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MAY 26, 1834.]

Washington and Athens (Ohio) Memorials.

[H. of R.

other places of safe-keeping, wheiher done by the Presi- presented by the memorialists; but the memorialists themdent himself, or by the Secretary of the Treasury? Is it selves are entitled to some notice from me, and I cannot, that this corporation has been wantonly stripped, as is in justice to my own feelings, pass them over wholly in alleged, of one of her chartered immunities, by the ruth-silence. These memorials come from the counties of less hand of Executive usurpation? that the public faith Athens and Washington, in the State of Ohio. They are has been trampled upon by a power that acknowledges each signed by about eleven hundred freemen. From the no law but the dictates of its own rash, unbridled will? county of Athens, I am informed that, on account of the I would not venture to affirm that very many in this body, advanced period of the session of Congress, their memo and elsewhere, do not honestly entertain that opinion. But rial was transmitted while it was yet in circulation in a of this I am as perfectly confident as I can be of any thing, portion of the county. At the last presidential election, that, within less than twelve months from this day, nine-that county gave 1,344 votes, of which the Clay candidates tenths of the people of the United States will laugh to claimed a majority of ninety votes only over the Jackson scorn an idea in my view so utterly preposterous. Sir, the electoral ticket. The vote in the county of Washington ominous speculations of a certain class of political sooth- was somewhat greater, with about the same division of sayers are destined to a most woful disappointment. The parties. gloom, and distress, and panic, must pass away, as the in- These facts are stated for the purpose of showing the cantations of the enchanter cease, and the country will unanimity of sentiment in those counties in respect to the rise from the pressure, if not with increased wealth, the policy and legality of the recent attempt of the Executive, wiser and better, and with renewed energy to withstand by means of his action upon the public revenue, to con future trials. The independence of the people of the trol the currency and exchanges of the country, and, United States is not to be broken down; their spirits are through them, the credit, the business, the markets, and not to be subdued by the formidable discipline, the disas- the price of labor and property in all parts of the Union. trous energies, of an overshadowing colossal moneyed This is an exertion of power, and these are interests which power. It cannot be that the events of the last five the memorialists do not think have been, and cannot be months, and especially the scenes enacted here, will es safely, committed to the will of any one man, since it cape the jealous vigilance of the people. They cannot would make that man their master, and not their servant. fail to perceive that the just retaliation brought upon this I will not detain you by an enumeration of the embarbank by its own gross misconduct has been met by a resist-rassments and difficulties under which the memorialists tance calculated to rouse the serious alarms of every man state they are now laboring, since, with the exception of who would repel the encroachments of a corporate des- some local peculiarities, the result of their geographical potism that threatens to overthrow every principle of the position, and the course of their trade, they are substanconstitution; and, in the language of one who would seem tially those which have disordered the industry of all parts to be touched with almost prophetic inspiration, "to con- of the Union. The memorial from the county of Athens, vey our liberties to a sepulchre of gold." which is drawn up with a peculiar felicity, of manner, inMEMORIALS FROM WASHINGTON AND ATHENS troduces their statement of their grievances by saying, COUNTIES, (OHIO.) "they are sensible that, in ordinary times, patriotism is best manifested by the discharge by every individual of his own appropriate duties, leaving, in the exercise of a liberal confidence, the management of the public and general interests wholly in the hands of those to whom they Mr. VINTON, for the purpose of enabling him to give have been constitutionally delegated." I avail myself of his views on the distressed state to which the country of this opportunity to bear testimony to the truth of this decthe memorialists was reduced in consequence of the re-laration in respect to the people of the county of Athens, cent measures of the Executive, moved the following:

The petitions from the inhabitants of Washington and Athens counties, Ohio, heretofore presented, being next in order

Resolved, That the memorials from the counties of Washington and Athens, in the State of Ohio, be referred to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, to which has been referred the bill to regulate the deposites of the money of the United States in certain local banks, with instructions to strike from said bill all after the enacting clause, and insert, in lieu thereof, A bill directing the deposites of the money of the United States to be hereafter made in the Bank of the United States, and for the renewal of the charter of said bank, with such modifications thereof as said committee shall deem expedient.

Mr. VINTON, having addressed the House at length, finally withdrew the resolution; and the memorials which he had presented were then referred to a Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and, with the names thereto, ordered to be printed.

and to the rest of the district that sent me here.

