H. of R.] Presentation of Memorials. [JUNE 23, 1834. This nary was, that it would favor speculation. Sir, said Mr. Of that sold in Illinois, during the same period, the average C., can a bill which limits the purchase of any one individ- price per acre was only $1 25 and 6 mills. Of the whole ual to a quarter section, or one hundred and sixty! acres, quantity sold in Missouri, during the same period, the and which requires such individual to have cultivated last average price per acre was only $1 26 and 5 mills; mak. year, and to be now in possession, be said to favor or en- ing the general average of the sales in those three States, courage speculation. If, however, any doubt could be for the three years, $1 25 and 6 mills per acre. entertained otherwise, it must be entirely removed by re- may be taken as a pretty fair specimen of prices, under curring to a provision of the third section of the act, the auction system, for some years preceding the enactwhich expressly declares "that all assignments and trans-ment of our late pre-emption laws. They have been, perfers of the right of pre-emption given by this act, prior haps, occasionally some higher; but the highest average to the issuance of patents, shall be null and void." This in a single State, during the same years, was $1 39 3-10 restriction of the right of sale and the limitation of pur- per acre on the richest land, in the finest cotton region of chase to so small a quantity as one quarter section must be Alabama; and that has not probably been equalled during regarded as a sufficient guarantee against speculation. In-any other three years' sales, in that State, for the last ten. deed, Mr. C. said, the very object of the bill was to protect the cultivators of the soil, a large proportion of whom were poor men, from speculators and men of large capital; and, if the bill passed, such would be its effect. per acre. Mr. C. said the various laws allowing the right of preemption, passed in theyears 1830 and 1831, had also given new impulse to the sale of the public land. From the year 1820 to the year 1828, both inclusive, the largest quantity sold in any one year was less than a million of acres-and the average quantity per annum, sold during those nine years, was only 769,150 91-100. The sales of 1830, (during only about half of which sales were made under the pre-emption law,) the quantity was doubled, and brought into the treasury more than $3,000,000, when the annual receipts from this source had before been less than a million and a half. The sales of 1831 were still increased, and brought into the treasury about $1,200,000. The sales of 1832 were about the same, as well as he now recollected; and it has been already shown that, during the last year, the sales amounted to $4,786,614 10. fices and exertions (nor would he do so) if he had to encounter the uncertainty and danger of being overbid at auction by the speculator and capitalist. The gentleman from Ohio had spoken of the rich cotton lands of the South, and had represented them as being worth ten, twelve, and fifteen dollars per acre! But, Mr. C. inquired, when did those lands realize to the Government any such prices? He would answer, not for years past. He said he was prepared to present to the House such facts as would at once put to flight all such extravagant and visionary calculations. Mr. C. said he had before him an official statement which he had obtained from the General Land Office, showing the quantity of land sold at the different land offices of the United States during the year 1833, exhibiting the aggregate number of acres sold, and the aggregate number of dollars received, Sir, said Mr. C., more land will always be sold under except the December returns from two land offices, which laws granting to the settler the right of pre-emption, than had not then been received. This statement, he said, when it is sold at auction. Give to the man of small propshowed the entire quantity sold last year was 3,740,153 34- erty the assurance that, if he will raise a $100, he can 100 acres, producing the gross sum of $4,786,714 10, and secure a half quarter section; or, if he will raise $200, making the average price $1 27 and a fraction of a cent he can secure the quarter section, including the home of Thus it will be perceived that the Government his choice, and he will do so at almost any sacrifice. He only received an average of two cents and a fraction per will sell sell his plough-horse, or any other property he acre above the minimum price. From this paltry excess may have, to accomplish that first and most important obis to be deducted the additional compensation paid to re-ject, when he would not be justified in making such sacrigisters and receivers, for conducting sales at auction, and the compensation paid to auctioneers, &c. &c. How much would be the nett gain of Government by these sales at auction, for there was no pre-emption law operating Mr. C. said, with the facts before us, sustained by docuduring the last year? Mr. C. thought the gain, in dollars mentary evidence, the question is, simply and emphatiand cents, if any, would hardly be worth the trouble of cally, will you sell the public land in limited quantities to the calculation. He thought it would not be a sufficient the hardy enterprising pioneer, the laboring man, who inducement to endanger the security, the comfort, the has opened his little farm, and built his cabin by the sweat interest, and the happiness of the large body of meritori- of his brow, at the