4167 GALES & SEATON'S REGISTER Ontario county (N. Y.) Memorial. [MAY 19 H. OF R.] republican principles advocated by the Hampdens, the rangement shall be effected, that the Bank of the Sidneys, the Miltons, and the Lockes of former days; they States will enjoy, in their just extent, the advanta would have seen in such principles nothing but the ap- tended to be secured to it by the charter. Und proach of tyranny, a most daring usurpation, and a viola- limited enjoyment of those advantages, which gen tion of the fundamental principles of all free, wise, and cumstances seemed to impose, the conduct of the good Governments. Considering the advanced state of entitled to high commendation. The directors knowledge, and particularly in the science of govern- no instance, urged their claim to an earlier transfe ment, and the different feelings, habits, and principles of public money, which remained in the possession a free and enlightened people in this age and country, State and local banks." And this one million f when compared with England two centuries ago, our dred thousand dollars was but a small part of the o Executive, within the last two years, has made greater sation rendered by the bank for its charter. The advances towards arbitrary power, and done more to de- its services, in transferring from place to place th stroy the rights and privileges of the National Legislature, of the Government, was at least five hundred t and all the great landmarks of the constitution, than was done by Charles the First, in reference to the Government of his country, in any ten years of his reign. dollars a year. The value of the services may be ted from the fact that, in the years 1818 and cost the Government (says the late Secretary Cr at least three per cent. to transfer money from to the branch bank at Louisville; such transfer hundred and fifty-four thousand dollars cost the ment seventeen thousand eight hundred dollars. I submit that I have sufficiently shown that, in his removal of the deposites, the President has violated the constitution and the law, as alleged in the second resolution; that only alleges the violation, but assigns no motive, and does not imply an impeachable offence. Yet I may, Again: the Government of England deposites nevertheless, be permitted to ask, was not the removal of lic moneys in the Bank of England; and the ban William J. Duane, late Secretary of the Treasury, by the the agent of the Government in receiving, tra President, in the language of the late President Madison, from place to place, and paying out such depos "an act of mal-administration, the wanton removal of amer- rendering an exact account thereof; for which se itorious public officer?" and ought it not, in the language bank receives annually the sum of two hundred a of the same celebrated man, "to subject him [the Presi- eight thousand pounds sterling, equal to about or dent] to impeachment and removal from his own high trust?" one hundred thousand dollars. Sir, I consider the removal of the deposites as inexpe- The amount of the public deposites, on th dient and unjust; unjust, as it respects the bank, and a February, 1832, was £3,198,730 sterling, being violation of its charter. The bank charter was present- believe, to about $13,000,000, being probably ed, unasked for, and without petition, to the people, to average amount of deposites; and the expens save them and the Government from great embarrassment transfer and the difference of exchanges were and numerous bankruptcies; and, when accepted by the but little more than those of the Bank of the Uni stockholders, became a contract between them and the for similar services; besides, the Bank of Englai Government, binding upon both. By the charter the interest upon the deposites, and was often enab Government granted to the stockholders banking powers vide a profit of more than eight per cent. p for twenty years; agreed to subscribe for seven millions, among its stockholders. The Bank of the Unit being one-fifth part of the stock; receive the notes of the paid, as interest, the one-fifth of the avails der bank, unless expressly prohibited by law, in all payments all discounts founded on the public deposites. to the United States; to deposite the money of the United is not all; the Bank of the United States, in th States in the bank or its branches, in places where the years of its existence, saved millions to the G bank or branches thereof should be established; that no and country, by enabling the Government to other bank should be established during the charter; and at a very small discount, its depreciated and alr that the bank should have two years after the termi-less State bank paper, received under 'the de nation of its charter to close its concerns. And, in con- of special deposites for debts due the Treasury sideration of the exclusive privileges and benefits confer-zing the exchanges, foreign and domestic, an red" by the charter, the bank agreed to give the ne- the rate of exchange between Missouri, Illinoi cessary facilities for transferring the public funds from Orleans and New York, from fifteen or twe place to place within the United States and its Territo- per cent; aiding and compelling the State ries, without charging commissions, or claiming any al-sume specie payments; and by increasing the lowance on account of the difference of exchange; and bor, produce, and lands, and giving life, activi shall also perform the duties of commissioners of loans for terprise to business of every description. the several