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jfkom the Nashville Inion.
G EX. KSO X—J IT J) G E W HITE’S
TIMTIM 0 N V—O. BRADL EV.
Strange as it may appear to men of can
dor and history of all parlies, the malice of
Gen. Jackson’s enemies—especially those
who formerly professed to be bis friends—
will not sutler the venerable patriot tn retire
in peace. Just before the expiration of his
Presidency, when languishing on a bed el
sickness, from which his enemies hoped he
would nev?r rise, he was assailed, traduced
and abused by a small taction ol political des •
perildoes in Congress, under the vain licpe
that their arrows oi'slander and vituperaiion
would aid his painful diseases in accelera
ting his demise. Their prison- d missiles
fell harmless at hisfeet. Undor the protec
tion of a kind Providence, tmd through the
recuperative energies of his mental and
bodily constitution, h; survived the joint at
tacks of disease ami malice, and lived to
complete his official term with increased
honor; and to bestow upon hi., country the
parting benediction of his Farewell Addrt 5...
lie lived not only to complete these great
national objects, but to see himself once
more restored tn the sweets of private lite,
under the root ot his In loved Hermitage, in
the enjoyment ot’renovatcxl health, and fol
lowed by the praters and blessings of mil
lions of his countrymen. But even in the
privacy of his retreat—after having gladly
surrendered all official rank and power
lie is still pursued py the relentless malice of
a band of impotent political traitors.
We are naturally led to make these re
marks from seeing the testimony given bv
Judge White, John Bell and Balie Pej ton,
before the late Commitee of Investigation,
published ami quoted with approbation bv
the presses devoted to the interests of these
desperate and fallen men. The whole ob
ject—the entire scope and design—of the
testimony ot each of these deadly enemies
us the Ex-President, is to destroy and pros
trate the character and fame of that “ time
honored” patriot. The whole of their testi
mony is founded upon/ttwiw/y—electioneer
ing gossip —newspaper slander—what they
falsely choose to say they believe orsusp ct—
npun in ferences drawn from supposed (not
real) facts —and written statements, in the
form oj letters, prepared by persons noton
oath, actuated by party malice, and,as the
fact is proved in some instances—from
persons wholly destitute of truth ; or who are
wholly mistaken in the fids which they pre
tend to detail.
Among other hearsay testimony, not on
oath, Judge White has introdcced into ids
deposition, to prove political corruption on
Gen. J tekson, a letter to himself from Mr.
Orville Bradley, one of his pupils, in winch
Air. Bradley, in violation of the obligations
of private confidence, pretends to detail a !
private conversation with Gen. Jackson in j
the fall of 1834; in which Gen. Jackson,, ac
cording to his statement, urged the proprie
ty of running Mr. Van Buren as the republi
can candidate for the Presidency, and of
running Judge White on the same ticket as
a candidate for the Vice Presidency. Now
in a private conversation—Gen. Jackson
always acting above disguise or conceal
ment in his opinions of men and measures—
we can see no harm or impropriety in his
having conversed on such a subject ; but
when the fact comes to be disclosed upon
authority which dare not be controverted,
that Mr. Bradley has invented the conver
sation, wilfully misrepresented the truth, and
given a false coloring to the conversation ;
ana that Judge White has been equally
guilty of perverting and misrepresenting
tin-facts, for the purpose of injuring his
former friend—the man to whom he is in
debted for all the political standing he late
ly enjoyed—the base object and design of
the whole testimony, will become so appa
rent as to disgust every man who cherish
es a veneration for truth, honor and fair
dealing.
The whole of the testimony of the par
ties above mentioned, will hereafter be laid
before our readers, accompanied by such
facts aud comments as may serve to eluci- '
dale the feelings, candor, purposes and de-;
signs of the witnesses.
Gen. Jackson, neither in public nor pri
vate life, ever suffers a wilful sl.tmler upon I
himself to pass without correction. For |
the present, and until he obtains possession j
ot the necessary documents, we are au
thorized to lay the following communica
tion before the public. It will at once be!
perceived, that the venerable writer—his
honor having been shamelessly end wan
tonly attacked—is acting purely in self de
fence.
Who among the whole faction of new
born Whigs and testimony manufacturers,
v.ill venture to dispute the word, the truth,
ortliedionor of Andrew Jackson? If there
be one such, let him stand forth. Whether
he be member of Congress, member of the
Legislature, a candidate for office, or pri
vate citizen, the people wish to see him.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE UNION.
Sir; You will oblige me by giving the
enclosed a place in the next number of your
paper.
A’ our ob’t servt.
ANDREW JACKSON.
April 4, 1837.
TO THE PUBLIC.
My attention having been drawn by a
friend to certain comments, in the Nash
ville Republican aud in the Whig and
Banner, upon what purports to be “ex
tracts from the Journal of the select com
mittee of the House of Representatives to
investigate the Executive Department, Bcc.