In all the conflicts of interest and policy, so agitating to the country, which have been fought here for the last eleven years, during which I have had the honor of a seat on this floor, they have never sent up a memorial to this House, or instructed me as to their wishes, on any subject involving the general interests of the country. They have acted upon the principle which they avow; and it is with grateful pride of feeling that I am able to declare that they, "in the exercise of a liberal confidence," have, during all that time, left me to act for them, as a freeman, according to the dictates of my own unbiased judgment. They have not remained silent from indifference to the great questions which, during that period, have so deeply agitated the whole community, nor from ignorance of what has been transacting here. They are a reading, thinking, hard-working people; and in respect to the counties of Washington and Athens, whose memoriMr. VINTON'S remarks were as follows: als I now present to you, I can truly say, without disparMr. Speaker: I did not move at the last petition day to agement to any other district of country, that there is not, lay over the consideration of the memorials I then pre- beyond the Alleghany mountains, a people more eminent sented, for the purpose of making a set speech on the top for sobriety of habits, social order, and general intelliics they bring to the notice of Congress, as the motion gence. I left them a happy, prosperous, and contented might seem to indicate to have been my intention; but I people. Their past silence bears them witness that they did so from an unwillingness, weary and exhausted as the have not come up here now to give countenance to an House then was, to trespass on the patience of the mem- idle clamor, or to enjoy the empty gratification of being bers, by calling for their reading at the late hour of the presented to the notice of this House. When, therefore, day, when, by the rules of the House, it became my turn they lay their complaints, for the first time, before this to offer petitions and memorials. Nor is it my intention House, and instruct me, as one of those counties has done, now to go into any argument upon the grave subjects as to their wishes; when they in substance say that sudden

H. OF R.]

Jones county (Miss.) Memorial.

[MAY 26, 1834.

and unlooked-for derangement and distress have come 1 consider it my duty frankly to tell them that, in my upon them; that their labor has been robbed of its re- opinion, there is in the majority no disposition to relieve ward; their hopes blighted, and their prosperity stricken them; that nothing will be done for them; that it is the down by the strong hand of power, I am bound to believe settled intention to leave things as they are, regardless of they are in sober earnest, and speak to us of solemn realities. the ruin that must follow; that near six months of the The memorial, sir, from the county of Washington, session have passed away, with less hope now of relief aside from its own intrinsic merits, is entitled to the re-than when Congress convened; that argument, reason, spect of Western gentlemen, from the place whence it and entreaty, have been employed, and exerted their comes, and from the names that are upon it. It comes utmost power in vain; that their memorials had been prefrom the spot where, and it has upon it the names of men ceded by like prayers for relief, of from one to two hunwho, at the close of the Revolution, made the first lodg-dred thousand of their suffering fellow-citizens from all ment in that then distant wilderness: of men who, under parts of this extended country, which lie lifeless and unthe auspices of the old confederation, helped to put in heeded upon your table. And, finally, I desire to say motion the machinery of Government over a wilderness here, from my place, to my constituents, and to all whom of almost boundless extent and unrivalled fertility: of it may concern, that they must look to themselves for remen who assisted at that spot to plant deep in its fruitful lief; that they must, at the ballot-boxes, dislodge from soil the germe of social order, of industry, of law, and of place those who now oppress them, and to whom, in a religion: of men who, by the blessing of God, have lived confiding and incautious moment, they intrusted the to see the infant community they then planted, in the keeping of their dearest rights, and that power which has midst of toil, of suffering, and of peril, grow up into ma- been turned against them; that they must make up their turity, divide itself into several independent communities, minds not only to suffer, but that the condition of the counwith a physical power little inferior to the united strength try will grow graudally worse, till a remedy can be obtainof the American colonies at the period of the Revolution. ed in that way. If, Mr. Speaker, I shall have satisfied my It is by such men, and the sons of such men, that this constituents, or any body else, of the truth of what I have memorial is made up. They are entitled to be listened to now said, I shall have accomplished the only end I could with respect. They have never come here as complain-hope to attain by throwing myself upon your attention. ants before; nor would they complain now, if "the Government" would let them alone, and desist from its "experiment" upon their affairs. My constituents cannot but know that the President has only to will it, and they are restored to their lost prosperity and happiness. But they have sent no petition to him, who is the author of their grievances, doubtless from a conviction it would avail Mr. PLUMMER rose, and said that a voice had at them nothing. For, sir, they cannot but have heard that length been heard from the working men of Mississippi. the hand which seized upon the public treasure has shut His predictions on that floor a few weeks ago had been the doors of the Executive mansion in the face of the verified. The democracy of that State, he said, had people, who come to pray for mercy and for relief-that arisen in their might, and had resolved to live free or die. "he did not want to be pestered with their complaints." They have resisted the temptations held out to them by But, after all, the hard-working, straight-forward, single- the bank. They have indignantly refused to sell their minded people, who have sent their memorial here, liberties, so dearly purchased by the blood of their fathers, have no adequate conception of that obstinacy which, to a moneyed corporation, for a few millions of rag-money , sooner than yield a point of personal feeling-sooner than dollars. They have, like the patriots of the Revolution, correct the evils of a mistake committed, perhaps from borne the pressure of the times until the last turn of the an error of judgement-sooner than waive, in any par-screw, without a murmur or a groan; and then, as if by ticular, the claim set up to Executive infallibility, will enchantment, burst asunder the whole machinery by which sit by in sullen coldness, and, with the power to relieve, the United States banking institution sought to cramp, suffer the business of millions to be disturbed, and ruin confine, and enslave them; and added another chapter to to come upon thousands. Yet this is a faithful portrait of the evidence already adduced to prove that the people are what is now passing before our eyes.