States, any one or more of them, when re- We learn, from a communication of Mr. C quired by law," and pay to the United States one million Secretary of the Treasury, to Congress, that five hundred thousand dollars. It was further stipulated Bank of the United States went into operation by the charter that the Secretary of the Treasury might, January, 1817, the actual state of the curi at any time, order the deposites not to be made in said mercial exchanges, foreign and domestic, bank or its branches; in which case, he is to report his sources of the Treasury, other than in local a reasons to Congress. And it was farther provided by the ted paper, were deranged to a degree insu charter, that if the President of the United States shall almost irremediable." "The State banks h believe the charter has been violated, he may order a scire ated against the public interest," refused speci facias to be sued out, to repeal and annul the charter; and and were jealous of each other. "The bar that every issue of fact should be tried by a jury. The bo- could to restore the currency, and induce a r nus of one million five hundred thousand dollars was paid specie payments; and undertook the Herce as well for the benefit of the deposites as for the privilege equalizing the exchanges from the District of of banking. And I am sustained by Mr. Crawford, late Boston." Produce in the Western States Secretary of the Treasury, in his letter of December 10, scarcely to defray the expense of transpor 1817, to the bank, wherein he speaks of the absolute ne- ports from which it was usually exported to cessity which had compelled him to make deposites in the kets. Great distress then existed, and alar State banks, and of a certain arrangement which would hensions for the future." What good citizer soon enable him to make deposites in the United States such times revived? What good citizen wou Dank and its branches and save: "It is only after this ar- his endeavors to avoid them? MAY 19, 1834.] Ontario county (N. Y.) Memorial. [H. OF R. The bank, by the terms of its charter, was entitled to as well as the bank; for one-fifth of the profits thus taken the public deposites, during the whole period of its legal from the bank would have belonged to them; but the existence, unless their safety was endangered. The bank measure could never render insolvent and destroy the was also, in equity and justice, entitled to the deposites, bank. As a punishment, it was inappropriate and imby reason of the large sum of money she paid, and the proper. Punishment is more appropriate to courts of valuable services she rendered the Government. They justice; and the mode in which such punishment for a were to begin and end with the charter; and had it been violation of duty could be rendered effectual, was pointed intended they should have been removed at some period out by the charter. That remedy is, in my opinion, before the end of the charter, and without any special un- more expedient, more consistent, more magnanimous. foreseen cause, would not such time have been fixed and Yet I do not believe the bank has done any act which is a ascertained by the charter? violation of its charter, or that justifies a removal of the deposites. Many millions, during the first years of the existence of the bank, were, from imperious necessity, deposited with Again: I consider the removal of the deposites was a the State banks, by the consent of the Bank of the United measure uncalled for, unwise, ill-advised; ruinous to conStates. On the 10th of January, 1817, more than eleven fidence, to credit, to agricultural, to manufacturing, and million dollars were deposited in State banks, and the de- commercial industry and enterprise. That it was unwise, posites were much increased that year, no considerable is shown by contrasting its effects, as predicted by the portion of which was deposited in the Bank of the United President in his famous message of the 18th of SeptemStates. Between the 1st of January, 1818, and the 13th ber last, with those verified by the experience of a few of February, 1822, in thirteen banks in Ohio, Illinois, short months. He believed there would not be any scarKentucky, Indiana, Missouri, and Mississippi, $4,958,997 city of money occasioned by the removal of the depos of the public revenue had been deposited. How much, ites. He said, "the funds of the Government will not during the same period, in other State banks, and how be annihilated by being transferred; they will immedimuch after that period, I have not been able to ascertain; ately be issued for the benefit of trade; and, if the bank but it was not until 1823 or 1824 that the bank realized of the United States curtails its loans, the State banks, all the advantages from the deposites intended by the strengthened by the public deposites, will extend theirs. What comes in through one bank goes out through others, charter. So much had the bank suffered by aiding the Govern- and the equilibrium will be restored. There would be ment to change their "special deposites" into current no derangement of trade or of business. Now try the wismoney, the State banks to resume specie payments, when, dom of the measure by testing the truth of these reas the late Secretary Crawford said, "the State banks marks. Has there been no unusual embarrassment in were generally struggling for existence," and by being trade or business? Have the State banks, strengthened deprived of most of the deposites, that, to the 9th of July, by the public deposites, extended their