&tc.,” among which is the testimony in part
of Judge White—l beg leave to slate to the
public, that in due time when I receive the
Journal of these proceedings, and as soon
as the state of my health permits, I shall
expose the injustice done to me by Judge
White, and those he has used to excuse his
attempt to connect my name with dishonor
able overtures, in the political contest which
has resulted in the election of Mr. Van
Buren to the Presidency.
It is due to myself now, to state that I
never had, or held but one conversation
with Mr. Orville Bradley on the subject
of the late election, and this was in my
own carriage, mi my way from the Her
mitage to Washington in the fall of 1831,
in company with Maj. A. J. Donalson and
Mr. Lewis Randolph. He fed in with us
on the way on horseback.—We were go
ing to halt for the night at his Father’s.
It was a hot day, and I invited him to take
a seat in my carriage. He accepted the
invitation about seven miles from his Fa
ther’s and rode with us, my hoy riding his
horse. The conversation" originated in a
statement made by me, coming from that
good old staunch Republican, Governor
Blount, of a vmicusof the members of the
Convention then sitting at Nashville at
tempted to be gotten up by John Bell and
others, with the view of nominating Judge
V. nite tor the Presidency, in opposition to
any nomination which the great body of
the Republican party might make n’t the
Convention, proposed to be held at Balti
more. 1 his project Gov. Blount inform
ed me, he opposed as the friend of Judge
White, believing that it was designed to
promote the views of the Whigs and Nul
liiiers. No comment of' mine upon this
statement, disclosed or conveyed any other
sentiment than that ol concurrence in the
w isdom of the counsel which Gov. Blount
had given.
As I shall however notice this con
versation more particularly hereafter, it is
only necessary for me to add here, that the
I statement math; by Mr. Bradley, as append
ed to the testimony of Judge White, before
i the committee, ol a proposition of mine,
'to run Mr. Van Buren for the Presidency
j and Judge W hite lor the Vice Presidency,
/s utterly false. No such proposition was
lever made by me to him, or to any one
i else; nor was there any pretext furnished in
I any part of that conversation, for the tissue
lot misrepresentation and false colouring
which characterises the whole of Air. Brad
ley’s narrative on this subject.
ANDREW JACKSON.
fFrow/Ae G7oit’.]
ARGUMENT TAKING THE PLACE
OF RANT.
The able paper which we extract from
the Journal of Commerce cannot fail to
convince the understanding of every intel
ligent reader, however little it may satisfy
the passions which have produced our dif
ficulties, or those at work to increase them,
by giving thair excesses a new’ direction.
The author of the article is evidently a
ealm observer and carefid calculator, who
can exclude al! party bias from a question of
figures. He shows, by his style, that he is a
min of letters ; by his clear perception of
causes, tint he has studied human nature,
and properly appreciates the emtagmus
feeling which sometimes eclipses die sound
sense of a whole community. He has read
the history of the South Sea babble; the
Mississippi bubble ; the bank paper and laud
bubbles of 1319-20; the cotton bubble of
1825, and very justly applies the princi
ples ofactiou which have operated, in every
era of extravagant speculation, on visiona
ry values ol stocks, lots, and lands, to the
present time.
We are somewhat surprised that those w ho
attribute the embarrassments of the present
day to the veto of the Bank of me United
States and the consequent measures, should
forget that the Bank of the United States
still exists, and, as Mr. Biddle lias declared,
in undiminished power, it is assumed that
Jtale banks would not have multiplied if
the bank of Air. Biddle and associates had
been re-chartcred. The fact, however, is,
that a vast multitude, a great majority’ of
the existing State bank were created before
or during the term of the United States
Bank charter ; and of the actually opera
ting State bank privilege and power which
lias grown up since, we have little doubt
that Air. Biddle wields the greater portion, ■
including that procured by the manage
ment of his agents at Harrisburg against
the will of the people of Pennsylvania, well
known at the time, and shown most conclu
sively at the subsequent election. Do the
denunciations of new State banks come well
from Mr. Biddle and his friends, who have
succeeded in putting up the greatest one in
point oi capital, the strongest in regard to
privileges, and the most anomalous as it
respects its connection with roads, canals,
schools, &cc. See. ever heard of in any coun
try—a ba.sk which has endeavored to ex
empt itself from legislative repeal or con
trol, by having that clause voted down which
recognises this right as to other State insti
tutions? Does this guilty confession, that
it was established against the will of the
people, and that it does not wish a subse
quent Legislature to pass upon it as upon
other State institutions, authorize the sweep
ing condemnation of those establishments
which are based upon the consent of the
community ? Whatever may be said to
this, it certainly does not lie in the mouths
of those who contributed to swell so enor
mously the amount of State bank capital, to
cry down the administration opposed to it,
as the author of the policy embraced by its
enemies.
