daily placed on our desks, or to spend in examining books of knowledge, or be occupied in quiet reflection.

The experienced debaters, and the learned members of this House, may easily surmount such obstacles; but the humble member who claims your indulgence feels them with the strongest and almost overpowering force. Notwithstanding such embarrassing considerations, I ain unwilling to give a silent vote on the bill before the committee, but will assign, as briefly as I can, the reasons why I shall give a negative voice.

We have been assembled, Mr. Chairman, in extraordinary session, and have already acted on some most extraordinary bills. But the most extraordinary ever presented to the consideration of this House, with an earnest and specious hope of being received with favor, is the bill now under debate. A bill of no less a nature, in my judgment, than one calculated, if passed, to obliterate some of the brightest features in our constitution; to annul in its operation almost all the statutes which so carefully guard the mode of receiving and disbursing the public revenues; in one word, a bill to take from the representatives of the people all supervision and control of the public moneys, and to place in the Executive hand, which now has control over the army and the navy, the appointment of an almost illimitable number of public officers, and has command of the militia when in the actual service of the United States-to place in the same hand, to receive and to pay out, without scarcely a check or restraint, all the public money of the nation.

The request from the Executive to be possessed of such delicate and enormous power greatly surprised me; to find the representatives of sovereign States tamely acquiescing, completely astonished me; to find it advocated on this floor by some of the representatives of the people, who, under the constitution, are the purse-creating and the purse-holding power, has awakened into alarm every hidden apprehension of my mind.

What proofs of superior knowledge and superior usefulness has the Executive given, to warrant a surrender of power to its discretion? Has it shown, from the prudent exercise of powers delegated to it by the constitution and the laws, that, to promote the interest of the nation, its powers should be amplified and new authorities delegated? That, to promote the interest of the people, you must abandon your trust and your duty, and give almost unlimited discretion to the Executive will? That the Executive will better administer your duties than the conjoint wisdom of the representatives of the people? Or does the President even place his request upon the pretext that, by your surrendering into his hands all control over the money of the people, it will give them relief in their present distress, and equalize the exchanges and currency of the country? Even this plausible argument is not offered, but is dis tinctly repudiated in the Executive message.

No argu

ment of this sort is offered; and yet you are asked to make the surrender simply to gratify the executive pleasure. But, Mr. Chairman, I would not care how strong the reasons might be that could be assigned; if they were ten times as strong as any I could imagine, I never can be guilty of violating, by voting for such a measure, the whole genius and spirit of the constitution-the essence of every republican constitution in every representative Government. So far from the Executive exhibiting superior sagacity and prudence in regulating the financial operations of the Government, it has shown itself most culpably inefficient to discharge the duties required by the existing laws, and those which it has assumed, in violation of both law and usage. I have not even a shadow of doubt in my mind, that all the embarrassments in our country, in the currency, and in business of every kind, are in a chief degree chargeable to the Executive of the last four years.

To justify this allegation, I am constrained to allude

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briefly to the past, but shall take only a rapid glance at circumstances that have transpired, as that ground has been most ably occupied by members who have preceded me in this debate. When, Mr. Chairman, did any country present as great a degree of prosperity as this nation did at the time that General Jackson commenced his unrelenting hostility to the late Bank of the United States? What country on earth possessed a better currency than this did at that time? What country afforded such a reduced rate of exchanges? Where was labor better rewarded? Where was industry better recompensed? Search the inhabitable globe for a parallel, and you will search in vain. Where was an institution better organized and conducted, and its paper more readily received in every part of the United States, if not in every part of the world, by people of every pursuit, from the centre to the remotest borders of the Union, than the paper of the Bank of the United States? It had realized more than had been predicted by its most ardent advocates in 1816. It had been chiefly instrumental in effecting and maintaining, for nearly twenty years, what I regard to be the great desideratum in a country where agriculture, planting, manufactures, and commerce lean upon and support each other-a convertible paper currency-bank paper converted at the will of the holder into gold and silver. Such was the state of the currency four years ago. Bank paper was not only convertible into silver at the counter of the bank that issued it, but was convertible every where in the interior at the counters of retail merchants, who were always glad to exchange their silver for bank notes, which better suited their purposes for transmission. Peace and plenty gladdened the whole land; content and cheerfulness were found in the most humble cottage as well as in the more costly edifice; a prospect of universal prosperity was then presented, on which the mind loved to dwell. I will not expatiate upon it, but content myself with a simple narration.