loans and supplied 1819, it had not been enabled to realize more than two the country with a currency equal to that of the paper and a half per cent., and at that time "was unable to of the Bank of the United States. The safety-fund banks make any dividend." If the Secretary had any power to in New York had, between the 1st of January and the say the deposites should be removed two and a half years 4th of March last, reduced their circulation more than before the expiration of the charter, there was no limita- three millions of dollars. And to save those banks from tion to his power, and might have as well said six-years is entire ruin, as must have been supposed, and supply the necessary; and then the bank would have been deprived place of the capital withdrawn, and the merchants with of the benefits of the deposites at the commencement and funds to purchase the products of the State and country, at the close of its charter for twelve years out of twenty. the governor, in a special message to the Legislature, reBut was there any necessity for the removal of the depos- commended the creation of a State stock of four or five ites before the termination of the charter? Could not all millions, to be loaned to the banks at five per cent., which the arrangements with State banks to receive the depos- would be loaned by the banks to the citizens of the State ites have been as well made in 1836 as in 1833? And at seven per cent., the legal rate of interest in the State. would it not have been much better for the public to have And, in pursuance of such recommendation, the Legislahad them made in 1836 than in 1833? The bank, know- ture passed a law creating a State stock of six millions, ing the period of its termination, would have been calling four millions of which was to be loaned to the banks at in and curtailing its discounts. Commercial and business five per cent. per annum. The banks could not help the men generally would have been closing their business people, and the people were solemnly called on to mortwith the bank, and opened accounts with and obtained ac-gage their farms and to pledge their entire fortunes, to commodations from the State banks. The bank would several millions, to sustain those institutions. And surely have been powerless. The State banks would not have the governor and Legislature, the friends of the adminisdreaded its rivalry or powers; they would have discounted tration, could not have wished to create a panic, or any liberally; the issue and the circulation of bills would not fictitious distress. Stern necessity compelled them to have ceased. There would not have been a stagnation admit the scarcity and the real distress that pervaded the and an almost entire suspension of business, a depreciation whole State. in the value of all the products of labor and of all personal and real estate. The manufacturers, the mechanics, the merchants, would not have been compelled to dismiss their laborers; the poor would not have been seen crowding the streets, asking for employment, and asking for bread. The bank was entitled to the deposites, if a safe depository, during the existence of the charter, and their removal was a violation of its rights, and, I submit, an act of injustice that should not be tolerated by a people, wise, magnanimous, and just. The removal of the deposites is not calculated to destroy the bank, if that was desirable; and, as a punishment, it almost entirely fails. It may cortail its discounts, and, consequently, diminish its profits; and even that is a blow that must strike the United States The banks, in every State in the Union, of the whole country, have, since the first day of December last, reduced their loans and circulation to the amount, in the whole, of many millions. This is a proper illustration of the wisdom of the measure of the removal of the deposites in all its parts. The public newspapers, private letters, memorials from tens and hundreds of thousands of citizens, from almost every part of the Union, announce to us in strong, bold, and energetic language, the distress that pervades the land; that confidence and credit, the life of a commercial republic, are destroyed; that the spindle, the shuttle, and the loom have ceased to move; that tens of thousands of operatives are thrown out of employ, and are without the means of support; that millions of manufacturing capital H. OF R.] Ontario county (N. Y.) Memorial. (MAY 19, 1834. are unproductive; that millions of the circulating medium tain the losses arising from the stagnation of business and of our country are withdrawn from circulation; that money the pressure of the present times. The manufacturers, cannot be had; that property has a mere nominal value; the mechanics, and even the agriculturists, could more that there are few sales; that debts cannot be paid; that easily have paid twenty per cent. And let the men, let bankruptcies in many places overspread the land with the electors of this vast country, inquire and say whether gloom; that there is a general depreciation in the value there is any object to be attained by the late measures of lands and all marketable products; that the axe and of the Government, which calls for the payment of such the hammer are now hardly heard in our lately happy an enormous tax, for the endurance of such immense priand flourishing villages and cities, and in our shipyards; vations and losses, and for such sacrifice of their estates. that many of the vessels that wafted the star-spangled And again, I ask, why are the