But how can those who have witnessed
I the ever-banking, over-trading, and bank
ruptcies, of 1819 and of 1825—when the
Bank ot the United States was, the great
machine that managed the curency, and
commerce, and corporations of the Union,
with the help of the Treasury—reconcile
their present assumptions with their for
mer experience of the action of the Bank ?
How do they reconcile it with the present
condition of England with a national bank
iu the plenitude of its power, and sustained
by the credit and securities of the Govern
ment ? The complaint in England is, that
the bank, as the lender and maker of the
currency of the kingdom, is directly inter
ested in the expansions and contractions,
which makes a sacrifice of the many, to the
cupidity ot the few. Asa lender, it is the in
terest oi the bank entrusted with the power of
making the national currency, to throw out
as much paper as possible, upon the smallest
amount of actual specie capital. Tempted
by avidity, the Bank of England, as well as
the Bank of the United States, has again
and again extended its issues until the Gov
ernment aid was essential to save it from ir
reparable bankruptcy. This is the case
at present; and yet the partisans and de
l pendents that hang upon the great bank
ing power in both countries, impute to the
small banks the great commerciardisasters
which spring alone from that predominant,
allied moneyed control, which notoriously
exerts the most direct influence over the
exchanges and commerce of England and
the United States,
From the Jourwil of Commerce.
“The disorders oj the limes are owing to
the misgovernment of General Jackson and
the perpe luulionof abuses by his successor.”
This allegation meets the eye on almost
every page of the newspaper press; possi
bly it may be transcribed, and fixed on the
more durable page of history. Yet it were
desirable, for the sake ,>f truth, that it should
be first more clearly demonstrated; for,
w hatever may he the value of - money, truth
retrains its sterling impress. Those who
affirm it may he tinder strong conviction;
but there are strong minds of an opposite
opinion, and this alone calls for a sparing
use of invective and crimination. Alode
ration upon disputable questions is the un
failing concomitant of sound judgment.
Since fondling an illusion will neither pay
our debts nor prosper our fortunes, it were
better to send our bucket to the bottom of
the well, and see if truth will come up. By
a close examination of what passes under
our eyes, we may arrive at some conclusions
l that have a more general bearing. There
fore, let us begin at home. A radius of
five miles from the City Hall will sweep
over an area of about 50,000 acres. De
ducting from this the sweep of a radius of
one mile to cover the site of the city ten
years ago, say 2,000 acres, leaves 48,000
acres; one-fourth off for water, a." J we have
36,000 acres, which ten years ago were
valued at an average of not over SIOO pet
acre, or 3 1-2 millions of dollars in the
whole, This tract of land has recently
been passing from hand to hand, at an av
erage value ot over 1500 dollars per acre,
or 50 millions of dollars for the whole. A
radius of ten miles from the City Hall will
sweep an area of 200,000 acres; deduct
the lower area of 5,000 acres, leaves 150,-
000 acres—one-fifth off for water, and we
have 120,000 acres which ten years ago
were valued at an average of less than 50
dollars per acre, say six millions in the
whole. The present or recent value has
been estimated at an average of over §4OO
per acre, or fifty millions in the whole.
Here, then are 9 1-2 million.-, mounted up
to 100 millions. Tins is, it is true, a some
what crude approximation, yet an examin
ation of the subject upon more minute data,
for which there is not room here, would, it
is believed, prove the estimate to be not
exaggerated. The addition here shown
of over 90 millions to 9 1-2 millions, is
mainly independent, it will be perceived,
of what constituted, strictly, city propertv
in New York and Brooklyn ten years ago,
and independent of the prodigious enhance
ment in the value of’ that property. The
magnitude of the amount will be bet
ter understood by a comparison with
what used to be called wealth. The
whole real and, personal estate of the city of
New York, including the island, was val
ued in 1324 at 83 millions, and in 1827 at
112 millions.
Now it may be asked, in what does the
value of this 150,000 acres consist?
It must be obvious, that for the cultiva
tion of cabbages, which is probably the
most profitable use to which this land could
be turned, it can be worth but a small part
of the money. A good cabbage bed re
quires ten square feet of ground per head;
the interest upon this ground at 25 cents
per square foot, or §6OO per lot of 25 bv
100, is 15 cents; but the cabbage head trim
med and in market is worth but six cents,
and full five cents of this must go for labor
mid manure, especially as much of the land
has been rained by carling the soil off and
carting sand on. In what then does this
value consist? Clearly in the bare agree
ment to value it so. This agreement is
bolstered up by opinion, opinion gives way
before reality, aud the whole is discovered
to be a bubble. Then it is to be treated as
a bubble; not as a bubble confined to this
circumference of ten miles, but a bubble
extending from—we used to say from Maine
to Georgia, but we must enlarge our limits
—extending from the granite banks on our
notheastern boundary, wherever that may
be, to the Rio del Norte on the confines of
Mexico proper. All bubbles are inflated
by opinion—false opinions become con
tagious, aud they increase in magnitude or
explode, according as the contagion spreads
or is checked, it should be said, measura
bly so, for though false opinion may have I
a great run, it cannot run for ever. Opin
ion cannot change the nature of things,
though it may permit the illusion for a
measurably greater or less length of time,
that they are changed; moreover, it is the
nature ol bubbles to become attenuated as
tbeir inflation proceeds; their course is on
ward; if stationary for a moment they van
ish.
