iiil|Biiiiil''ii^^it''3 (kiss. l)(iok_ F'^ ^T MiR l^KKSKNTl-.l) iri H ^ /. THE LIFE AND TIMES MARTIN YAN BUREN: THE (Horrcsp an&encc of Ijis Jrien&B, IcimilB mti |)itpxl0; TOGETHER WITH BRIEF NOTICES, SKETCHES, AND ANECDOTES, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE PUBLIC CAREER OF James Knox Polk, Benjamin F. Bwtler, William L. Marcy, Robert J. Walker, Thomas Ritchie, Jesse and Lorenzo Hoyt, Levi Woodbury, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, George Bancroft, Aaron Bitrr, Samuel Young, Roger E. Taney, Michael Hoffman, James Gordon Bennett, James A. Hamilton, R. H. Morris, M. M. Noah, Jacob Barker, Aaron Ward, 0. L. and E. Livinoston, M. AND H. Ulshoeffbr, Solomon Southwick, George McDcffie, Louis McLaNe, William H. 6rawford, Amos Kendall, George P. Barker, George Mifflin Dallas, C. C. Cambreleng, Cornelius W. Lawrence, Samuel Swartwout, Silas Wright, Walter Bownb, Edwin Croswell, Andrew Stevenson, Prosper M. Wetmore, Enos T. Throop, Reuben H. Walworth, Lewis Cass, John H. Eaton, AzARiAH C. Flago, Stephen Allen, Joel B. Sutherland, James Campbell, Francis P. Blair, Jonathan I. Coddington, William Coleman, Nathaniel Pitcher, T. W. Olcott, S. and L. Beardsley, &c. BY WILLIAM L. MACKENZIE. _1L Governments, like Clocks, go from the motion Men give them ; and as Governments are made and moved by Men, so bjr them they are rained too. Wherefore Governments rather depend upon Men than Men upon Governments. Let Mkn be good and the Government cannot be bad. If it be ill, they will cure it. But if Men be bad, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their torn. Prtjace to Ihr ConslitiUion of Pennsylvania, iy iVilliam Penn, BOSTON: COOKE & CO., WASHINGTON STREET 1846. la-b.^ i- Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1846, by WILLIAM L. MACKENZIE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. ALPHABETICAL INDEX. BAI. Abolitionists. Author not one 65 ; Marcy proposed to abolish the 274 ; Jefferson one of the first and firmest 276 ; Young on 281. Ad\ms, John auiNcy. Young a means of his election as president 57, 58; on Mexico 6] ; Albany Argus speaks for 76 ; and again 83 • 97 ; 101 ; vindicates Jackson's Flonda inroad 107 ; on navigation of St. Lawrence 111 ; Kendall on 118; for relief to exiles 131 ; bank votes 134; bank enquiry baulked by Polk 135; on the bloodhound 146; Campbell agt 193 ; Cro.swell's artful plan agt. 195 ; didn't resi<^n 198 ; Wright on 203 ; Sanford for 204 ; election lost by 206 ; Swartwout's unprincipled opp. to 209; V. B. and 214; to Dutee J. Pearce 253 ; [his father on Canada 282.] Adopted Citizens. See Foreigners. Albany Argus. [See Edwin Croswell.] Not in state library, when for U. b. bank 76; views, 1828, 128; V. B. on 190; on both Albany Regency, or Bucktail Head-quar- ters. 51 Feds, join them 29; 168; Noah on 214. Allen, Orlando. Buffalo bank and 91. Allen, Stephen. Sub-treasurer 139: de- nounces the banks, he had made 174; to Hoyt for Tammany Bank 241; for U. S. bank, ib. Allen, Wra. Senate. Non-colomal 280 ; lor V B 295. Aliev Saul, 112; on tvranny of bank mono- poly [a' new discovery !] 