General Jackson, in the plenitude of his power and unparalleled popularity, had forced, by his system of proscription, most of the officers of the Government to become political partisans. To be an active partisan, to gain preferment, was a sine qua non with him. The political armor was put on, and each saw written on it, this is the road to Byzantium.' The president of a northern branch of the United States Bank had displeased some active partisan, and the mother bank refused to dismiss the honest and independent head of the branch; that partisan infused the venom of his feelings into the bosom of General Jackson. Threat after threat was made, in the President's messages, against the United States Bank. A better currency was promised the people, if they would unite with the Executive in destroying that institution. That promise had a charm in it, as all persons are anxious to better their condition; and all believe, however prosperous, that their condition can be improved. But still an honest and upright Congress refused to lend itself to the malignant purposes of the Executive, or to gratify his splenetic will. Congress was in favor of renewing the charter of the bank. The Executive veto nullified the will of the representatives of the States and the people. Congress refused to gratify the will of the Executive in ordering the Government deposites to be removed froin the Bank of the United States, where the law had placed them; but he, with ruthless hand, seized upon the public treasure, as Cæsar had done before him, and parcelled out the money of the people among a host of State institutions, which he now testifies are the most unprincipled and profligate in the annals of history,

Those institutions were urged by the Secretary of the Treasury to discount most liberally upon the deposites of the Government; and as slaves always most readily obey the first orders of a new master, they not only discounted

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ers.

paper offered to them, but in many cases invited customCongress altered the standard of gold, and reduced its value. (I rejoice that I had the honor to vote against that bill.) Europeans sent their gold here to be coined, and then ordered it home again. The Neapolitan and French indemnities were adjusted, and imported in gold. This was hailed as the millennium of the golden age, and General Jackson was told by his flatterers, and believed it, that he had at last discovered the Philosopher's stone. Jaundiced-eyed and near-sighted politicians, whose minds cannot realize causes and effects, or discriminate fictitious from true and abiding causes, thought that they had really worked a specie miracle; and the General himself read his valedictory, "still harping" on the monster bank, and congratulating himself and the country on the experiment which he had tried in his humble efforts to improve, as he said he had, the currency of our country. But I am fast in my chronology; there is one other remarkable event which I wish to allude to. Before General Jackson retired from office, a distinguished Senator, who had aided much in building up the golden image which he wished all to fall down and worship, made a political prediction, that, if the people of the West would co-operate with him in destroying the Bank of the United States, they would see, in violation of all the laws which govern fluids or solids, gold flow up the Mississippi. They believed, and looked with anxious hope, but looked in vain. He conceived the expedient whilst Congress was in session, but revealed it perhaps to few-lingered until Congress had adjourned, and then, "solitary and alone," he thought he would set the golden stream in motion. Congress ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to receive the notes of specie-paying banks and gold or silver in payment of public dues. The alchymical operation was to be effected by a disregard of the law, and the Secretary of the Treasury was ordered to issue his famous proclamation, demanding nothing but gold or silver for public lands. The prediction was realized gold and silver flowed up the valley and over the mountains, but flowed in steamboats and in stages-flowed to the land offices and to the banks of deposite, but never into the pockets of the working people of the West.

This last act broke the glittering dream, and the veil of Mokanna fell to the ground. Convertible paper and gold were no longer synonymous; Government, which should have been the last, was the first to make the distinction. Gold and silver were at once more valuable-for the article most in demand in this country is land; and the Government is the largest (because it is the greatest proprietor) and cheapest seller, and can control the market value. Thousands daily purchased public land, and of course thousands were forced to procure specie. It soon became an article of merchandise, to be bought in the market, rather than a medium of exchange. The banks found their paper returned upon them, and their specie almost exhausted, and wisely suspended specie payments; and the deposite banks were the very first to set the example. Confidence became impaired; the banks had been pressed by those who held their notes, and they, in turn, called on their debtors, and the debtors of the banks called on all who owed them; thus the pressure passed the whole round of the circle of trade and business. Panic, dismay, confusion, and bankruptcy, followed in quick and fatal succession. The Government could not escape the consequences of its measures, and suspended specie payments.