people called upon to banner over every sea, and spread their sails to every submit to such losses, to endure such an intensity of sufbreeze, freighted with the rich fabrics and products of fering? Is it to change the whole course of the business of this and other countries, are dismantled; that agriculture this commercial country? Is it to banish all paper money, is languishing, and commerce is expiring; the retrospec- all bank paper? I will only say that we learn from his tion of the last five months is gloomy, and the anticipatory, the united testimony of all business and commercial tions of the future are alarming. men, and our own experience, that banks have proved By the removal of the deposites, the Government has highly useful in all the states and kingdoms in which they lost one-fifth of the avails of the interest of the discounts have been established, and are peculiarly adapted to proof at least ten millions for two and a half years, founded mote the interests of a commercial country like ours. upon the deposites, (as she gets no interest on deposites Again: is it to banish all credit? Yes; the President from the State banks,) equal to $140,000 a year, and says, "all who do business on a borrowed capital ought about ten per cent. on $7,000,000 of the capital stock of to break." Banish all credit, is a part of his grand exsaid bank, equal to $700,000. And why is the Government called on to suffer such losses? And why are the people of this country called upon to endure so much suffering? Is it to prevent the recharter of the Bank of the United States? The removal of the deposites has no necessary connexion with the recharter of that institution. So much pain, so much suffering by the body politic, is calculated to insure the recharter of the bank. Was it to destroy that institution? It must excite the sympathies of the people, react upon the authors of the measure, build up and re-establish the bank. Was it to punish the bank for its misconduct for the violation of its charter, by depriving it of four-fifths of the avails of the discounts upon the deposites for the short space of two and a half years? periment upon the rights, the property, and, I may add, the happiness of his fellow-citizens. Our worthy Presi dent seems to have adopted the ancient Persian maxim, that the first of all vices was that of owing money. He seems to have a great dread of the borrower. At the very thought of such a being he is alarmed, and proclaims that the republic is in danger, and is about to be ruined and undone. He does not consider that he is a borrower; that his fame, his honors, were lent him by his country, to be refunded and paid for in deeds of usefulness, that render a whole nation prosperous and happy. How hardhearted must he be, to wish to deprive the poor debtor of much of his importance, and of the rich man's prayers! For the debtor is sure to have the good wishes and the prayers of his rich creditor, for health, length of days, and increase in wealth. The debtor, when surrounded by squadrons of creditors, is an important personage; he may then assume airs, and his smiles to each are valued as ready money. They are his flatterers and parasites, and salute him with good morrow, and all kindly greetings. Besides, the relation of debtor and creditor teaches, in the most expeditious and easy manner, all the mysteries of practical arithmetic. Granting the bank to be guilty, how small a punishment to the bank, what slight loss, what slight suffering to that institution, compared with the hundreds of millions lost, and the intensity of suffering endured by a whole people! Was ever such slight punishment of an offender visited with such tremendous retributions on the whole people who inflicted the punishment? Were ever means so entirely disproportioned to the measure to be accomplished? And all this, too, when, if guilty, the But our worthy President would have this a world with existence of the bank could have been speedily termi-out debts. What a strange world it would then be--a nated by a scire facias, to be issued by order of the Presi- world of disorder. The planets would cease to lend their dent, if he believed it guilty. influences to each other; the rays of Venus would be obBut what has the bank done? What part of the con- scured by darkness, and the sun would no longer warm stitution and the laws has she abrogated? What piles of and illuminate the earth; the hope of the husbandman injustice has she reared? What State institutions has she would fail; all benevolence, kindly feelings, and good destroyed, or attempted to destroy? What election has offices would be banished, and men would become monshe ever controlled? What political officer has she ever sters, a terror to each other. This world may be likened elected? What channels of trade, of commerce, and of to man; he is an epitome of the great world. And, wealth, has she ever obstructed? What blight has she upon the system of our worthy President, the head will ever brought on a nation's credit, a nation's prosperity, not lend the sight of his eyes to guide the feet and hands; and a nation's fame? With what cloud has she dimmed the legs will refuse to bear up the body; the hands will the bright halo of her country's glory, or the glory of her leave off working any more for the rest of the members; country's patriots, her country's heroes? I answer, none. the heart will be weary of its continual motion for the The country was never more prosperous than during the beating of the pulse, and will no longer