I So much for truth, —bold, starting, dis
agreeable it may be—but such as it°is, we
must take it. It is perfectly idle to make
wry faces at it any longer, there is no cure
but in swallowing it—no restoration to a
wholesome state of things but by ’doctor
ing for the real disease. And now for the
causes.
That a bubble, and such a stupendous
bubble as this, is to be regarded as a great
calamity, no one will deny, and whether the
inflation or the explosion occasions the
greatest mischief, it is difficult to determine.
The unequal acquisition of wealth is in it
self a great disadvantage to the society—
and is only tolerated as an unavoidable
consequence of that security to propertv
which is found to be necessary as a reward
for industry and frugality. But wealth
acquired witiiout industry, by speculation,
by bubbles, is mischievous in itself, in its
consequences, and in the example. So is
also the tremendous boulvtrsemenl which
the explosion of a bubble occasions, sweep
ing away in its train the fruits of years of
patient industry, overturning the innocent
with the guilty, and obliterating all distinc
tion between frugality and providence oti
one hand, and the wildest gambling and
extravagance on the other. The authors
of stub a general wreck cannot be visited
with 100 severe a punishment; aud if truth
can put his finger on General Jackson, and
say, “this is the man,” his name will not
go down to posterity with a halo of glory,
individuals are not usually held responsible
to the public for tbeir private dealings and
speculations, so that they do not gamble in
a petty way with dice or cards. But sts a
bubble is the imposthinne of diseased pub
lic opinion, those who exercise a control
over that opinion whether officially or by
the prominence they hold or give them-
STANDARD OF UNION.
selves, may'airly be brought to the bar.'
The alleptiotis against General Jackson
are, that bjvetoing the bank, removing
the deposit*, importing specie, warring
with bank i>tes, and finally refusing to re
ceive them or the public lands, he has im
paired cotlidence, inflicted panics, disor
dered the exchanges, and made money
scarce. Tiose who believe all this may
look upon feneral Jackson as having exer
cised his* perogative to the lull extent, if
be has not iven overreached it; they may
even belieV: that be has given some pretty
hard thrust at the bubble itself; but before
they come to the conclusion that he has
worked threby a serious injury to the
country, thy must superadd another very
important iem of faith; they must believe
that the moe a bubble is inflated, the light
er will be tie consequences of its explosion,
or they mm be ignorant of the nature of
bubbles, an] believe them capable of ac
quiring peinanence. Many who have
looked calnly on, are firmly persuaded that
the panics utributed to General Jackson j
were, in truli, the symptoms of a real nan
i sea in speculation, momentarily affected, :
. perhaps, by his movements, like a billions
stomach by the smell of mutton chops, for I
bubblesareof a fragile texture, and always!
in danger oi' explosion, but springing, in I
reality, from a deep-seated disease, rather |
than the removal of money from one side i
of the street to the other; that the importa- j
tion of specie, and forcing it into circula
tion, was well calculated to give greater sta
bility to the currency; and, if nut justifiable !
on the principles of free trade, was, so far I
as it could be lawfully done, a judicious j
counteraction of the artificial force con-!
stantly exerted by the thousand paper mo
ney factories interested in driving it out, or j
producing tbatresult by forcing tbeir paper \
in—that checking the issue of paper mo
ney at the West was a wholesome, if not
lawful bar to extravagance in speculation
—that the disorder in exchange has been
owing wholly to the want of that confidence
which exists in stable times, when safety
depends upon actual wealth, and not, as in
the present day, upon the' circumscribed ;
limit ofa man’s operations, and is, in short, !
the result of a well-founded general dis- ]
trust. That the fall of cotton in Liver- ,
pool is owing to the refusal of the manti- |
lecturers to pay a higher price for it, and i
finally that the expediency of a eontioiling |
b ink power resolves itself into the question
applicable to all irresponsible despotisms,
the advantages of which turn exclusively
upon their skill in government and tbeir
mercy to the governed, snperadding our
special objection to bank despotism in the
opinion of those who believe the interests
of a controlling bank are best promoted
al the expense of those controlled by it.
If then the disease we labor under has
been truly pointed out, if it be a true bubble
resting upon false opinion, it requires the
most infatuated partizanship to attribute it to
a system of measures which however un
lawful, have all tended, if they have not
been aimed, to give it a fatal stab as it re
spects Air. Van Buren—he cannot with
any justice be held responsible for Gener
al Jackson’s measures, it is not his duty,
by unlawful intermeddling, to repair what
some may believe an injury resulting from
the unlawful intermeddling of bis prede
cessor; more especially as the injury itself
is open to serious doubts.