same price you would receive from ous citizens who were settled on the public lands, by sub-the speculator, who would buy it up in large quantities, jecting them to the hazard and uncertainty of a sale at and then extort from the settler a profit of fifty or a hunauction. If, on any principle, the Government could be dred per cent.? Will you not foster and rear up commu justified in making the public domain a subject of specu-nities of independent freemen-making every citizen a lation and profit, by jeopardizing the welfare of the oc- freeholder-when you can do so without any sacrifice, cupant, which he did not believe; Mr. C. said he thought even of money, rather than depress, discourage, and im the gain was obviously too trifling to warrant such a poverish a most useful, numerous, and meritorious class of policy. He said it should be borne in mind, too, that citizens, and thereby render a few individuals engaged in much of this land was the rich cotton land of the South, this most exceptionable branch of speculation inordiof which the gentleman from Ohio had spoken; there nately wealthy? Mr. C. said he could but believe that having been, as we all know, very extensive sales of the every honorable member who had attended to this expla Choctaw lands in Mississippi during the last year. nation would, by his vote, respond to these questions in favor of the passage of the bill, and of that policy which, while it promoted equality, by improving the condition of worthy and enterprising citizens, most generally of small capital, would accelerate the settlement and sale of our most extensive public domain. Mr. C. said he had been asked whether sales were not more productive before the passage of the law granting pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands than since. He was glad to be able to say that prices were no better for some years before the passage of the act of 1830. He said he had a document before him which emanated from the late Commissioner of the General Land Office, under date 6th February, 1830, exhibiting the quantity of land sold in several of the States during the years 1826, 1827, and 1828, and the average price per Of all the land sold in Indiana during those years, the average price was only $1 25 and 1 mill per acre. acre. SPEECH OF MR. WATMOUGH. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, June 23, 1834. JUNE 23, 1834.] Presentation of Memorials. [H. of R. following observations were conveyed to Washington by business is completely paralyzed; many of those extena highly respectable committee appointed by the citizens sively engaged in business have long since discharged their of Montgomery county. hands; agricultural products have experienced a depression By this committee, in compliance with a vote passed of thirty per cent. in value, and the season of activity and by the memorialists, they were intrusted to my charge to hope has been converted into one of despondency and lay them before the House. It is now more than a month indolence. Such, sir, is the language, or nearly so, of since I have made repeated efforts to effect this object: these memorials. the rules of the House, the extraordinary press of business, and the near approach to the close of the session, have as repeatedly interfered, and denied me the power. As I consider the subject-matter involved of deep and vital importances not only to the memorialists, but likewise to the whole body of the people of Pennsylvania, I avail myself of the only means left, and respectfully submit to my fellow-citizens the remarks I proposed to make in the House, as I have written them out from my notes. JOHN G. WATMOUGH. The memorials from Montgomery county being under consideration Mr. WATMOUGH said that many weeks had elapsed since he had been honored by a portion of his fellowcitizens of the county of Montgomery, and State of Pennsylvania, among whom he had long resided, by being chosen as their intermediary to convey to the House of Representatives their opinions as to the consequences of the removal of the public deposites from the Bank of the United States, as they affect the interests and welfare of the whole body of the people, and the particular facts of the case, as they prove how deeply and injuriously their own happiness and prosperity have been assailed. Conscious, Mr Speaker, of my inability to perform the the duty assigned me by my former neighbors and friends in a manner commensurate with its importance or their expectations, still I feel it imperative upon me to make the effort; and I beg the House to be assured that in the fulfilment of this, an obligation I owe my constituents and my country as well as my former neighbors and friends, 1 shall endeavor not to be unmindful of my duty towards them. I shall use all possible brevity, and confine myself as closely as I can to the subject-matter of the memorials themselves. Will any one pretend to doubt these facts? No one will be so bold. The good faith of nearly fifteen hundred freemen, whose names are appended to them, is pledged for their entire truth. The State of Pennsylvania does not contain a more respectable body of men. With many of them I have myself been long intimately acquainted. I know well their patriotism, their high moral worth, their general intelligence of character. They are entirely incapable of being made subservient to party purposes. Besides, sir, I find within this roll a very respectable proportion of the names of individuals, who but a short time since ranked themselves