lend its assistten years previous to October last, nor advancing with ance.' In short, in such a world, owing nothing, lending more firm and rapid steps to wealth, to arts, to literature, nothing, borrowing nothing, we should see a more danand science, and all those advantages that strengthen, gerous conspiracy than that which Æsop exposed in his elevate, dignify, and adorn an empire. But, oh! what a apologue. change has a few short months produced! And what gloomy prospects does the future present! Such would be the world which the President desires. How different from this world of ours, where all are Had the people been annually taxed, by law, to the debtors, and all creditors; where no man is independent amount of one-tenth of all their real and personal estates, of his fellow-man; where every one is compelled to lend for any object, however necessary and useful to the na- and ask assistance; where even the savage borrows to pay tion, they would have deemed such a law oppressive and in kind, and where business men make much of their odious; yet, I submit, the great mass of the people of this profits in borrowing and lending; where even the plane country could more easily have paid such tax, than sus-tary system, and nature, through all her works, borrow MAY 19, 1834.] Lycoming county (Pa.) Memorials. [H. OF R. and pay in genial influence; where mankind have and and ordered it to be used to pay all the debts of the enjoy money, peace, love, and benevolence, and all Crown. The measure occasioned great losses in the forChristian charities; the rich, the poor, and the middling tunes of individuals, inflicted a severe wound on public classes, all ranks and conditions in life, feel a deep, a credit, impaired the trade and commerce of the Prussian Jively interest in the business, thrift, and general welfare dominions, was condemned by his contemporaries, and of each other. Borrowing and lending, like the skill of has been by the historian, as highly reprehensible, as the the alchymist, changes every thing into gold. And who favorite resource of despotic sovereigns, and that it could in this world is so rich that he may not sometimes owe, "neither be defended for its honesty nor its utility." and who so poor that he may not sometimes lend? Was it to try some grand experiment? Ay-an exBanish credit! By whom, in what country, and in periment which inflicts instant pain, instant torture, upon what age, is this sentiment advanced? By the President a great people, to be constantly increasing, and yet to be of a free, commercial country, and in an enlightened endured for years to come; an experiment, which, like a period of the world; a country where indigence is en- tornado, the longer it endures, spreads wider and wider couraged by every honest means to amass wealth; and the its desolation. And now I would ask what justification low and the humble to aspire to the highest honors, and there could be for that zealous, that ardent, I had almost to become competitors for fame with the most wealthy, said that unhallowed prayer of my colleague [Mr. BEARDSthe most honorable, and the most powerful in the land. LEY,]" Perish commerce, perish credit, perish the State The President, from his admissions to various commit-institutions; give us a broken, a deranged, a worthless tees, knew his measures would injure all those who were currency;" and he might as well have added, perish a doing business upon a borrowed capital; and, in justifica- nation's prosperity, all the sources of national wealth, and tion of his conduct, founded on such knowledge, he con- a nation's renown? demns all such, and declares "they ought to break."| I leave the answer to his constituents, and to the intelAnd, sir, of what crime are they guilty? What injury ligent, free, and magnanimous people of the State we had they done to the Government that merits such both, in part, represent. But I will add, that, in my beseverity of punishment? And what member of Congress lief, no prayer was ever more grateful to the genius of would ever have presented a law to destroy and banish desolation, or followed by a more speedy and wideall credit? What Congress would ever have attempted spread devastation and ruin. Yet, notwithstanding the to pass such a Jaw? What constitutional lawyer would great pressure on the community, and the sufferings they ever have advocated, and what court ever have sanction- endure, many are disposed to ridicule all memorials deed such law? Sir, such a law, thus approved, would tailing the sufferings of the people, and call them "dishave been the adoption of a state of barbarism by legisla- tress memorials," "panic memorials," and insist that, tive enactment and judicial sanction. It would have been although there are numerous individual cases of distress destroying, at one fell swoop, all vestiges of civilization; and bankruptcy, the people are prosperous and happy. and in the low, the humble, and the poor, all incentives I cannot well understand how private misfortunes can to industry and enterprise; all aspirations after a noble, constitute public benefits. Yet we learn, from history, an honest, and an enduring fame; all the pulsations of that the doctrine is not entirely new and original; that genius; and would in them have palsied "hearts pregnant Doctor Pangloss, preceptor and oracle in the family of with celestial fire," tongues that could speak well, and the noble Baron of Thunder Ton Tronckh, in Westphalia, command the applause of senates, and hands fit for taught "that it is impossible