In’conclusion, it may fairly be charged
that a vast portion of the evils of the pre
sent time, resulting as they do from a dis
eased state of public opinion, with respect
to values, lays at the door of those, who by
falsely imputing the symtoms to in-opera-I
tive cases, have blinded themselves and the
public to this corroding cancer, until the
whole fabric of traffic is rotten to the core.
From the Globe.
THE PROCESS OF RELIEF.
An article originating in Mr. Biddle’s
Bank Gazette, and going the rounds of all
the presses in the interest of the Bank, says
of the specie circular:
“Mr. Van Baren continues it to prevent
the western and southwestern hanks from I
stopping payment; by which the surplus |
revenue in their hands would be in danger
of being lost, and the States thereby de
! prived of their respective shares, and the
Government its popularity. But can such
a flimsy barrier prevent the laws of trade
from having their due course? Are not
the merchants of the interior indebted to the
merchants of the seaboard fifty millions of\
dollars for merchandise, of which a large I
proportion is now due and payable? Must I
not collections be made during the present I
year by agents, sent out with orders, if they
cannot procure undoubted bills on the east,
to bring with them the'itpecic? Must there
nert therefore inevitably be a demand upon
the banks for coin, and if they refuse to
pay one d mand. will there not be a local
run upon them that may drain them of their
last dollar? Just us certain, as that the spe
cie left the interior in 1821 and. 1822, in
' search of its level, so certain is it that it
\ivill leave it in 1837 and, 1838, and, if it
1 be iu)l with, the consent of the administra
j fz'ozi, it wilt, be without it.”
! The nation has passed through a regu
lar preparation for the surrender of its gold
i and silver to England; and this is but a
prelude to the application of Air. Biddle
j to Congress, to surrender the currency of
! the country into his keeping. For weeks,
it was the constant echo of the bank or-
I gatis, “We don’t want the specie”—“it
puts the ballast on the wrong side of the
’■hip.” It will serve the western banks to
make issues upon better in litmdon than in
their own vaults, quoth the Journn.l of Com
merce; ami a meeting of the New York
merchants, in a letter signed by their chair
man, John A. Stevens, said to their Mag
nus Apol/o. Mr. Biddle, that “IT WAS
RESOLVED, AT A MEETING OF
I’HE MERCHANTS HELD THIS
DAY. THAT THE BANK OF THE
U NIT E1) ST ATES B E IN VIT ED T O
INTERPOSE, AT THIS JUNCTURE,
BY A SHIPMENT OF COIN, AND
BY THE USE OF THEIR CREDIT,
SO AS TO MEET THE EXIGEN-.
GIES OF THE OCCASION.”
This was done to countenance the mode
of relief suggested for England by the
Barings’ circular, ami adopted by Biddle
under their instructions. These Anglo
bank potentates had but to give the order,
and their dependents among the American
merchants—like the mayor, aidermen, and
enforced citizens, of London, who pressed
Richard the Third, after strangling his
nephews, to wear the crown—are ready to
give up the sovereign power over the cur
rency to foreign intruders. “Do, Air.
Biddle, make A SHIPMENT OF COIN,” (say
the merchants,) and procure for us the gra
cious guardianship of the Bank of Eng
land and of your employers, by this willing
surrender of all that we have to save our
selves, and which may be necessary to save
the powers we implore. It would be a sad
thing, Air. Biddle, were the Bank of Eng
land to break, or suspend specie payments,
as it has heretofore done for years together.
It would be a weighty argument against the
renewal of its monopoly over the currency
and exchanges of this country, through the
agency of its branch in the United States,
under the superintendence of its great fi
nancier. It would be a melancholy begin
ning of that war which we bad reason to
believe, from the Barings’ circular, “the
aristocracy of wealth” was about to wage
most successfully against the democracy of
numbers through “the great political en
gine, Lthe Bank of the United Slates.”
Alake haste, Air. Biddle, to make “ship
ments oj coin.” This is the substance of
the prayers which the American merchants
now offer up to propitiate the Chesnut street
throne; and they are such devout worship
pers of the grand monarque, that they
have sent a committee of merchants on a
. pilgrimage to Washingtonf to compel the
Government to aid them in the pious pur
pose of sacrificing the gold and silver of
I the United States on the shrine of the mer
i cantile deity in its temple in Threadneedle
street, London. The last Courier and En
' quirer says of this ’body of bank represen
tatives, (they are of the same class with those
who poureddown on President Jackson in
the days of the first panic:)
‘‘A Committee from the Merchants leave
here this morning for Washington, to rep
resent the state of our affairs to the Execu
tive, and urge upon him the repeal of the
Specie circular anti the immediate assem-
I bling of Congress. They will be joined
]by similar committees from Philadelphia
. and Baltimore.”
i According to the Courier and Enquirer,
j they are to impress this as the settled mer
! cantile creed:
“We can never recover from them, un
til matters are permitted to resume their
natural course, and until we, by an expor
tation of specie, supply the demand for it.