JONES COUNTY (MISS.) MEMORIAL.

The memorial of the inhabitants of Jones county, Mississippi, sustaining the course of the Executive in its recent measures against the Bank of the United States, coming up

the source of all power. The voice of that portion of They have sent their memorial to this House, knowing the people of Mississippi, who had at all times stood by also that there is here a legal power of relief; no doubt him and sustained him in his efforts to put down the aristofrom a hope that something will yet be done; indeed, cracy of the State, and raise the standard of equal rights and from an incredulity that Congress can have the heart to equal privileges on its ruins, has at length been raised, said adjourn without attempting to do something to restore Mr. P., and the echo has reached the halls of the national the country to its wonted prosperity. Men who are suf- Legislature. The citizens of the county of Jones, in that fering, perhaps threatened with ruin, have no conception section of the State of Mississippi where there was as that, if their condition is rightly understood, this House much patriotism, as much love of liberty, as much devotion will not relent that relief will not be granted, where the to our free institutions, and, he would venture to assert remedy is plain, easy, and at hand. And it was, I pre- without the fear of contradiction by any one who knew sume, upon this supposition, that the respectable meet- the people as well as he knew them, in that section of the ing which adopted one of these memorials sent up a re- State, where the people were more ready to defend from quest to me to use my exertions in their behalf. My violation the principles of that constitution handed down private correspondence also shows that the people at a to them by the sages of '76, and more ready to resist the distance will not, and cannot, believe that no relief is to encroachments of power upon their rights and liberties, be granted. To my constituents, who, as their immedi- than any portion of the people of the Union, convened at ate representative and protector here, have called on me the court-house, on the 19th day of March last, and refor aid, I tender my sincerest sympathy; but I am con- solved: That they had unshaken confidence in the integstrained to say that I have no power to help them. If rity, firmness, and patriotism of the present Chief Magisthey think the majority in this House will relent-if they trate, who has so often received the unqualified approhope for relief, or look forward to an end to their suffer-bation of a large majority of his fellow-citizens; and that ings while the power of the country remains in the hand the course which he has pursued in relation to the United where it is now deposited, I desire here, from my place, States Bank, particularly as evidenced by the removal of to undeceive them. the deposites from that institution, increases and strength

MAY 26, 1834.]

Jones county (Miss.) Memorial.

[H. of R.

ens his claims upon the gratitude and admiration of his prostrate the rights of the States and destroy the liberties Countrymen: That they approve of the course pursued of the people. The people who composed that meeting by the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Taney) in remov- are not man-worshippers; they are not the blind followers ing the public deposites, and that the removal of the peo- of any man or set of men; they support the measures of ple's money from an institution so dangerous and corrupt the administration when right, and oppose them when was but an act of justice to the outraged, moral sentiments wrong; they have decided that the body politic has not of an abused and unsullied people: That they view with become so debilitated, nor the energies of the people recontempt the conduct and course pursued by the bank duced so low, that the Government cannot continue to party at a public meeting lately held at Natchez, which exist without a moneyed monopoly to lean upon for sup they conceive to be a prelude to worse times, if the bank port. They have said that they are not prepared for should succeed in obtaining a recharter: That the rechar- slavery; they have shown themselves worthy of that rich ter of the United States Bank was, in their opinion, dan- inheritance handed down to them by the patriots of the gerous to our present democratical form of Government, Revolution; they have declared themselves capable of selfto the rights and privileges of the people, and should be government. Public meetings, Mr. P. said, had been opposed by all good men. And they further resolved, that they viewed with regret that some of their public men had become like cattle in the field, subject to be bought and sold.