but that things should be as empire. they are, for every thing is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." He also thought that "private misfortunes are public benefits; and that the more private misfortunes there are, the greater is the general good." He was hanged, whipped, kicked, kept tugging at the oar, and endured every torture, yet, "having once maintained that every thing went on as well as possible, in this best of all possible worlds, still maintained it, and at the same time believed nothing of it." Had that sublime To the poor, it would forever have closed the books of knowledge, and effectually have prevented their ever being able, in an elevated sphere, and in the exercise of wisdom and knowledge, a widely extended benevolence, all the virtues of the heart, and all the energies of enlightened and powerful minds, "To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, this best of all possible administrations of our wise and happy Government, he would have found many followers, who sincerely believed his doctrines. What a rich har vest of glory he might have acquired! Poor man! he died at too early a day for the maturity of his fame. Yet his discovery, for its novelty, and his character, for perseverance in his belief, will never be surpassed. Sir, credit has not only increased the facilities for use-philosopher lived in this country, and in these days, of fulness, but it has added millions to the number of the useful, and rendered countless millions prosperous, contented, and happy. A well-regulated credit has been one of the most powerful causes of the prosperity of the Netherlands, of Holland, of France, of England, and of this country. Banish all credit, and the poor will become hewers of wood and drawers of water; mere slaves When Mr. DICKSON had concluded his remarks, on his to the rich; and they would be as completely confined to the condition in which they were born, as are the slaves motion, the memorial, with the names thereto, and the of our own country, or the four orders or castes of India. resolutions, were ordered to be printed, and the memoriAnd again, I ask, why are the people called upon to sub-al laid on the table. mit to such losses? Is it to change the currency; to give us a depreciated paper currency, in payment of the debts due from the Government, and as the circulating medium of the country? It is dangerous to attempt a change in the currency of the country. It is like the sensitive plant; the touch of sovereignty, of the Executive, has often withered, and almost destroyed it. Frederick the Great, of Prussia, at the commencement of his seven years' war, which terminated in the year 1763, having first collected all the gold and silver he could, and to increase his resources to carry on the war, ordered the gold and silver to be recoined, and debased by two-thirds alloy and one-third of the precious metals, LYCOMING COUNTY MEMORIALS. Mr. ANTHONY, who had, on the last petition day, presented memorials from Lycoming county, in favor of a recharter of the Bank of the United States, and who had obtained leave to accompany the delivery of them by remarks on their subject-matter, now rose, and addressed the Chair as follows: Mr. Speaker: Last Monday I presented to the House sundry memorials of citizens of the lower end of Lycom ing county, Pennsylvania, in relation to the exciting subject which has occupied our attention, as well as that of our constituents, for these five months past. H. OF R.] Lycoming county (Pa.) Memorials. [MAY 19, 1834. misinformed, I have to state that forty of the names now presented against the bank are signed by citizens of the borough of Muncy. The restoration of the deposites and the renewal of the charter of the Bank of the United States having become a subject of general conversation, and I may say of controI will mention another fact, to show the panic-makers versy, in the district which I have the honor to represent, 1, for the first time since I have taken my seat, asked how little influence all their exertions for the last five leave of the House to submit such remarks as might sug- months have had on the memorialists-how those gentle. gest themselves to my mind on the presentation of those men calculate without their host when they imagine that memorials. Although I do not expect gentlemen to they will cause a revolution in public sentiment by their listen to what I shall say, as that is altogether unfashion- reiterated cries of distress, and ruin, and usurpation, and able, I hope to obtain the indulgence of the House while tyranny; and that, like the "war, pestilence, and famine" outcry that was raised some time since by a distinI make a few observations. The memorials are signed by six hundred and twenty-guished Senator, they are full of sound and fury, signifythree voters of the county in which I have resided for ing nothing. nearly sixteen years-that county which is endeared to me by those strong and heartfelt ties which bind every man to his family, his friends, and his home. In 1832, the whole vote given in the townships from which these memorials are sent, for the democratic candidate for Governor, was eight hundred and forty-five, Those gentlemen whose names are subscribed to the and already six hundred and twenty-three names are memorials are my neighbors and acquaintances, and many forwarded, and I am told that a number more will be of them my warmest personal friends; they are the free-transmitted. This has been done without any effort on men of the county-the