of the
Democracy was thereafter to be the collection
of the Revenue, and the payment of the dues
of the Government, in the only constitutional
currency, in gold and silver. To accomplish
this object, Mr. Van Buren sought to arm him
self wiih the power which is conferred by the
sub-treasury bill. The steady exertion of Ex
ecutive patronage duringthe intervening three
years, and the lawless disfanchisement of a
Sovereign State, have at length enabled him
to attain the summit of his wishes, by bending
to his will a reluctant majority of the Con
gress of the United States. Well, the pow
er has been conferred, and what is it ! It is
a power overyour property, to reduce its val
ue, and to increase the amount of your debts,
at the pleasure of the Federal Government.
Our limits do not peimit usto discuss this sub
ject fully. We offer, however, some plain
suggestions, which are perfectly obvious, and
sufficiently awakening.
The value of property is the price which it
will command. Unless you resort to mere
barter, that price is paid in money. If money
is scarce, property must fall in price. The
avowed object ofthe administration is to ren
der it so, by reducing us to a metallic currency,
or to such an amount of Bank paper, as will
he redeemable dollar for dollar, not according
to the exigencies of Commerce, but according
to the will of the Government, exercising its
control by means of the Sub-Treasury. If
this object is attained, the amount of our cir
culating medium will be very much diminished,
and with its diminution, the price of your pro
perty will fall. You have bought property at
prices regulated by the amount of circulating
medium in the country. You have contracted
debts under like circumstances. That amount
is reduced. Your property falls in price.—
The amount of your debts is increased, by the
increased value of money. The rich man who
is out of debt, does not feel the pressure. His
property is nominally reduced in value, but
he has no occasion to sell. He who owns
property to the amount of five thousand dol
lars, and is indebted to half that amount, is at
the mercy of his creditor. His property is
brought to the hammer, and will not pay his
debts. The harvest of the monied capitalist
then begins, and he thrives on the misery of
his neighbor. So also with the mechanic, and
the laboring man of every description. He
must work for reduced wages, and what is
wrested from him goes into the pockets of the
rich. Nor will this be made up to him by a
corresponding reduction in the price of living.
Aiticles of domestic produce will fall, but the
prices of foreign markets will not be affected
by our blunders. For his tea, sugar, coffee,
iron and salt, and every other foreign article
which he consumes, the laborer must pay the
former prices, with less than half the means
of doing so. The wealthy manufacturer, who
has monied capital at command, will revel in
prosperity, by this reduction of the wages of
labor. The measure as to him, will indeed
have all the effects of a tariff, in its most odious
form, because the premium which it will give
to manufactures will be extorted from those
whose necessities compel them to labor for
their bread. Its opeiation will thus be to
make the “rich richer, and the poor poorer.”
This is not all. The fall in prices will not
only tend to lower wages. It will diminish
production, and thus make it more difficult for
the laboring man to get work, even at reduced
wages. But the Sub-Treasury which reduces
him to a miserable pittance, by curtailing the
wages of his labor, doubles the salary of the
office-holder. He is paid the same amount as
heretofore, and paid in specie, the value of
which, measured by the prices of the produce
of the country, is more than doubled. Mr.
Van Buren with his salary of twenty-five thou
sand dollars, can now purchase as much of
that produce, as he could have done with fifty
thousand dollars, at the time he came into
office. Thus what impoverishes the people,
enriches him. If Mr. Van Buren honestly
believed that the good of the couutry required
this law, notwithstanding the suffering it would
produce, ought be not at least to have shared
in its effects ! Since he was about to increase
the value of money, why did he not recom
mend a corresponding reduction in the nomi
nal amount of his own salary, and that of other
office-holders]
We are to consider this measure in connec
tion with the accompanying proposal to sub
ject the banking corporations of the States to
a bankrupt law of the Federal Government,
and we have no hesitation to say, that it will
be fatal to the Stale Banks, destructive of
commercial credit, and must eventuate in the
establishment of a Government Bank, under
the sole control of the President. It has been
customary of late to inveigh against the Banks
as aristocracies, as the sources of our com
mercial embarrassments, as unfriendly to the
ll j t ? reStS ^ l ^ e P eo pl e - The limits of this
address will not permit us to enter into an
elaborate discussion of these questions. We
confine ourselves therefore to the statement
of some plain facts, which we submit to your
own reflection.
Banks are said to be of aristociatic origin.
The reverse is the fact as all history will
prove. They originated in the free cities of
Continental Europe, who made tbe first suc
cessful stand against aristocracy. Banks flou
rish in those European States, which are com-
paratkely free. The hard money countries
o that continent, are those where despotism
In Ji* var ious forms and modifications prevai’s.
I hey are said to be the cause of our com
mercial embarrassments. The fact is not so.
One of the chief causes of these, is that the
labor, and capital, and enterprize of the whole
Southern States, is for the most part employed
in the production and sale of one great staple
article, the value of which is dependent on
foreign markets, which are liable to fluctuate.