It well then cease, and credit again resume
its former vivifying functions.
“We believe the Specie circular is one of
the main causes of our inability, or unwil
lingness to return this specie, together with
the injunctions imposed on the Deposite
Banks,” &c. &.c.
The whole sin of the Government and
the specie circular, it must now be seen, is
that it presents an obstruction to “the ex
portation of specie.” That it prevents, to
a great extent, the continued speculation in
public lands is good; but in fortifying the
western banks, and preventing the expor
tation of specie, to sustain the Bank of
England and its dependencies, is bad—ve
ry bad.
But it seems from Air. Biddle’s official
(see our first extract) that there is another
resort, of which Mr. Biddle has already
availed himself, to bring-back the disasters!
of 1819,’20, and’2l, on the West. It is!
to send out agents to make runs on the west- i
ern banks, auid bring the specie from their I
vaults to the seaboard, for exportation to
England; and does not this render more j
essential a perseverence in the specie cireu- !
lar? The agents of the English money!
dealers are to be sent into the West to col-1
lect the demands of the merchants; not in !
the products of western industry, as was!
expected when the debt of FIFTY MILLIONS '
—which, we are told, the people have con
tracted for British goods—was created, but
it is to be pressed for in specie. And wl .at
under such circumstances, is the natural
I resource to which that section ought to look
j for support in the emergency? If tb e sales
j of western lands produce money, i s it not
well that it should be demanded io precious
metals, to enable the banks to sustain the
drain made by the collecting agents of Air.
Biddle’s mercantile host, who Ury employ
ed in the work of stripping thr • West of the
specie capital, which can alone maintain
the banks and their circulation? Is the
I emigrant, who comes to ou r continent with
| a view to settle in the Va’Jey of the Alis
j sissippi, to be invited by our Government
to drop his bag of gold or silver at the first
port, to be returned to ’England in the next
packet, and carry out in. l ieu of it Mr. Bid
dle’s, oi some ol his allies’ bank paper, to
pass into the hands ol the public receiver,
and thence into the deposite banks, instead
ol the cash, wbicL the law requires them
to pa}? We rer.iember well that the Gov
ernment played this part for the Bank of
the United States in the pressure of 1819.
It not only allowed the notes of the bank
to be taken for lands; but this paper was
surrendered to branches of the United
States Baukin the West. It used these
notes to dr’.iin the specie from all the State
institutiot’.s to the verge of breaking; then
it lent oct the balance to the people, with a
knowledge that the State banks were pla
ced by it in circumstances to break, as soon
as it threw out their paper in loans, which
it could not cash; ami the final move of the
bank was to sue the people for the bor
row ings obtained in the bank notes that
perished in their hands, and the collections
on execution were enforced in specie. The
veal estate ol debtors, to the amount of
millions, was sacrificed in this process; and
it was the cash, thus withdrawn from the
hanks and citizens ol the West, through the
joint action oi the Government and the
Bank ol the United States, that enabled
Air. Cheves to announce in his report to
Congress that the mammoth institution was
saved, by the money waggoned from the
West, Irom the consequences of its slock
gamblings and losses by the frauds of its
managers. And is the West again to be
i the victim of the same policy, to save the
Bank of England and its brood ol specu
lators on both sides of the Atlantic? and is
the administration at Washington to be dri
ven by Biddle committees to join v ith the
bank agency of the foreign bankers, to aid
>n this suicidal policy?
From the Washington City Globe.
PROPHECY. ’
After the failure of the English branch
bank’s, attempts to co-erce a re-charter
from Congress by the distress and panic
created by it in 1833—4, for that purpose,
a regular systematic plan was laid by its
managers here, in conjunction with its al
lies abroad, to enable it to make another
tiger's leap upon the country, and, by the
increased ferocity of the grasp, and violence
of the spasms of the trading communitv,
compel a hoped-for pliable administration to
become its prey. We bad marked the man
ner in which it stealthily approached its ob
ject before it sprung into the arena of the
Presidential election of 1832. To prepare
for that epoch, it expanded its loans during
the two preceeding years almost THIRTY
millions of dollars. This was to bring the
people into its power as their great creditor,
and to bring that influence to bear at the
polls, as well as in Congress. The Bank
triumphed in Congress, but the President
was victorious at the polls. The veto pre
vailed, but then the removal of the deposits
furnished the pretext for the bank to move
in the opposite direction for a charter.
Compulsion was to do the work which lav
ish corrupted, and all the propitiating in
fluence of thirty millions, could not effect.