The last Congress, foreseeing the evil consequences of the specie circular of the Treasury Department, passed a bill rescinding that order. General Jackson treated it with contempt, placed it in his pocket, and retired to the Hermitage, denouncing the insolence of Congress in sending a bill to him which questioned the wisdom of any measure which he had ordered. Mr. Van Buren, who succeeded to the Presidency, was urged most earnestly to rescind that

[Ост. 12, 1837.

circular, but he refused. When he saw, as he ought to have seen, its evil tendency, he should have yielded to the counsel of honest and practical men. I will here say that, whilst I believe that the evils of that measure might have been in some degree softened if Mr. Van Buren had rescinded the order after the fourth of March, I do not think that it would have prevented a suspension of specie payments: it would have changed the direction of that suspension; much of the silver would have been drawn from the West to the Atlantic and to the Southern cities, and would have, in some degree, relieved them; but that would have forced a suspension of specie payments by the Western and Southwestern banks, which would have been quickly followed by the banks of the commercial and large cities. When silver is at a premium, it is impossible, in the nature of things, for the paper of any bank to remain long in circulation, or for any bank to throw out its paper to any useful extent to the people, and redeem it with the precious metals.

From this train of measures and circumstances I trace the causes of the suspension of specie payments by all the banks, the great confusion and embarrassment in business of every kind, the distresses and bankruptcies which occurred, and the confusion which has overwhelmed both the people and the Government. From such measures you

can trace consequences, with the same unerring accuracy as the human eye can mark the path of the desolating whirlwind.

Amid this disastrous crisis, the President issued his proclamation convening Congress, which he had positively refused to do a few weeks before. We assembled, some of us with hope, some with apprehension, though all equally anxious to know what measures would be recommended, and what position the Executive would assume. Some thought that the President would recommend the sub-Treasury system; others, a retrial of the State banks; whilst others hoped, at least I did, that he would throw himself upon the advice of Congress. This was really my belief, as well as my hope. His appointment of Mr. Poinsett at the head of the War Department had inspired me with some hope of better things. No man, save one, who had been born either south or west of Pennsylvania held a place in the cabinet. And the appointment of a second, and one so highly worthy and eminently qualified, was, I thought, the harbinger of some salutary changes. So firstrate men are in office, I care not from what quarter they are taken, or where may be their birth-place. But I do maintain that every prominent place should be filled by high-minded and efficient gentlemen, who understand their duties, and are prompt to discharge them. I came here with no pledged hostility to his administration, and, personally, I had a very high regard for the President. My situation here is peculiar. I have been elected by the aid of both parties. If I were to consult the feelings of a majority of the persons who voted for me, rather than the opinions of a majority of the voters of the district, I would pause in my course. But, when entrusted with a public duty, I do not feel at liberty to be governed by feelings of personal predilection or antipathy. I feel bound to take a more expansive view of the whole district and the nation.

When we assembled here, speculation was at once hushed by the receipt of the President's message; and I must confess I was greatly disappointed. I had read his famous letter to Mr. Sherrod Williams, in which he considered the State banks as Government depositories, and said how aðmirably the system worked-where he denounced the United States Bank, and promised to tread in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor. I thought all this was the mere electioneering language of the day, and that, when once in office, he would make himself the President of the people, and not of a party. All my expectations were disappointed; for almost the first thing he informed the representa

tives of the people whom he had called together-who assembled here fresh and warm from the midst of the people-was, that if they should dare to pass a bill to establish a bank of the United States, he would be a lion in their path; that he was armed with a veto power, and would assuredly use it. Such language is unprecedented in the history of this or any other country. The President, in his inaugural address, informed the people that if a particular measure should be passed by Congress, he would use the veto. I thought that unnecessary and uncalled for, but supposed it was designed for Southern effect. A veto in that case would be unnecessary; nor did Mr. Van Buren, or any one else, suppose that he would ever be called on to redeem his pledge; for, Mr. Chairman, whenever the Congress of the United States shall so far forget their compact with Maryland as to violate private property in the District of Columbia, your jurisdiction will end, and that of Maryland will begin, over all that part of the ten miles square north of the southern bank of the Potomac river. I may go farther: that moment this House shall contain a majority of members who will be so reckless as to vote for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, the annunciation of that majority by the Chair will be the sounding of the death knell of the Union.