among the warmest political adherents of the President of the United States. But, sir, they have had their eyes opened, and the mist that veiled them has been dispelled. In the spirit of persecution with which the President has acted towards the Bank of the United States, and those so honestly and firmly engaged in the administration of her affairs for the public good, they can see nothing to extenuate. And In the high-handed and illegal assumptions of executive power they have become alarmed, and in the abuse of power confided to him by the constitution in the last resort, for occasions which it was scarcely anticipated could arise, they behold a deliberate purpose to dispense with all the co-ordinate branches of the Government, and to concentrate within himself all that the most refined spirit of selfishness, if not tyranny, can devise. finally, sir, in the overbearing and heartless arrogance with which the President had refused to receive, much less to listen to, the complaints and sufferings of his fellowcitizens from all parts of the Union, they behold a principle of action altogether at war with the spirit of our institutions, and derogatory to the claims and character of a free people. The county of Montgomery, from whence these me- They have, therefore, forgotten their predilections for morials proceed, lies immediately adjacent to the county the man, and have assumed the attitude of men deterof Philadelphia, and is as essentially a manufacturing as it mined to defend the constitution and the laws; and with is a beautiful agricultural district. The Great Limestone this view they now make their appeal to the representavalley, which intersects so large a portion of Eastern tives of that sovereign power of which they feel they Pennsylvania, and is distinguished for the remarkable constitute a part, and they invoke you to redeem the spirfertility of its soil, and the general intelligence and it of the one, and shield from insult the violated majesty integrity of its inhabitants, heads within its limits. From hence arise the two main sources of the wealth and prosperity of its inhabitants-limestone, marble, and lime, on the one hand, and a vast extent of the most invaluable water power, affording every facility to any amount of manufacturing capital, on the other. of the other. The Schuylkill river, long celebrated for the romantic Thus, then, sir, I maintain no question can be raised as beauty of its scenery, and now better known as one of the to the truth of the facts herein set forth. If no other great highways of Pennsylvania prosperity and improve- voice had been heard in the country, the attestation of ment, intersects a large portion of its territory. the freemen of Montgomery county would be entirely sufficient to substantiate the truth of all advanced. But, sir, how does this matter stand? One common voice has been heard from Maine to Louisiana, and from the remote West to the Atlantic, reprobating the course which the President of the United States has thought fit to perseThe industry and enterprise of the inhabitants of this vere in, and clearly proving the universal prevalence of favored district have for many years past turned these the same deranged state of affairs which these memorialinexhaustible sources of wealth to the best account. The ists set forth. Petitions signed by more than one hunmemorialists state that the annual product of their quarries dred thousand of your countrymen, constituting a large has, for many years past, exceeded, in marble of the finest proportion of all the active and industrious classes of soquality, 120,000 feet, and inflimestone, upwards of 100,-ciety, load your table. 000 tons, while they have annually burnt, in their own Delegates composed of men of the most unquestionakilns, not less than 300,000 bushels of lime. For all this ble standing, and appointed to lay before you the commaterial they have ever found a ready demand, at a fair plaints and sufferings of each particular class in the commarket price, in the city of Philadelphia. But, sir, the munity, have appeared at your bar, and claimed to be case is now entirely reversed. A few short months, and heard; these complaints and sufferings have been so often all their bright prospects have become blasted. The mil-repeated that they now fall upon your ear like a tale dew of bad Government, or rather of a wicked administra- thrice told. They are nevertheless true, sir--solemnly, tion of public affairs, has fallen upon them. Sales can no sadly true; and although repulsed by party organization longer be made; contracts are no longer entered into; here, and utterly disregarded in the pride of power else. H. OF R.] Presentation of Memorials. [JUNE 23, 1834. where, they have been received, sir, and acted upon by the interest of the farmer to the measure and extent that one branch of the Government in the fair spirit of justice, it must and inevitably will, is to be imputed to well-known temperance, and truth; and happy, most happy, Mr. and peculiar causes. Speaker, has it been for the peace of our country, that Our country is of vast extent, and its population comat least in one quarter they were so received. Happy, paratively sparse, with means of information by no means sir, that the people, torn by anxiety, and excited by in- adequate. The farmer lives within himself; his resources sult, have some assurance that these cardinal and vital are confined within a narrow sphere; and perfectly happy principles of freedom are not totally banished from our and