But the bank was obliged to disguise its
wicked designs to oppress the community,
under the plea of necessity ; and this neces
sity it laid at the door of the administration, i
It was obliged (it said) by the veto to wind
up; and the removal of the deposites had <
crippled its means so, that it was obliged
to call on and squeeze its debtors. It con
tracted/tcezi/y and filled the conn- ,
try with panic and distress, and Congress!
with petitions for the restoration of the de
posites. If this attempt to conquer and
drive Goverment had succeeded, it would
have been but a prelude to a succession of
similar movements and political triumphs,
which must have resulted in a re-charter of ,
the bank. The virtue of the people, and
the popularity of the Chief Magistrate,
proved too strong for this new mode of at
tack. The managers of this institution, its
leaders in Congress, and allies abroad, then
laid new plans, began their prepartions for
another assault, but deferred the execution
until some other than General Jackson was
at the head of the Government. The mo
tive for this was very obvious. The Old
Chief had proved, after repeated trials, too
hard for the men and money of Great Brit
ain. The Alessrs. Barings, Biddle and
Co. concluded that “ the moneyed aristocra
cy” could not safely venture another con
flict with “ the democracy of numbers,” until
| a President were elected, under whom they
, might venture to hope that the policy of
the Government towards the bank would be
mitigated,” as the London bankers’ circu
lar has with great effrontery presumed
would be the case, now that Mr. Van Buren
is at the helm. Having in view a favora
ble change for their schemes after the instal
lation ofa new’ President, the monyed pow
er in Great Britain, which seeks,"through
the agency of its “ great political engine”
in this country, a resumption of the control
over the currency and trade of the country,
together with a monopoly of the exchange
business, coupled with an enoraious taxing
power, imposed through its circulation of
paper, the system of expansion was again
adopted by the bank, w'nich but a little |
while before bad declared it was compelled
to wind up, in obedience to the expressed
will ol the nation supporting the veto—a
course wkiclt it insisted it was oblige to has
ten at the thre'.;.- uld of the two years given
tor this purpose, in consequence of the re
moval oi tl.e deposites. When it assumed
■ this new at’jtude of expanding, instead of
■ closing its. concerns, its object could not be
[ conce’uhxl from any who would look to ex-
I peric nee for a guide to conclusions. From
i mo’nt'n to mouth, in the year 1835, (in pub
! li’jh ,ug the returns of the bank,) we gave
[ w’lxrniug that die bank was laboring to pro
i Luce the calamities in which it is now re
joicing, as a means of effecting its schemes.
»V e give the following as oueof the opening
articles, in which we prophesied what the
bank has laboriously endeavored to accom-
! plish.
From the Globe es March, 24, 1835.
■ COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE
1 LOANSAND CIRCULATION OF THE
BANK OF UNITED STATES IN 1834
, I 1836.
The total amount ol' loans on the Ist March, 1835,
was - - - $57,814,404
Do. Ist Nov. 1834, 45,754,201
i
! Extention of loans in 4 months 12,060,203
. The circulation oif the Ist •
March, 1835, was 19.519,777
Do. Ist Nov. 1834, 15,968,731
. Increase of circulation in 4 months, 73,551,046
Balance due State Banks Ist
March, 1835, - - 2,750,157
Do. Ist Nov. 1834, - - 913,992
i
, Increase of balance due banks in four
| mouths' - - - 1,836,165
, This furnishes an outline ofthcoperations
.! of a great institution for four months, whose
[•! charter will expire in less than twelve
mouths; which is declared by its friends
to be already dead .; and which, if its ow’n
; I declarations, and those of its supporters are
I to be relied upon, must have been employ-
Jed since July, 1832, in calling in its
. loans and winding up its business, independ
, ent of its curtailment it declared it was forc
t ed to make by the removal of the deposits.
JFe forewarn Ute public of their danger !
, The bank never will yield, without anotli
, er struggle to obtain a recharter. It is not
, dead. It is not even asleep. It never was
more powerful or more active than at this
moment The declarations of the hank,
. made through its friends, that it is to all in
tents now dead, are but a stratagem of its
■ wily managers, to lull the people into a
state of delusive security.
it intends to produce another season of
distress, during that season it will be
Jouud in the field, contending for a contin
ued existence. On the one hand, it will
produce distress and ruin ; on the other, it
will pour out millions to aid in accomplish
ing its object. It will shake the country from
its centre to its borders ; yea, it will move
heaven and earth, before it will yied in des
pair. Why are hundreds of thousands ot
reports of Mr. Tyler circulated throughout
every part of the country, in extras ot' the
bank gazettes, such as the National Gazette
and Intelligencer, previous to its renewed
application for a recharter ?
ITlie bank knows by experience what all
know in theory, that an excessive expulsi-
on must be followed by a more excessive
contraction. The more rapid the expan
sion, the sooner the maximum to which it
can go will be reached, the more rapid and
the more distriictive will be the contraction
which must inevitably follow.
Unnatural expansions of the currency of
a country, reduces the value of money;
gives artificial value to property; causes
excessive importations of foreign commod
ities: fora time leads to extravigance, and
encourages wild and visionary speculations,
hen contraction follows, the scene chang
es. Real estate falls suddenly below its real
value; that value which is founded upon
a permanent and necessary amount of cir
culating medium. Every foreign produc
tion comes to ?. ruinous market ; poverty
succeeds extravigance; the immaginary
fortunes which thousands fancied they had
accumulated, vanish line the due before the
morning sun, and ruin fills up the scene.