Another is to he found in the operation ofthe
English corn laws, producing a’great depres
sion of prices, in seasons of scarcity in Great
Britain, which is our principal market. So
great a proportion of our agricultural labor
and capital are employed in tbe production of
cotton, its purchase and transportation to a
foreign market, engross so much of the capital
and enterprize of our merchants, and all the
other members of the community are so inti
mately connected with these two classes, that
any sudden and material depression in its
price necessarily affects the comforts of the
whole. In such a state of things, Banks may
alleviate the sufferings of the community, by a
discreet and liberal extension of their dis
counts, or they may increase them, by a con
traction beyond the limits which their own
safety demands; but of the original cause of
these embarrassments, they are entirely guilt
less, because they have not the power to pro
duce them. These result from the fluctuations
of Commerce, and affect us so deeply because
we have so large a stake in one particular
branch of it. Scotland has many Banks, but
is comparatively free from commercial revul
sions, because her trade is limited, and there
fore steady. Hamburg is of an opposite char
acter. The hard money system prevails there,
and yet under the fluctuations of trade, eighty-
two failures for more than $12,000,000 have oc
curred there in the short space of three months.
It is in vain then to ascribe our commercial
difficulties to the State Banks, or to recom
mend the Sub-Treasury bill as a preventive of
fluctuations in Commerce, and tbe embarrass
ments which follow them. The argument
serves only to disclose the views of its fraim-
ers—their hostility to all Banks. Fellow-
Citizens ! we ask, are you prepared to seethe
Banks of your State prostrated ! Are you
prepared for the establishment of a great Go
vernment Bank, under the sole control of the
President of the United States ! Are you
prepared to see your own Banking corpora
tions drained of their specie by tbe operation
of the Sub-Treasury system, and then to have
their affairs wound up by United States offi
cers, under a Federal Bankrupt law ? Take
any single case, that the effect of such an op
eration may be rendered more obvious. Sup
pose it to be directed against the Georgia
Railroad and Banking Company, which is se
lected only because its bills have, it is believ
ed, a more extended circulation than any oth
er. The first effect would be that those bills,
dispersed all over the country, would cease
to circulate as currency. The holders could
only claim their dividends from tbe assignees.
But how is the fund which is to constitute
this dividend to be acquired ! The answer is
the assetts of the Bank will pass to the assig
nees. These will consist of their specie, their
property, and their notes and bills, that is,
the notes and bills due by individuals to the
Bunk. These must be collected. Jurisdic
tion will doubtless be given to the Federal
Courts, for the purpose, and the process will
be summary. Now suppose all the debts due
to that institution to be putin suit, judgments
obtained, and the property of the debtor
brought to the hammer: what will it bring !—
Must it not be inevitably sacrificed ! Can you
conceive a scene of greater pecuniary distress
among the debtors of that Bank, their fami
lies and dependants! But this is only a
partial view. It is not supposed that the
Georgia Railroad Bank is more liable than
any othei, to the operation of a Federal Bank
rupt law. All are liable to it. All will be
at the mercy of the Government, armed with
the power which the Sub-Treasury gives it,
and in proportion as these operations are ex
tended, will the distress of our people be mul
tiplied. The property of the citizen brought
to the hammer under such circumstances, will
not pay one-fourth part of his debt. The
monied capitalists will become universal Lords
Proprietors, the monied Aristocrats of the
country, while the industrious citizen, who
under the fostering care of the Government
would have secured a competence for him
self and his family, will be reduced to pover
ty. The former may well exult in the pros
pect, and cry “ lo, Triumphe” to the chief
who thus ministers to their cupidity. To the
latter nothing is left but determined, unfalter
ing resistance. When that Government, by
the control of the public treasure, shall have
acquired this absolute mastery over the pecu
niary interests of the people, the proposal to
raise a standing army will meet with feeble
resistance, and this union of the sword and
the purse, with the corruption produced by
the abuse of Executive patr-onage, will inevi
tably lead to despotism, or to anarchy.
We invite your careful and dispassionate
consideration of the following extract from
the letter of a distinguished Virginian, who,
unconnected with party, contemplates this ex
citing subject, as a man of science and a pat
riot. “ The country is now plunged in great
commercial distress, an unparalelled pleasure
exists in the money market—the Banks south
of New-York have almost all suspended spe
cie payments—a general gloom hangs over the
future. The Fresidenthas, with more ingenui
ty than philosophy,seized on these circumstan
ces forthe purpose of throwing tbe popular odi
um on the banking system, and enforcing the
policy of the Sub^-Treasury. Now, sir, on the
contrary it does seem to me that the present
crisis, when properly understood, exhibits the
dangerous tendency of the Sub-Treasqj^; in
a light which should make the patriot shudder
at it* estsWisbjsent- tf tbe explanation which