secure in the enjoyment of all his means, the idea of land. Sir, I will not even picture to myself the conse- any infringement of his rights, or of destruction of his quences which must eventually have ensued, had the spir- property, arising from any act of an administration of his it of pride and obstinacy, and the spirit of party, which own choice, will be among the last to suggest itself to his have characterized two branches of our Government, mind. taken possession of the third. Then, sir, no hope would The operation is, nevertheless, sure and certain, in the have been left, and that degree of patient forbearance end, to produce its proper effect. The harmony and which will ever characterize a free people, conscious of sympathy existing between all parts of the social comholding in their own hands a constitutional remedy against pact are such, that no great and impending calamity falls all the evils of party corruptions and bad government, upon one portion of it, without causing the whole to vionce abandoned, civil commotion must have ensued; and brate. The merchant, the manufacturer, the mechanic, blood once shed, farewell to liberty, and to all the hopes the honest son of labor, cannot be prostrated in their of the advocates of civil liberty for ever! Humbly and several interests, without reacting upon him whose toil fervently do I thank Providence that a crisis so awful has fertilizes the earth, and feeds and sustains the whole. been averted. The revolution now in progress is purely And, indeed, we find that this reaction has at length taken one of opinion. It is extending itself daily throughout place. The memorials before me clearly indicate the every district in the Union; and when the period shall at fact. It is likewise confirmed from another source, of even length arrive to consummate it, I have no doubt it will higher authority; it is well known by the members of prove as glorious as it will be entirely salutary in all its this House, and by the nation, that there has lately been results. held in the State of Pennsylvania a convention, composed Strange, sir, it certainly is, that our free and happy coun-of individuals from almost every county in the State, and try should be in a state of revolution. Strange that the of the very highest respectability in point of character. spirit of repentance for so much mischief wantonly inflicted and intelligence. The proceedings of this convention should not have fallen upon the heart from whence it all were brought to Washington by a committee of thirty, proceeds. I forbear, however, to press this matter fur- and by them were handed to my friend and colleague, ther: the subject, sir, is quite exhausted: a discussion of [Mr. DENNY,] to be laid before this House; it has been a unexampled length has completely developed every point matter of sincere regret to myself, to my honorable friend, at issue, and every principle involved. The weak and and to a majority of the delegation, that no opportunity insufficient reasons of the Secretary of the Treasury, al- has been afforded to lay these proceedings before the though sustained by all the adventitious aid which party House; they have been cut off by the same causes which organization and party discipline have been able to devise, have so long operated upon myself. The members of this lie prostrate at the bar of public opinion. And it is left convention speak a language not to be misunderstood. for history to record with pain, that although demolished Coming, as most of them have, immediately from the here by the accumulated force of reason, fact, and argu- people, they tell you what are the condition and the feelment, they still stand emblazoned upon your journals as ings of the people, and the personal sacrifices encountered sufficient to sustain a majority of this House in opposition by the farmers, their neighbors and friends; I quote to the interests at least, if not to the wishes of a large largely from their memorial. They state, in the first majority of the nation. place, that In the mean while, the great object of all this violence, the Bank of the United States, although laboring under the accumulated load of executive persecution and popular prejudice, pursues the even tenor of her way, fulfilling, even under all the injustice of vested rights violated, and public faith broken, the great public benefits which it was the especial object of her charter to secure. "They have yielded to the commands of their friends and neighbors without regret for any personal sacrifices, and they have met together to confer upon the grievances which are endured, and to devise, if possible, the means of alleviating them. Your honorable bodies are not now to learn the distressed condition of any portion of the country. It is long since we have seen recorded in your Her high-minded and honorable direction, reviled, journals the receipt of petitions from more than a hundred abused, and calumniated, continue firm at their posts, thousand citizens, all uniting in one mournful, but unregulating with the nicest intelligence the vast and com- questionable story of suspended wages, lost credit, inplex machine intrusted to their charge; guarding with creasing wants, and diminished means to supply them; which the most honorable fidelity that great public interest have left their deep, and, perhaps, indelible impression in which is found to be so intimately associated with the every portion of a heretofore prosperous and smiling land. interests of individuals, as with the