Slike strani
PDF
ePub

In a time of profound peace-a little Indian war excepted when the nation was in a career of unparalleled prosperity; when the public Treasury was overflowing, and the Government embarrassed to find ways and means to dispose of its surplus revenue; when labour commanded the highest price, and no one wanted employment; when internal improvements on the grandest scale were advancing with unheard-of rapidity; when agriculture, manufactures, and commerce yielded their greatest profit, and all branches of business flourished; when all the great staples of the country found a ready market; when the wilderness of the boundless West was peopling, and towns and cities rising, as if by enchantment; when credit was unshaken, and afforded all needful facilities to trade; and when the currency of the nation was established on a sound and healthy basis, by the salutary operation of a National Bank ;— at such a moment, by the overthrow of this great regulator of the currency-in connexion with another despotic measure of the President, which drew the specie of the country from its accustomed places of deposit to remote regions where it was not wanted, putting it all under control of the Governmentcredit was suddenly and universally destroyed; business of all kinds, except that of lawyers, was brought to a dead stand; labour went begging for bread, and starved for want of it; a great portion of the community were reduced to a state of bankruptcy, and all to non-payment; the banks stopped, and many,

where the President had deposited the public funds, failed; and the Government itself was compelled to issue Treasury notes to meet its current expenses!!!

Millions of the public money have already been lost by this revolution in the fiscal transactions of the nation, in the breaking down of local banks used for depositing those funds which had been unconstitutionally wrested from the custody of the legislative branch of the Government, and by the enormous defalcations of individuals intrusted with public monies; and millions more are still in jeopardy of the same fate. Whereas, not a penny was ever lost by the Bank of the United States, and all the business transactions required by the Government of that institution were done without premium. On the 17th of January, 1838, the United States Treasurer reported to Congress sixty-three defalcators (individuals), in all to the amount of 1,020,587 dollars, without touching the vast amounts lost in the local banks,—a mere beginning of the end.

Besides all this :-In such an unauthorised, unconstitutional, and loose state of things, millions of the public money may be appropriated to electioneering and party purposes, and to buy up friends of the administration, without being open to proof, or liable to account. It is a simple matter of fact, that all the public funds lost in this way, have actually gone to buy up friends to the Government, whether the defalcations were matters of understanding between the powers at Washington and these parties, or not.

The money is gone, and is going; and it goes to friends. So much is true, whatever else is false. And what has already been used up in this way, according to official report, is sufficient to buy the votes of a large fraction of the population of the United States, that is to say, sufficient to produce an influence adequate to secure them.

The Jackson dynasty presents an extraordinary spectacle in American history—that of a man who, having become the idol of a democratic republic, in a military career, was suddenly raised to the Chief Magistracy of the nation, and able to maintain an unabated popularity, while he set aside the decisions of the Supreme Judiciary, trampled the Constitution under his feet, rode over the heads of both Houses of Congress, usurped supreme and uncontrolled authority, took charge of the public funds, and completely blighted the greatest prosperity of a great nation! His military spirit seems to have been the presiding genius of his Administration, and was turned to practical account in training and disciplining the party that raised him to power, so that they continue to bear the impress of his hand, and obey his will as faithfully since he retired, as before. The Republic, under his regimen, has received a new character, and is no longer the same thing. His Government, and the state of things which he set up, makes an era in the history of the country.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CANADA REBELLION.

THE CANADIAN INSURRECTION is a topic of deep and painful interest, as well in the United States, as in Great Britain. Doubtless the diplomatic organs of the British Government in their correspondence with the same functionaries of the United States, are well advised of the temper of the American Government and people, as a body, in regard to this distressing affair. Lord Durham, moreover, enjoyed abundant opportunities, while in Canada, of feeling the American public pulse in relation to this movement, in conversation, with many respectable, and some distinguished, individuals from the States. And we should be much disappointed, if it should transpire, that he has not carried home with him a satisfactory impression of the general public sentiment in the United States on this subject. He must have seen, as we think, that so far from there being a sympathy in the States for the Canadian revolt-with the exception of a few deluded and infatuated men near the Canadian lines, and others of no standing or cha

racter in the country, who had nothing at stake in public disturbances-there is, on the contrary, a fixed and determined public sentiment in the United States, that the amicable relations between Great Britain and this country shall not be put in jeopardy by this ill-advised, rash, and insurrectionary movement. The people of the United States have never seen any reasons why the people of Canada should be dissatisfied with this Government; much less why they have a right to ask sympathy and aid in a rebellion. On the contrary, the citizens of the American Union have a general knowledge of the facts, that the peculiar privileges awarded by the British Government to its Canadian subjects, their many exemptions from public burdens necessarily sustained by their neighbours in the States, and the encouragements given to enterprise, have placed those parts of British jurisdiction on high and enviable ground. So far as we have been able to observe, in a course of years, and in circumstances affording good opportunities of knowing the public mind, we believe we speak truth in saying, that the people of the United States would not have been surprised, if the British Government had offered independence to the Canadas, to be rid of the burden of sustaining and governing them; and that they are greatly surprised that any of the people of Canada should be so unwise, as to think, much more to make the attempt, of acquiring independence by force of arms.

« PrejšnjaNaprej »