held by the people, in different parts of the State, got up by the aristocrats, the National Republicans, Nullifiers, Tariffites, and those indebted to the bank, denouncing the administration and his course on the bank question, and The working portion of the community, he said, were sustaining the rest of the delegation. False representathe last to become excited upon a question of great na- tions have been made to enlist the people on the side of tional importance, and the last to make a movement the bank. Public meetings have also been called by the towards expressing their sentiments in relation to the af- office-holders, office-seekers, and the Jacksonian aristofairs of Government; but when they do move, said Mr. P., crats, and man-worshippers, self-styling themselves the their course is like the rushing of the mighty winds; their democratic republicans of the State, condemning the might is like that of the waves of the ocean; the force of whole delegation, without distinction of persons. But this, their opinions is like the power of the boisterous hurri- he said, was the first movement made by the bone and cane, driving every thing before it, and humbling to the sinew of the country, uninfluenced by partisan feelings or dust the haughty oaks of the political forest that refuse to sinister motives, for the purpose of approving of the course bow submission to their opinions. There is no power on pursued by the administration in relation to the United earth that can withstand their influence. Neither the States Bank. The people have been excited to action, officers of a free Government, “clothed with a little brief and the political waves put in motion by the panic-makers authority," nor the monarch on his throne, with absolute of the bank, and nothing can appease their wrath, or calm sway, can resist their mandates. There was, he said, a the troubled waters, short of a total abandonment of the Latin maxim which he had often heard quoted by those unconstitutional and oppressive banking system adopted who had a knowledge of that language, the meaning of by the General Government. A few weeks ago the most of which he understood to be, "the voice of the people is the leading politicians of the State had taken a stand in opthe voice of God." If such, said he, is the power of the position to the course pursued by the President, or seemed people, who can stand out against their expressed opinions? to hesitate on which side to enlist, whether on the side of It is true, sir, said Mr. P., we hear those who set them- the people or the bank. But one man among the literati selves up as the rulers of the people, but who in fact are of the State, he said, had had the firmness and indepentheir mere servants, declare their intention "to discard dence to encourage him to stand firm in the course he every thing like party action, when they shall be called had taken during the present session, and the office-holdto decide upon the great leading principles of Governers and man-worshippers had even succeeded in destroyment," notwithstanding, however, their declarations and ing the confidence of the Executive in him. Things professions, when they see the expressions of the work- were, he said, however, getting right. The leaders ing men of the country written on the wall, they will would be compelled to bow submission to public opinion. tremble before the omnipotent political power of the peo- The citizens of Jones county are not office-seekers. They ple, and their knees will smite together like Belshazzar's. have no other object in view than the good of their counStanding as he did, by himself, in opposition to the aris-try. They have spoken the honest convictions of their tocracy of the State, professing to advocate the principles hearts, without fear, favor, or affection of men, and withof the working men, at a time when it seemed that the out any reward, hope, or promise thereof. They have bank had purchased the liberties of the people, so far as spoken the language of freemen, and the sentiment of the individuals could be found to sell themselves, and had democracy of Mississippi. forced others, by the exercise of her all-controlling influence, to bow submission to her mandates; it was, he said, gratifying to his feelings to find, when opposed, abused, persecuted, and vilified by the advocates of the bank, and frowned upon by the blind followers of men disregarding principle and professing to support the measures of the present administration, that he was sustained by those who had stood by him in all of his political struggles for principle in opposition to the combined influence of National Republicanism, Nullification, and Jacksonism. The name of Jones county, and her old and faithful represent ative, (Samuel Ellis,) the chairman of the meeting, with whom he fought side by side, in the Legislative councils of the State, for those democratic principles now recognised as the constitutional law of Mississippi, operated on him, he said, like a charm, was music to his soul, and encouraged him to redouble his exertions in support of the efforts of the Chief Magistrate to relieve the people from the rag-money bondage of the bank, and the haughty power of an irresponsible moneyed corporation, calculated to