general welfare of the These communications, springing as they have done from whole country, and relying upon a brave and magnani-various quarters, and dictated by no concert or co-operamous people ultimately to sustain them in their course, and relieve their fair fame from the gross imputations so foully attempted to be placed upon them. Such, then, Mr. Speaker, is at present in general the condition of our affairs, and certainly it is one deeply to be deplored. tion except that which flows spontaneously from a common state of calamity, your memorialsits have now the painful opportunity fully to confirm. They have brought together the disastrous tidings which have been collected in each distinct section of the Commonwealth; they have opened to each other freely their swelling hearts, and they have sought in vain for one mitigating circumstance, in possession or in prospect-for one exaggerated repreThe evidence is abundant to sustain the fact of a gene-sentation or distorted fact in the numerous exhibitions of ral derangement in the monetary system of the country, deep-felt suffering which have been made to Congress, and a consequent disorganization in the affairs of all en- and they have found only aggravation in the conviction gaged in the commercial, manufacturing, and mechanic that the suffering has been altogether unnecessary and interests. That this derangement has been slow to affect unmerited." Where all ought to be harmony and peace, all is con tention and discord. JUNE 23, 1834.] And again: the Executive from carrying on hostilities against the "The staples of the Commonwealth are without a mar-policy of Congress and the peace and welfare of the ket. Many of its once flourishing mines are in a great country, would afford relief; the want of which is so degree abandoned, and their miners are generally dis- sorely felt, and the possession of which is so anxiously repersed. Iron and cotton are no longer manufactured to quired. And they respectfully pray that one or all of the extent of more than two-thirds of their former pro- such acts may be passed." duce. Lumber, if it sells at all, sells at greatly diminished And, sir, these gentlemen have had substantial ground prices. Four out of five of the furnaces of an extensive for all they assert. I have lately taken the trouble to glass-house at Kensington are extinguished, and the fifth is calculate some of the losses sustained by the State, in conkept in blast chiefly that the numerous apprentices may sequence of the present deranged condition of affairs. continue to enjoy the means of instruction and beneficial They are as follows: exercise. If flour retains its price, it is owing to the additional calamity of its scarcity, in consequence of which the supply has been reduced in proportion to the demand. Turn where we will, your memorialists perceive one universal sense of present or impending ruin, depressing the energies and darkening the prospects of the citizen." And again: The loss to the State by the difference of The loss to the State by the loan of $600,000, And supposing the balance of the State loan $96,712 39 65,580 00 "Under a solemn sense, however, of the responsibility which we owe to our constituents, and to your honorable bodies, we do not hesitate to confirm the imputation which has been so often communicated to Congress. Until a series of measures on the part of the Executive of the Union, hostile to the best interests of Pennsylvania, were consummated by the last fatal blow aimed at the Bank of the United States, in the removal of the deposites to the custody of other institutions, all was prosperous, and marked with plenty. The energies of our Commonwealth, and, as we believe, of the whole nation, became palsied Thus it is seen that, in disposing of her loans, Pennsylfrom that hour. Your memorialists must, therefore, as- vania has lost, or is likely to lose, upwards of $300,000, cribe the sufferings to which they have adverted to that and this loss falls especially upon the great body of her ill-advised measure, consequent as it was upon or connect- people. 182,028 22 $344,320 61 ed with a system of hostility pursued towards the national So far, therefore, Mr. Speaker, as human testimony bank. The measure would probably have been suffi- can prove any thing, the source from whence all our pres ciently disastrous of itself; but when it bore every appear- ent evils spring is clearly indicated; strange, then, that ance of being united with a stern and unrelenting disposi- the remedy should not be forthwith applied. tion to break down the barriers of the constitution, it was It is certainly most unfortunate that, although there fraught with ruin to the brightest hopes of the nation." exists even in this House a decided majority opposed to And again: the views and policy of the administration, still, for well"Could your memorialists discover, for the act com- known causes, that majority cannot be brought to act plained of, one feeble pretence in reason or in law, they upon the question, to apply the remedy which it is agreed would summon to their assistance the best consolations of on all hands would at once relieve the country. In the patriotism, and patiently abide by the redress which the South, the constitutional objection to a national bank forelective power may afford; but when they are referred to bids all hope. In the West, the discipline and rule of no authority, and are informed of no danger to justify or the party" form even a greater obstacle; while New excuse the