Before Mr. Van Buren is six months in office, before a single bill or resolution has been sent to him for his signature, he has voluntarily, gratuitously, stepped out of the line of his duty, to inform Congress that upon at least two measures he will use his veto. I have an hostility to the veto power, and can never be reconciled to its use. The framers of our constitution placed it in the hands of the Executive, under the fallacious belief that it is the weakest of the co-ordinate branches of Government. Sir, the framers of the constitution and the authors of the Federalist were mistaken. The Executive is more powerful than all the other branches put together. All power is fast consolidating in the Executive hands; and the Executive history of the last four years is sufficient to justify the remark without any proof. They thought it harmless, because they found it obsolete in England, though existing in the English constitution.

The Government of the United States is the last in the world which should tolerate the veto power. There may be some plausibility for it in the State constitutions, which secure to the people the right to elect both branches of the Legislature; for there both branches may be moved, in a greater or less degree, by the same commotion or popular impulse. But even in the constitution of my own State, where the Senate is not elected by the people, the Execu tive is denied the veto power; the constitution says the Governor shall sign the laws. And it has been judicially decided by our highest courts, that laws which have passed the General Assembly, or both Houses of the Legislature, are valid without the signature of the Governor. And that is almost the only feature in the Maryland constitution which, I think, could not be changed for the better. And in the Federal Government, also, every useful caution exists in framing laws, without the existence of the oppressive veto power in the Executive. In our Government, part representative, part confederative, no law can be enacted without its first receiving the sanction of the representatives of the people; or, in other words, a majority of the people in their aggregate capacity, without distinction of States, control in this House. In the confederate branch, where the sovereign States are equal, a majority of those States must give sanction to every bill. What greater safeguard can there be to liberty than to require first the concurrence of a majority of the people, and then a majority of the States, to every measure of public utility? Every restraint beyond this is actual, real oppression. I regard the abuse of delegated power to be as obnoxious to censure as the usurpation of power. And an Executive

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places itself within the range of that censure, when it arrogantly uses, or presumptuously threatens, the veto. It is to awe free and fearless deliberation, by suspending the sword of Damocles over the heads of nervous politicians, in this hall or the other.

Historians inform us that, with all his vices, "Nero never attempted any thing against the jurisdiction of the Senate."

Marcus Aurelius, though armed with the imperial tribunitian (or veto) prerogative, said, in alluding to the Senate, "It is more proper that I should submit to the opinion of so many and such friends, than that so many and such friends should follow my will.”

An able writer says, "It was by adding the tribunitian power (intercedare vetare) to the military, in their own persons, that the Roman Emperors consummated the ruin of the republic." "It was by this mode," says Tacitus, "that Augustus found means, without the name of King or Dictator, to make himself superior to the legislative and executive powers of the commonwealth."

If the Romans lost their liberty by the union of the military and the veto power in the same hands, how can it be preserved in this nation, when you unite in the same hands, which have now the military and veto, the power of the purse, which you propose to do by the bill now on your table?---a power which Augustus never possessed.

But in these modern days, a President is called a Roman patriot, who freely uses this detested instrument of tyranny; though Pliny boasts, in panegyrizing Trajan, "that the Emperor never allowed himself to annul or prevent the execution of the Senate's decrees.'

I will not longer dwell on this subject than to say that, as it was by the use of the veto that Louis XVI lost his head-so may the next American who shall use it lose his personal popularity.

But the President has thought fit to read to Congress a lecture upon constitutional law, and gravely tells us that a Bank of the United States would be unconstitutional. Yes, sir, he would fain convince us that the constitution was in his keeping, and that he will not let the rude hands of the representatives of the people profane it. Mr. Chairman, how much crime has been committed, how much blood has been shed, by fanaticism, under the pretext of serving the cause of religion? How much usurpation and tyranny have been practised, upon the pretence of saving the constitution and serving the people? Let history answerfor every volume can answer, from the creation of the world to the present moment. Who is this mighty expounder of the constitution? Is he the the venerable and glorious man who presided over the deliberations of the convention that formed that sacred instrument? Or is he the wise and distinguished individual whose pen gave it forn and proportion, and who has been emphatically called the Father of the constitution? No, sir, he is not. But he is Martin Van Buren, of Kinderhook. The same individual who informed the nation in his inaugural address, on the east front of the Capitol, that he was the first President elected who had not participated in the patriotic struggles of the Revolution; who thought it proper to say, for the information, perhaps, of the ladies present, that he was born since those ancient days. He is the first and chief of the modern expounders of the constitution. Yes, sir, even Amos Kendall, an officer, not of the constitution, but of the law, says that he is a limb-yes, sir! the right arm, I supposeof the Executive body, and has dared to read a homily to the courts upon their duties and the constitution. It is time, for the dignity of this House and the nation, that such insolence and effrontery should be frowned down, it not punished. But I will leave these distinguished personages for a moment, and allude to others. There is another class of politicians in this House, who have been thrown into ecstacies because Mr. Van Buren says that, as