These things, he said, were not confined to the State he had the honor in part to represent. They are spreading to the remotest corners of the Union. The working men of Massachusetts are awakening from their lethargy. The democracy of the ancient Commonwealth, who were the first to resist the tyranny of Great Britain, are resolved not to be the last to resist the encroachments of a purse. proud aristocracy. The republicans of Berkshire, the Congressional district represented by the honorable gentleman before him, [Mr. BRIGGS,] which he, Mr. P., claimed as his birth-place, were determined, he said, not to be outdone by their sister States in the race of patriotism, on the great question now convulsing the nation. They too, as well as the people of the South, have discovered that the tides of moneyed influence have been for many years undermining their original principles, and washing away those rights and privileges guarantied to them by the great magna charta of their liberties, before the foundations of the republic have crumbled from beneath them, and while it is yet in their power to redress

H. OF R.]

Hallowell (Me.) Memorial.

[MAY 26, 1834.

Our

"Permit me to return you my sincere thanks for the favors shown in sending me public documents. It has furnished me with some interesting intelligence, which I could not otherwise have obtained. You will excuse me for the liberty I take; I am neither a writer nor a politician; that you know by my writing; therefore it would not become me, as a plain farmer, or a laboring man, to write to a gentleman in the Congress of the United States, giving my views on any particular subject which they have in their trust; but having confidence, sir, that you will make allowance for my inabilities, and not expose them, I will give a few ideas of my own, however they may differ from any Such language might not be very acceptable to those one else. I have just read the President's protest against who differed with him in opinion, and those who charged the usurpation of the Senate. It is noble, patriotic; like every one that sustained the administration, on the bank all others of his writings, worthy of the highest place in question, with being under the influence of improper mothe pages of our history. I am not master enough of lan- tives, and particularly to those who intimate that all who guage to give it the exalted station it merits. That, support this measure of the Executive are the "slaves together with the veto, ought to be engraved in large and vassals of Andrew Jackson, and that they are ready to letters of gold, and raised so high in the heavens that it exchange the constitution and the law for the will of a weak can be read by every individual that inhabits this globe. old man." Such language needed no reply. It was, in I have read a small pamphlet which was sent to my friend, his opinion, unworthy of that character which every genpretending to prove that credit is preferable to coin. tleman on that floor ought to maintain. It was not, he When our farmers read any thing that is trying to substi- said, the voice of prudence and discretion, aiming at the tute paper or credit in place of gold and silver, there is a good of the country, but it was the language of mad amkind of inaction and gloom upon their faces, which ren-bition, reckless of the interests of the people, and every ders them very unpleasant. But when they read of a thing else, save the prostration of the popularity of the scheme that will do away small bank notes, and substitute present administration, the elevation of their political god specie in their stead, there seems to be a lively action, to power, and the division of the "loaves and fishes" and their countenances are like the spring blossoms after among the hungry curs of their party. They are the fula long winter. minations of a crazed brain, distracted by being disappointed in his political aspirations. They are the ravings and rantings of that party who threaten one day to destroy the Union, rather than submit to an unconstitutional and oppressive system of taxation, which they themselves are the authors of, and the next day attempt to excite the people to rebellion, because they will not bow submission to an irresponsible corporation, about to enslave a free country, which they themselves admit to be in violation of the constitution.