act; when they are told that their constituents York, who may be said to hold the balance, and has are to be involved in ruin; that the constitution of their ranged every point of the political compass, has at length country is to be invaded; that the best hopes of a happy found it expedient to ingraft the constitutional doctrine people are to be blasted for the sake of an experiment; upon her stock, in the hope thereby to perpetuate her and when that experiment has done its office, and has "system," and secure her future preponderancy in the proved itself to be altogether disastrous, they cannot, be- administration of public affairs. And certainly, Mr. cause they feel they ought not to delay to throw them- Speaker, amid all the strange events of these most eventselves upon Congress for ample and immediate relief. ful times, this may be deemed not among the least reShould it be delayed one single hour, distress will be markable. The Bank of the United States unconstitugreatly aggravated. Should Congress rise without specific tional! say the honorable gentlemen from New York in measures to carry the balm of consolation to the hearts of both Houses of Congress. "Perish credit, perish comyour desponding countrymen, the extent of the calamity merce," exclaims, with all the holy fervor of a new conit would be impossible to foretell." vert, another distinguished individual from the same And again: quarter. And yet, Mr. Speaker, it may not prove en"Your memorialists are well assured that a single act of tirely uninstructive to look back a little into the history of Congress, calculated to give renewed confidence in our this matter. When a member of the bank investigating institutions, and to ensure to them respect and obedience committee of 1832, two documents of no small interest hereafter, would at once arrest the progress of distress, fell under my observation. I hold these documents now and restore happiness to the people. The violation of in my hand. I will not take up the time of the House by the constitution, like the sudden blast of death, filled the reading them throughout; I will merely state their purwhole nation with dismay. The application by Congress port; and, as I consider them as precious instances of poof the remedy, which is completely within their power, litical consistency, I shall append them entire to my writwill dispel, with magic influence, the shades which now ten remarks, as precedents that may hereafter prove of envelop the country. Your memorialists confidently be- much use to the good people of New York, if not to the lieve that the restoration of the deposites to their only honorable gentlemen themselves, whose names are anproper depository, or an unequivocal act disapproving of nexed to them.-(See end of speech.) their removal, or an act rechartering the Bank of the United States, or any act which shall effectually restrain The one, purporting to be "the memorial of the subscribers, in behalf of themselves and their fellow-citizens H. OF R.] Presentation of Memorials. [JUNE 23, 1834. in Albany, to the directors of the Bank of the United abstractions of any sort. Firmly attached to the Union States, respectfully showeth," &c. This memorial is under which we have been raised, devoted to that writsigned by upwards of sixty names, of the highest respect ten constitution which has hitherto been the sheet anchor ability. Among them I distinguish the honorable Charles of our hopes and our prosperity, we are loath to derange E. Dudley, late United States Senator; B. F. Butler, its action or affect its influence by arguments against its presume the present Attorney General; Nathan Sandford; validity, or by arguments which, if they prove any thing W. L. Marcy, the present distinguished Governor of the whatever, only demonstrate that, in handing down to us State; and, though last, certainly not least, Martin Vana written constitution, our fathers have left to their de Buren, now Vice President of the United States. scendants an eternal source of legislative disputation, or an instrument upon which to sharpen the legal wit of the nation. We have therefore deemed those measures and principles constitutional, which, under a sound and careful practice, have redounded to the honor of the nation at large, and enhanced the prosperity and general welfare of her citizens individually. This memorial is dated July 10, 1826. The other paper to which I allude is dated September 1, 1826, and is addressed "to the honorable the president and directors of the Bank of the United States," by "the undersigned inhabitants of the town of Utica, in the State of New York," &c.; and this memorial is signed by upwards of twenty gentlemen, many of whom I have often heard of. One among the number I must be allowed to notice more It is thus that Pennsylvania has always deemed the Bank particularly, simply because the honorable gentleman had of the United States constitutional. It is thus that she forgotten the existence of this paper, and, no later than has sanctioned, by her legislative action at home, her this session, in a contest with one of his colleagues, had voice, and the unanimous vote of her representatives in denied all knowledge of it; I allude to the honorable gen. Congress, the vital principles of a protective policy and of tleman from New York on my left, [Mr. BEARDSLEY.] internal improvement. Nor will I ever believe, Mr. Now, sir, here I find this honorable gentleman's name Speaker, that, distinguished as my native State has always appended to and