he construes the constitution, Congress cannot create a United States bank. They call themselves the true State rights Old Dominion republican democrats of the Jeffersonian school, and quote the name of that patriot, for every purpose, numberless times, in every speech with which they favor this House. My mind is in doubt whether such displays should be treated gravely or lightly. Gentlemen seem to speak as if no one had read and understood Mr. Jefferson's writings but themselves, and quote slips from, and fragments of, his letters written some fifty years ago, before the existence of a United States bank. I have been

on

among those Southern State rights politicians, who dispute upon subtleties too refined to be perceived by my mental vision. One descants upon constitutional law, and all eagerly listen, in hope to hear some idea which may impinge against something which Mr. Jefferson may have loosely written or said, believing it will be his political destruction at home. Quick as thought, a messenger is sent to the library to produce a letter or conversation of Mr. Jefferson. The orator ends, and another begins with anticipated victory joyously illumining his features, and his Southern friend is handled without gloves or mercy. But with that propensity for long speaking which is so remarkable in the South, where all are imaginative children of the Sun, and where all possess the copia verborum in an eminent degree, he soon runs foul of some other opinion of Mr. Jefferson, on some other and foreign subject. Yes, and another more Mercury-footed page is posted, to tell the first to be swift. Then another State rights Jeffersonian Old Dominion true republican democrat rises, and, with the merciless vengeance of a Samson, he routs and vanquishes the political Philistines before him, behind him, and around him, horse, foot, and dragoons. These gentlemen regard it high treason, verily, to differ in the minutest particular from Mr. Jefferson. What a bombastic Englishman once said of Homer, they think true of Jefferson:

"Read Homer once, and you can read no more, For all books else appear so mean, so poor, Verse will seem prose; but still persist and read, And Homer will be all the books you need." They regard it heresy, beyond the benefit of clergy, if any man dare speak, think, or breathe, without producing the authority of Mr. Jefferson; and he is read out of the State rights party. They call to my mind an anecdote which occurred in my own State on the death of Alexander Hamilton, in the best days of Maryland hospitality, before she was governed, as she now is, by uncles and aunts, who are all united by either affinity or propinquity, who fill all places, and hold the reins of government in their feeble and effeminate grasp-for Maryland is pretty much like the rest of the Southern States. They have all been, for the last ten years, like so many barrels of frozen cider-the spirit has not escaped, but it has become concentrated; some of them now show signs of reanimation, and elivening feelings are beginning to pervade them; and we may hope that even "Rip Van Winkle" (North Carolina) will in time open his wondering eyes. But to ny anecdote. The news reached a coterie of thorough-going federalists, who were dining on the Eastern shore of Maryland, where wine and wit were flowing in equal streams; all expressed in general exclamation their bitter sorrow; all, save one, became earnest and eloquent in speaking of the powers of that great man's mind-of the great services he had rendered to the country, and the heavy loss which the nation had sustained, and how much they lamented it. At length, Thomas Bailey, the brother of the Attorney General of Maryland, who was remarkable for a high order of intellect, when he would venture to exercise it, setting down his empty wine-glass, said to his bevy of friends, that he had listened to the expressions of grief which the sad news had called from them, but he felt that his grief was greater than theirs, because his loss was greater in the death of Hamil

[OCT. 12, 1837.

ton; for as long as Hamilton lived (said he) he had never been put to the labor and trouble of investigating questions for himself, and that, as Hamilton was dead, he now, alas, would be forced to the dire necessity of thinking for himself.