In such a state of things, the suffering
are ready to fly to any thing, or to advocate
and support any thing, which holds out a
glimmering prospect of affording relief.
It is in the existence of scenes of distress
only, which such a state of things would
produce, that the bank can now indulge a
hope of succeeding in being rechartered.
Such a state we believe the bank wishes
to see. Such a scene, the course pursued!!
by the bank of late, if followed up a few.
mouths longer, must inevitably prodnees.
unless the country takes the alarm. an<L
tlirugh the influence of public aid
ed by the prudence of the Slate banks, in
terposes an early and effectual check.
TWELVE MILLIONS of dollars in
crease of accommodations in four months by
this bank! It is without precedent: it is
unheard of before: it is tnonstrons!
So rapid has been the pace of the bank
in this expansion, that it has run the State
banks nearly out of s’.ght, and fallen in their
debt nearly two ini'Jions of dollars in that
short period.
In October 1859, the total of bank loans
was $40,527,52,3. In April 1832, they
were, §69,930,G93. Making the expan
sion then, durini; eighteen months, of
twenty-nine millions four hundred and three
thousand one h undred and seventy dollars,.
or at the rate of about, $1,600,000 per
month ; while the late expansion has been
twelve millions in four months, or at the
tateofTHREEAHLLIONS A MONTH!’
This was the warning given two years
ago, when Air. Biddle bad just opened
anew his Pandora’s box. It was in time to>
prevent the mischief, if the merchants had:
declined entering into the gambling busi
ness proposed to them. They have evi
dence in this salutary admonition from the
press which they declared spoke the senti
ments of those io. power, that no wish exis
ted to oppress them. If they had pursued,
their regular business, in despite of the
lures held out by Air. Biddle and his foreign,
associates, the dreadful recoil which has
now taken place—overwhelming all their
means in destroying the credit to which a
lone they’ were induced to trust, when de
parting from all the principles of mercan
tile stability, and expatiating in the most
visio'iary speculations, without adequate
actual capital, would have been avoided-
But the loans poured out by Mr. Biddle, in
which we foresaw and predicted the present,
ruin which has fallen on the merchants,,
were not the only bail held out to them, to,
tempt to the career they have been running..
The English money dealers aided Mr. Bid
dle in his scheme of bringing the whole
mercantile class of our countrymen to place
their destinies in the hands of the alliance
of bankers. Hear what a late number of'
the London Courier says on this point:
“It is due to the houses engaged in the
American trade, whose difficulties have
brought on the present crisis, to state, that
, in so far as our information extends, noth
ing can be alleged against them except the
improvident extension oflheir engagements
beyond all reasonable proportion.us com
pared with their capitals. The latter, too,
were for the most part sufficiently to
have enabled them to carry on large and
perfectly secure business. But in tbeir
headlong career they overshot the mark so
much as to come latterly to depend wholly
on discounts, and to be entirely at the mer
cy of the money-dealers !
“ The latter, in fact, are the principal
culprits in this afiair. The little wisdom
required to conduct political matters has be
come proverbial; but truly, if we look at
! the recent proceedings of our money deal
ers, we shall have the greatest difficulty in
discovering any trace whatever of "any
thing, save the merest folly and infatuation;
they may be expert calculators of interest
and commission, but one should think that
that is about all that can be said of them in
the way of eulogy. Suppose the bankers
of London were to import the veriest clod
pole from Burks or Somerset, and to en
trust him with the important duty of lending
out their balances, how would be act?
: Precisely as the discount merchants have
done! He would lend for a while with
blind and undistinguishing profusion to all
who brought bills lor discount ; and when
he found he had going 100 far with one or
more classes, he would puli as suddenly up,
an unfounded distrust would supplant mis
placed and undeserved confidence. The
American houses are quite as much entitled
to unlimited credit now as they were twelve
months ago; and had it not been for the
competition of the money-dealers to gel
their bills, their amount would have been,
confined within reasonable bounds, anti
they would have been independent of the
bank or any one else.”
This is the history ot the mercantile ca
lamities. The merchants swallowed Mr-
Biddie’s bait of twenty millions. They
next, as the Courier says, made in England
an “ improvident extension of their engage
ments beyond all reasonable proportion, as
compared with their capitals.” “In their
headlong career, they overshot the mark so,
much as to come latterly to depend wholly
on discounts, and to be wholly at the mer
cy ol money dealers !” And now those in
the bank plot, “ who. would lend jora while
with blind and undistinguishing
to all who brought bills for discount,” “ pulk
as suddenly up and we have the predicted
result. •
M ith what propriety do the merchants*
when the T reasury records show an excess
ot sixty millions of imports over their ex
ports —when the Loudon journals show