sustaining a sensibly-written argument been for the cardinal virtues of firmness and integrity of on the subject of the bank; I find not, however, a word purpose, she will ever be brought to submit herself to about the monster, and all that sort of thing, nor a sylla-those corrupt and degrading influences which a certain ble on the unconstitutionality of this institution. No, sir; set of politicians are endeavoring to fasten upon her; they in 1826 these resorts were not expedient; they are the may succeed in bribing the political profligates, the men growth of a later day. Neither do I remark any reference of principle in proportion to their interest, by the hope whatever to those topics upon which I have since heard and promise of reward. I think, however, it is certain, sir, the gentleman descant so eloquently-nothing, sir, about that no native born Pennsylvanian will be found base fee'd advocates, nor bribery, nor corruption. Sir, I do enough to palter with or betray the integrity of his connot think any honorable gentleman on this floor has in-stituents or the interests of his State, or consent to make dulged in more bitterness of expression, more party zeal, himself a by-word of contempt and abhorrence even or uttered broader insinuations against the purity of mo- among those very individuals who are willing for a time tive of some of the most upright men of this nation who to make use of him to suit their own purposes. have felt it to be their duty to sustain the Bank of the I am sure, sir, none such will be found; and if my voice the United States, than the gentleman from New York. could be heard through all the villages and valleys, and I have been altogether surprised at his course, and the on the hilltops of Pennsylvania, I would caution my counmore so, as he himself must have felt the injustice of this trymen against the spirit of the times; I would warn them sort of thing. Unless I am very greatly misinformed, to look well to the opinions and purposes of those to even so late as 1832 the honorable gentleman acted as whom they have intrusted power and place; I would incounsel for the bank, was honestly paid for professional voke them to examine for themselves; and when they services rendered to the bank, and, by his own argument, behold one principle after another sacrificed and abanis subject to all and every imputation he has thought doned, one institution after another decried and torn down, proper to throw out against others. Sir, I should despise let them pause and reflect, and ask themselves, to what inyself if I were capable of imputing any thing derogatory end is all this? for whose benefit? Are the institutions, to him in consequence of this his late connexion with the the freest and happiest in the world, to be perpetuated bank; I will not descend to that kind of political warfare; by such means? Is the great vital principle of the constiand I only bring the matter up now, to show my constit- tution, that of representation, to be preserved and cheruents to what lengths party spirit and an intemperate ished by means which tend to bring ridicule, if not conzeal may carry honorable gentlemen on this floor. tempt, upon the representative body itself? Can the I pass over, however, all these minor matters, and have constitution be handed down uncorrupted and untarnished, only to say that these two memorials, as the House will after every means are resorted to to deprive it of all its perceive by a reference to them, strenuously urge the vital functions and vigor? Surely not, Mr. Speaker. The conflicting claims of the two rival cities of Albany and good sense of the people of Pennsylvania repudiates any Utica to the establishment of a branch in one or the other such doctrine; they can see no end to the evils which of them. As all the world knows, Utica carried the day must spring from it; and if they have no experience to against the confederated strength of the Albany regency; guide them as to the fatal consequences of the other acts and the dreadful "monster," worse than ten Spanish in- and principles of the President, they at least know what quisitions, with all its conglomerated ills of bribery and corruption, was located, by the zealous efforts of the honorable gentleman on my left, [Mr. BEARDSLEY,] in the very midst of the unsophisticated and uncontaminated citizens of his district. must be the inevitable results of his policy towards the bank. They have not so soon forgotten the melancholy epoch which intervened between the expiration of the charter of the old Bank of the United States and that period at which the present one, chartered in 1816, came So much, then, Mr. Speaker, for the constitutional into healthful operation. Her farmers cannot have forscruples and political consistency of the State of New gotten those melancholy days, when sheriffs' sales filled York. It would be idle to dwell longer on this subject; every gazette; when, in some cases, almost whole counit would be worse than idle for me to undertake at this ties changed hands; when thousands of upright, honest, day to argue the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of and laborious men, were compelled to abandon their rethe bank. In Pennsylvania, sir, this question never is, spectable homesteads, and commence anew all the toils never has been, nor do I think it ever will be, raised. and anxieties of life. Such, sir, were the results produWe are a plain people, sir, and meddle but little with ced by the political movements of that day against the |