I could but think, since this discussion has commenced, if Mr. Jefferson had not left behind him some two volumes of State Papes, one volume of Correspondence, and his Notes on Virginia, how awfully annoyed some of the Virginia politicians would be, if driven, like Tom Bailey, to think for themselves. What would these gentlemen do if the

An able member from Virginia informed us, last night, that he considered Mr. Jefferson the polar star that directed his course. Suppose we draw imagination from around the figure, and examine it by the test of real life. Will a traveller always keep his eye on the polar star? If he should direct his gaze continually that way in his journey, he will soon find that furs would add to his comfort; he would next find that the white bear and the wandering Indian would be the only living things about him; and the next step he would find himself plunging into Symmes's arctic hole. Will the prudent and skilful mariner look alone at the north star, in directing his vessel's way over the trackless ocean? At times he is forced to look at other fixed if less beautiful luminaries, and finds them equally true and useful. Yes, sir, astronomy and navigation teach him to point his glass, at times, to all the bright stars in the zodiac, and the power of human reason makes them subservient to its control.

So I should fain think the practical American statesman should view every star in the firmamnent, or, to quit the figure, should read all that has been written by the wise and the good, and then dare to think for himself.

When Jefferson embarked in the glorious cause of the Revolution, did he take Solon or Lycurgus, Sidney or Hampden, for his model of greatness? Did he take Locke or Milton as the text-books of his creed? No, sir, he did not. He read all that patriots had written; he read deeply the volumes of human nature and then, sir, he dipped his pen into his own mind, and wrote the immortal Declaration of Independence. He had no model; daring to think and to act for himself, he made himself great as he

was.

We are in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union; and I am unwilling, as an American citizen, to sit silently and hear Mr. Jefferson's name quoted, to effect every narrow and selfish purpose. His fame is the property of the whole nation, and is not placed in the hands of a few Southern politicians. Mr. Jefferson had faults, as all men have; but Mr. Jefferson was a man of enlarged and expansive mind. And if any supernatural power could resuscitate his body with the magic wand of one of old, as we read in solemn history, and present him living before us, he would rebuke his friends for using his name, as it has been, on many occasions.

Mr. Jefferson doubted, before the first United States Bank was established, whether it was constitutional to establish such an institution. But did he advise General Washington to put his veto upon it? No, sir. He cautions him against using the veto-he urges him to respect the representatives of the people. This he did in the last sentence of his letter to General Washington, in 1791. He says, "it must be added, however, that, unless the President's mind, on a view of every thing which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably clear that it is unauthorized by the constitution; if the pro and con hang so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the wisdom of the Legislature would naturally decide the balance in favor of their opinion."

Such is the manly language of a great mind; and I wish, for the interest of the country, that his modern friends

knew how to appreciate it. He recommends no veto, bu cautions the President against it. He advises the President to respect the Legislature. This is the language of a true democrat. A democrat is he who will think for himself, vote for himself, speak for himself, and obey the laws and decisions of the tribunals of the country. A man who puts on the blind-bridle of party, and allows himself to be caparisoned with party trammels, is not a democrat-he is half a vassal. A democrat must be a free thinker and a free talker-a free and fearless political actor,

Whilst Mr. Jefferson spoke and wrote freely his sentiments, he knew how to respect the opinions of others. He respected the constitution and obeyed the laws. When the Bank of the United States was established, he acquiesced in deference and with cheerfulness. And in 1804, after he was exalted to the Presidency, he signed a bill authorizing the bank to establish branches in the Territories. If he had not surrendered his first opinion, he placed himself in the attitude of being guilty of base perjury in sanctioning the measure; and I would not venture to give utterance to the opinion I would entertain of the man who would bring such a charge against him.

It was but last night, while listening to an able member from the Old Dominion, who was quoting Jefferson against the Bank of the United States, that I turned to a learned friend from Virginia, by whom I was sitting, and said that I really believed that, if Mr. Jefferson were on this floor, and saw the distresses of the country, he would be the first and warmest to advocate a United States bank. My friend remarked that I appreciated justly Mr. Jefferson's character; for he had heard a few days ago a distinguished gen tleman, who was a neighbor of Mr. Jefferson, assert that Mr. Jefferson had said that, if the State bank system was to be tolerated, the only way to control it, and to give a good currency, was to have a bank of the United States. But this fact has been alluded to by the able gentleman who preceded me, [Mr. POPE.] That he said so, I have not the smallest doubt. Your Supreme Court, last winter, decided that the State banks were constitutional. Then, if Mr. Jefferson's opinions are to be quoted, they would be in favor of a United States bank.

But those very gentlemen, who wish to chain down Mr. Jefferson's opinions to the narrowest views upon all subjects, will find themselves in an awkward predicament at the next session. I predict, Mr. Chairman, that they will then quote Mr. Jefferson as the greatest latitudinarian who ever filled the Presidential chair.