their wrongs by legal and constitutional means. They, subject brought up before the people of the United too, are resolved not to sleep while the chains of domestic States, that ought to wake up and call the attention of slavery are being riveted on their limbs by a haughty every individual citizen like this. I hope that institution, moneyed aristocracy. They, too, have discovered that which has been called by the name of the United States the day is fast approaching when to assert their rights as Bank, will never be rechartered for any term of time, freemen will subject them to the stigma of traitors and however short, upon any conditions or modifications whatpunishment of rebels; and that they are already denoun- soever; for I do not think that that institution was ever ced as tories and enemies to their country. He said he properly entitled to that name. My reasons for this are, held in his hand a letter received a few days since, from the people generally have not been led to the inquiry of a friend and relative, dated at Richmond, Massachusetts, the principles and situation of the bank, as they otheron the 6th instant. The writer, he said, was a dem-wise would, had it not been called by that name. ocrat of the old school, dyed in the wool. He is, said good honest farmers have supposed, until very lately, Mr. P., a working man in principle as well as practice. that bills on the United States Bank were as safe, to be He is a carpenter and house-joiner by trade, and, by the locked up in their chests, as the gold and silver-supfruits of his industry, has been enabled, for a few years posing the United States accountable for all the bills past, to cultivate a farm, the proceeds of which he de-issued from that bank, and would redeem them at any pends upon to support his family. He is no office-seeker, future day. Now they begin to see their trust is in the no political juggler, and has nothing but the good of his hands of a class of individual speculators. Let every country at heart. Although the letter was not intended institution be called by the name of its proper owners. for the public eye, it accorded so well with his own opin- Just as I was about to close my scribbles, Mr. callions, that he could not refrain from reading some extracts ed on me; after passing the usual compliment, I inqui therefrom, believing, as he did, that it spoke the language ed how the administration stood in his estimation? (not of the working men of old Berkshire. Mr. P. then read expecting any very favorable answer, knowing that he the following extracts: had been, ever since Jackson's election, violently opposed to his administration.) He said, he supposed I had reference particularly to the removal of the public moneys from the United States Bank. Thus far, said he, I can say, the people of the United States will yet bless Old Hickory for the decided measures he has taken with that bank. If that institution can cause so great a pressure, and create such a panic, throughout the whole United States at this time, what could it not do in a few years more? He not only spoke his own mind, but the minds of many others of the same stamp. These sayings confirm what I have already said."

"People in this place, I think I may safely say, are getting more and more in favor of the measures pursued by the President in relation to the bank. His most bitter enemies say they do not like so powerful an institution as that of Mr. Biddle's bank, and that it ought not to exist any longer; but do not wish that President Jackson should have the honor of pulling it down under his administration. As I view the subject, I hope and implore the goodness of Almighty God, that so powerful, overbearing, and corrupt an institution, that can give into the hands of a small class of people the power as well as influence to distress a whole nation, might in this our day be purged from our republic. If these are not your views, permit me, sir, as you have a better opportunity to form a more correct knowledge of the subject, to ask of you to give me a slight view, by way of letter. Perhaps, sir, you may think I take a great interest in this bank concern for a man in my capacity and occupation of life. I certainly do.

There has never been, since 1816, in my opinion, a

Mr. PLUMMER then moved that the other series of resolutions, presented by him from Holmesville, Pike county, be postponed.

The motion being negatived-

Mr. PLUMMER delivered a speech of considerable length on the subject of these resolutions, and then moved that they be laid on the table and printed. Agreed to.

HALLOWELL (ME.) MEMORIAL.
Mr. EVANS said he was happy, after so long a time,

MAY 26, 1834.]

Franklin county (Mass.) Memorial.

[H. of R.

The motion was, after some conversation, laid on the table till to-morrow.

in having it in his power to present to the House a series of resolutions, and a memorial, from the citizens of the town of Hallowell, in the State of Maine. These papers had been in his hands (Mr. E. said) several weeks; but FRANKLIN COUNTY (MASS.) MEMORIAL. this was the first opportunity which had occurred to him Mr. GRENNELL said he rose to bring to the attention to bring them to the notice of the House. The memorial of the House, a memorial from 1,200 legal voters of the is subscribed by a large proportion of the qualified voters county of Franklin, in Massachusetts, in reference to the of the town, and by none but qualified voters; and the removal of the public moneys of the United States from occupation of each signer is affixed to his name. From the places established for them by law; the currency of my own knowledge of the larger portion of the persons the country and a national bank. They complain (said whose names are appended to the memorial, I have no Mr. G.) of the acts of the Executive in all this matter, doubt that the descriptive character of the signers is as producing deep, extensive, and enduring distress in truly set forth. It will thus be seen, sir, that the memo- the country; but they are chiefly concerned that these rial proceeds from persons of every pursuit and occupa- acts are in violation of the public faith, of the law, and tion common to our citizens; and I can add, with perfect constitution; and they pray for the interposition of truth and sincerity, that it proceeds also from persons of Congress, to arrest the public evils and redress their the highest respectability in the town from which it grievances.