174; wants Thomp- son removed 214 ; how made a bank director 242. Anderson, Elbert J. A delegate for U. S. bank 249 Angel,'w. H. [or C] 111; 126; 132; 231; hammers Root 234. . , , ,, t. Anti-Masonry. [See Southwick.] V. Buren on 204 and 229 ; Throop for 207 ; Adams for 253. Anti-Renters, 14; a godsend for the Van Burens, [as in 1812] 148; 150. Apology for this book. 5 to 18. Appraisers of Merchandize. Swartwouts exhibit of the N. Y. sworn 223. Arbuthiiot, Capt. executed by Jackson 10b. Arnold, R. J. On gold mine, nullification, &c., 227, 243. u , J w Austin, S. Y. unfortunata as a bank debt coll'r. 94. Baird, John. Butler and 153, 158, borrows from 158. BAR. Baker, Caleb. 158; Butler's reinforcement by 160. ^„ Baltimore Convention, 18-44. 291 to 298. Bamber, John and James. Marcy's con- duct to 67. Bancroft, George. Was anti-slavery 295 ; on Convention, ib. Bank of Alabama, Deposites at Mobile 124. Bank of America, N. Y. Origin of 26 to 28 ; deposites in 12-1. Bank of England. Its loans 1835 to '3 /— 137 ; Peel on its new charter 140. Bank of State of N. Y. 116; a national pet 124 ; a state pet 139. Bank Restriction Act. On repealing it 138 ; :t. 175, 176, 177. Marcy and Flagg ag Bank Stock Tax. Nevins agt. 188. Bank Suspensions, 1814, 1837, 1839. Gris- wold on 124; Binney on 135; in '37—136-7; Washington and Warren, and Barker's Ex- change 154 to 162. Bankrupt Law. Van Buren's profligacy caused the necessity of 78 ; bank movements 137 ; Butler, Edmonds, &c. on 267. Bank.?. Tompkins on 27 ; Bailey on 28 ; Pennsylvania 36 ; a bank hard pressed 39 to 44; N. Y. 1828—84 to 86; Clinton, &c. on 86, 87; affect public justice 86; in Buffalo 90, 91; Jackson on 92; Cambreleng and 101; Yoimg about 128 to 130 ; assignats preferred to 138 ; Hard on 138 ; Peel on 140 ; Olcott on I pretended 157; hints to empty handed, by Butler 154 to 160 ; Flagg and Marcy on 1 /5 ; Nevins on 188-9 ; Cambreleng & Tibbetts on 232-3 ; bankrupt 267. [See also, Banks, of America, Auburn, State of N. Y., Buffalo, Chenango, Chemical, Cin- cinnati, Dry Dock, England, Exchange, Ful- ton Girard, Hud.son, Long Island, Lyons, Me- chanics & Farmers', Manhattan, Merchants, Morris Canal, Metropolis, New Hope, N. A. Trust Plattsburgh, Tonawanda, Tradesmen s, Utica, Watervliet, Washington and Warren; Bk restriction; Bk. Suspensions; Free Bank- ing; N. Y. Safety Fund banks; Pet or depo- site do. ; Sub Treasury, and Stockjobbers.] Barbour, Philip P. In Crawlbrd Caucus 55 and 195; lOl. „ , r, a- , a Barker, George P. City Bank, Bufialo and 90 91 ■ 132 Barker, G. R. cashier. Letter to Butler 161. Barker, Jacob. Sets up Butler as a 'wild cat bank' president at Sandy Hill, 38 ; entraps the / .%>' BOW. BUT. public 39, 40 ; puffs his Washington and War- ren concern 4'2, 43; wants a national bank 44; Buffalo Bank and 154; Butler's manage- m't of his W. and W. bank 152 to 162; on the W. & W. B. 159; pays off Butler 163, would hire him again 165 ; to be tried for fraud 169 ; letters 192, 220. Beach Moses Y. Polk's herald, through Sun 280 ; extraordinary change of his Texas policy 305 to 307. Beardsley, Levi. Vote on Buffalo City Bank 90; 111; 129. Beardsley, Samuel, On bank deposites, and Polish exiles 131 ; Bank votes 134 ; nickname 253 ; to Hoyt— notice of 254. Beekman, Dr. John P. 154 ; on V. B. 293. Beers, Jo.seph D. 137; a proper deputy 261. Bennett, James Gordon. On Kendall 122 ; on Calhoun 139 ; on state prison for defaulters 141 ; 184 ; letters 221, 222 ; Marcy, Webb and 235-6 ; on Van Buren, U. S. Bank and big gun 236-7; borrowing— hot for V. Buren— gets a cooler 245. Benton, Nath'l S. On banks, &c. 93. Benton, Thomas Hart. Votes for Steven- son 98; and for V. B. 112. Berrien, John M. of Ga. Jackson and 109. Betting on Elections. V. Buren for, Wright against 205 ; Gouverneur's 213 ; Hill's 239 ; Ritchie's 240 ; Hoyt and J. V. Buren's 255 ; Webb's ib. ; Lawrence's 262. Betts, Judge Sam. R. Could not find a law to punish Hoyt. [He only stole 0220,000 !] 