tillers of the soil, the mechanics, the part of the friends of the administration. I have been the tradesmen, the laborers-the bone and sinew of the credibly informed by a very intelligent man, who is well country. I observe among them the soldiers of the Rev- acquainted with the lower end of Lycoming county, that olution, men who nobly aided to achieve the independence one thousand names could easily be obtained against the we now enjoy. They are the old-fashioned whigs of Ly- United States Bank below Loyalsock creek, and that coming county, not the new-fangled whigs of the present without hiring men to obtain signatures, and charging the day, who change their name as often as the chameleon expense to the committee of vigilance, as was done in does its color. Oneida county, New York, by the friends of the bank. That portion of the county in which the memorialists It has been repeatedly alleged, in memorials sent by reside embraces a most interesting and fertile country. the friends of the United States Bank from my district, The staple commodities are grain and lumber. The that the price of produce has fallen from one-fourth to beautiful valleys of White Deer Hole, Black Hole, and one-half, and that hundreds of citizens are thrown out of Muncy creek, as well as the rich bottom land along the employment. Knowing the respectability and integrity west branch of the Susquehanna, produce abundance of of those gentlemen who have given these assertions credthe finest wheat and other grain, while the surrounding it, by attaching their names to memorials containing them, hills are covered with the most valuable timber, of nearly I can only say that they could not have adverted to the every description. The Pennsylvania canal extends at facts set forth, or they were mistaken respecting them. this time as high up the river as the borough of Muncy, In the memorial from Northumberland county they say and affords the farmer, the merchant, and the dealer in produce has declined fifty per cent. or more; and in that lumber, every facility for a market. If there were pres- presented from Muncy, that the price had fallen onesure and distress in the county, those enterprising, indus-fourth; that the times are growing from bad to worse. trious, intelligent men would be the first to discover I hold in my hand an extract of a letter written by a them. They are men who are not likely to be influenced gentleman from Pennsylvania, who has been a dealer in by passion or prejudice. Panic and excitement have four, grain, &c. for a number of years past, in Baltimore little control over those who live retired from the noise and Philadelphia. In it he gives a statement of the actual and clamor and excitement so prevalent in cities, and they sales made by him for four years past. are thus better enabled to form a correct judgment, without fear, favor, or affection, hatred, malice, or ill-will. My constituents, thus situated, "view with alarm and disapprobation the conduct of the United States Bank, in its attempt to abridge the liberties of the people, by endeavoring to control our elections; by subsidizing the press, and thus acquiring an influence which almost puts it beyond the control of the Government and the people; by an unjustifiable attempt to extort from the Government an extension of its privileges; by creating distress in the trading community; by destroying confidence, and creating panics, and producing ruin to hundreds of our fellow-citizens." This is the light in which these respectable citizens view the course pursued by the bank. In presenting their memorials, I am not able to say that they are signed by men of all parties. In the county where I reside we have but two parties, the one in favor of, the other opposed to, the administration. In 1830, flour was from $4 75 to $500 per barrel. In 1831, do. do. do. 6 124 512 to 5.00 to 650 5 12 to 575 do. do. do. In 1833, Making an average, during these four years, of from $5 to $5 84 cents per barrel. I have not the price of grain, but it was, of course, in proportion to the price of flour. Let us examine the present prices of flour, the staple commodity of Pennsylvania, and particularly of the counties where those statements of the great reduction of price were made. In the State's Advocate of the 8th instant flour is quoted thus: "May 8, 1834.-Wheat sales have been made at Baltimore, within the last week, at $1 11; at Philadelphia, from $1 05 to $1 10-flour, $5 25 to $5 374.” The Miltonian of May 3, says: "THE MARKET.-Superfine flour has advanced a little in Philadelphia since our last. Small parcels were sold this week at $5 25 and $5 37. Bicknell's Reporter says, the receipts are small, and the demand limited. A smal lot of wheat sold at 105 cents per bushel. Rye 60 cents per bushel; corn 58 cents; whiskey 23 and 24 cents. "In Baltimore, sales of Susquehanna flour, for export, Sales of Susquewere made at $5 and $5 06 per barrel. An honorable Senator, in presenting two memorials, some time since, from Muncy and Muncy creek, Lycoming county, stated that "they were signed, as he was informed, by men of all parties; and that the one from the borough had the name of almost every voter in the place attached to it." If I am not mistaken, the votes polled in the borough, at the contested election in 1832, hanna wheat were made at 108, 110, and 111 cents per were about one hundred and ten, which were nearly bushel, varying according to quantity. equally divided. And, to show that the Senator was 21 to 24 cents per gallon.' Whiskey from |