comes a town among the most important in point of

The rules of this House may allow me to say a few population and business in the State to which it belongs. words of these memorialists, and of their interests and The memorialists represent that "they have fallen from occupations. I can do this, sir, with confidence, for I a condition highly prosperous, to one of no ordinary de-am native with them, was brought up among them, and gree of distress;" and it proceeds to state wherein their shall ever be ambitious to partake of their spirit and charbusiness has been depressed, and the occasion of the acter. evils which have fallen upon them; and it prays the Their section of country is in that part of Massachuprompt interposition of Congress to arrest the progress of setts well known as the Valley of the Connecticut, and the calamity which is spreading over the land, and to re- the hills that rise from it on either side; a fairer and more store again peace, and prosperity, and confidence. The fertile region is nowhere found in New England. Agriembarrassments which now pervade the country are at- culture is their principal occupation; and these memoritributed, in the resolutions which I offer, to the "unau-alists, with their neighbors of the counties of Worcester thorized interference of the President with the currency and Hampshire, forming my constituency, compose a of the country;" and the memorial protests against all body of Whig yeomanry, as intelligent, industrious, virexperiments upon the currency, unless made by Con-tuous, and patriotic, as exists in any part of this Union. gress, upon the fullest and most mature deliberation. In aid of their leading employment, manufactures and the Sir, I have already, to the extent of my humble pow-mechanic arts are carried on with enterprise and success. ers, co-operated with honorable and able gentlemen of And thus is created a community of interests, imparting this House, in resisting this unauthorized interference of mutual strength and support, and producing an unusual the President, and in endeavoring to bring back to the share of social and individual content and prosperity. control of Congress the currency and the treasure of the Such a community, from their habits and pursuits, as nation. Would to heaven that these efforts had been well as by their geographical position, must be, ordinamore successful, or that even now, after so much distress rily, free from the pressure of the national Government. has been suffered, I could discover any beam of hope to Its action has heretofore, indirectly, though favorably, cheer my suffering friends and constituents in the pres- affected the products of their labor, but never has its eat gloom and depression. But, sir, there is none. The hand been severely felt. But, in the present novel and petitions of the people are unheeded. They will receive appalling state of things, and in view of their adverse conno relief, until they take into their own bands the admin-dition, the memorialists feel it to be their duty, as it is istration of their own affairs. I can do no more, then, their constitutional right, to address the Legislature of than to present to the House such demonstrations of pub- the Union, not in violence, but in concern; not as the lic opinion as are confided to me, and to solicit and entreat the attention of Congress to the grievances under which the people now labor, and to beg, in their name, for relief, and to hold myself in readiness to co-operate in any measure, come from what quarter it may, which furnishes a reasonable ground of belief that it will mitigate the severity of the pressure which now weighs down the interest, the happiness, and the hopes of the people. I move that the resolutions and memorial be laid upon the table aud printed, with the names annexed.

Mr. SMITH wanted to know if it would be in order to
move a reference of the memorial with instructions?
The CHAIR decided in the negative, and the memorial
was laid on the table.

BANK UNITED STATES INVESTIGATION.
Mr. MILLER moved for the printing of 30,000 extra
copies of the reports of the Bank Committee.
Mr. HIESTER proposed 15,000.

Mr. KING moved 10,000.

Mr. GILLET 25,000.

Mr. BRIGGS moved to amend the motion so as to require the two reports to be attached to each other.

Mr. MILLER had no objection; but mainly desired that the correspondence between the committee and the officers of the bank be attached to both. VOL. X.--267

special friends or opponents of the President, but in the plain character of American citizens, for whom, in common with the people of these States, Congress is bound to legislate impartially, justly, and paternally.

Sir, the people who address you state their case with plainness and decorum. They have an intelligent view of their rights, and of the duties of the public servants; for they are an educated, reading, reasoning people: less influenced by their passions than by their understandings, and having no motive to misrepresent their condition. Free from the corrupting influence of office and patronage, their simple desire at the hands of this Government is, that our republican constitution and laws may be so administered as not to endanger our free institutions, nor disturb the lawful pursuits of their industry, nor the moral order of their society. And are not men of the character I have described, worthy of a respectful hearing before this House?

The memorial states, and I am witness of its truth, that, a few months ago, they were in the enjoyment of unparalleled prosperity. A bountiful Providence had crowned the varied labors of the past year with ample rewards; and that whole community exhibited one general scene of life, industry, and joy. But a paragraph from their own paper will give a better view of their condition than any language I can use: "It is true we were not rapidly grow.

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