When the question of the annexation of Texas to the Union shall come up, as I expect it will next winter, these gentlemen will quote Mr. Jefferson as a precedent, because he recommended the purchase of Louisiana.

Mr. Jefferson has admitted that that purchase was made without any authority being given in the constitution. But still he recommended it, and signed the bill. Sir, he acted wisely; he acted as a philosophic statesman should have acted. There are occasionally and rarely great national emergencies which no framers of a constitution can foresee. Those emergencies must be met, and acted upon promptly. This was one of them. In such a case, all public functionaries are justified in adapting their course to the circumstances. Whilst they venerate the constitution, they are required by duty to obey what must be the sense, not of a party, but of the whole nation, in the emergency, and adopt such measures as will meet the wishes of the present generation, and which they are convinced will meet with the approbation of all posterity. Such occurrences are but seldom presented, but still they do sometimes occur. And Mr. Madison said truly, in his able report upon the Virginia resolutions of 1798, that, as the constitution is above the law, so are the people above the constitution." That maxim should be received with caution, to be sanctioned only when the people desire a change in their or VOL. XIV.-94

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ganic law, or when great national exigencies arise, such as I have alluded to.

Some of these Southern constitutional lawyers seem to revel in denunciations against the Bank of the United States-not only some of the Virginia politicians, but the able member from South Carolina, [Mr. PICKENS,] who sprung into the front rank in this debate. Some new light has illumined his path. I thought, if any State in the Union had acquiesced in the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States, it was South Carolina. If the people have erred in sustaining the bank, South Carolina has inculcated that error; for all of her great men have advocated it. In 1816, seven out of eight of her representatives voted for the charter of the United States Bank. Yes, sir, Messrs. Calhoun, Chappell, Edwards, Huger, King, Lowndes, Middleton, Pickens, Taylor, and Woodward; and Mr. Mayrant stood "solitary and alone" against it. But the onward path of modern genius can demonstrate that all these men were ignorant of the constitution and their duties.

"We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so." Yes, sir, Mr. Calhoun, who was a Southern fixed star, has, by some inscrutable phenomena of nature, by some undiscoverable law of attraction, wandered from his station, and is now in the northern polar hemisphere; or, rather, is now a planet revolving around, by attraction and repulsion, the executive centre. Sir, I grieve at the sudden transition, because I like Mr. Calhoun personally. But he has made himself a living warning, to the opinions I have expressed, how dangerous it is for any free-thinking and generous man, whether in public or in private life, to pin his faith to the skirts of any man. Mr. Calhoun's political life has been most strangely erratic. If I should wish to find an argument in favor of the Bank of the United States, I would read his speech made in 1816; if I wished to find a confirmation of those opinions, I would read his speech made in the twenty-third Congress; if I wished to find an argument against the bank, I would read his recent speech made in the twenty-fith Congress; if I wished to find an argument in favor of the tariff, I would read his speech made in 1816; if I would wish to find an argnment against the tariff, I would read at least a dozen speeches which he has made within the last four years; if I wished to find an argument in favor of forts and fortifications, I would read his report made when he was Secretary of War; if I wished to find an argument against forts and fortifications, I would read his speech delivered in the twenty-third Congress; if I wished to gain proof that he was friendly to the tariff and internal improvements, I would ask for it from the gentlemen of Pennsylvania, who, some ten or twelve years ago, urged his name for the Presidency, and I would be answered that they urged his claims because they thought him ultra on those subjects; if I wished to find arguments against that system, they would be found in every speech which he has delivered, on any subject whatever, for the last six years.

Let the generous and chivalric young men

of the South follow such a polar fixed star, and they will find, when too late to retrieve their standing and usefulness, that they had been following an ignis futuus, which had been leading them from swamp to bog, from bog to glen, from glen to morass, and finally left them in a cypress swamp of the most impenetrable darkness. He may be quoted for any political opinion, as a distinguished judge once said Croke's reports could be quoted for any legal opinion. I had rather at once cut my political jugular than follow such a star; for, if I did not, the people would soon do it for me; and I regard suicide preferable to public execution. I was amused at the gallant bearing of my chivalrous friend from South Carolina, [Mr. PICKENS,] when he took the lead, conscious of his right and ability to lead, in this debate; it proved to my mind that his Southern feeling