141 ; laws scarce nowadays, ib. ; notice of 190. Biddle, Nicholas. Van Buren and Marcy's petition to 79 ; who he was 115. Binney, Horace. Report on treasury banks 133: speech on Polk's pets 135; on currency Birchard, Matthew, Solr. Treas. Fiat against merchants at Hoyt's request 271 ; 152. Blair, F. P. On foreigners 71 ; for banks 88; on Congress 97; against Sub-treasury 134, 139, 140 ; his style approved by V. B. — speci- mens 144 ; notice of 145 ; Fisk on, ib. ; on pub- lic expenditure 146 to 149 ; a hired machine of state 215 ; S2,022 paid for his press 233 ; lost the printing 242; on Polk 292; for anybody 295. Bleecker, Harmanus. Anti-war fed. — gets office from V. B. 44. Blennerhassett, Harman. Burr's confeder- ate 62 ; his son 259. Bloodhounds. Imported to track Indians and poor negroes in Florida 146. Bockee, Judge Abraham, [Ex— N. Y. Cus- toms.] Votes to let the pets keep U. S. trea- sure 134. Bogardus, Cornelius S. 10; 13, 14; 223; 265. I . . . . Bouck, Joseph. Vote on deposits to pets 131. Boughton, Dr. Smith A. J. V. Buren gets S1250 for speaking at his two trials 148. Bowman, John, of Monroe Co. Moves ex- pulsion of Clinton from Canal Board 53 ; gets from Canal Board 53; against choice of Elec- tors by the citizens 57 ; 194 ; praises V. B. for his uprightness 102; 112; with Butler 169: 185; V. B. on 216; 218; aided in starting Blair 233. ^ Boyd, G. D., Colmnbus. Embezzles 851,000 133. ' Brady, Judge T. S. On the Bamber case 67. Branch, John. An M. C. takes office lOl ; his conduct and opinion of V. Buren 109. Breese, Sidney, U. S. Senate. Law to pun- ish embezzlement no law at all 141. Bribery and Corruption. Clinton on 30; 87 ; Congressmen selected for ofiices 96 to 100 : 124. Brinkerhoff, Jacob. On Canada 283; for Van Buren 295. Britain. Great, glorious, salutary and peaceful reforms in 46, 47. Brokers, Wall St. Butler abuses them 45 ; is sharper than 160. Brownson, Alvin [federal, mercht. Oswego]. Votes to drive Clinton from the canals 53 ; with the immoHal 17, 57; a Butler democrat 169. Bronson, Greene C. 207. Brown, William [Brown, Shipley & Co 1 Bank loan to 137. BroMTison, O. A. On trading politicians 35 ; letter to Mackenzie 143. Buchanan, James. 98; 100; 123; colonial policy obanged 280. Buckner, Wm. G. Hoyt, and the banks and 179. Bucktails. How named 50 ; Crawford cau- cus 57 ; Butler joins 163 ; no office if not one 186; flag 198; 211. Buel, Judge Jesse. Sells Argus to V, Bu- ren, &CC. 190. Buffalo, Bank of, 1816. Dishonest charter granted by Van Buren, &c., to 31 to 33 j But- ler on 154; Hoyt for cashier 155. Buffalo, Bank of. 91. Buflalo, City Bank of. Some facts about 90, 91. Buffalo Commercial Advertiser. On Mar- cy, &c. 125. Buffalo, Conmiercial Bank of. 94. Bunner, Rudolph. 200; 212. Buonaparte, Napoleon. On national hospi- tality 67. Burke, Edmund. On popular movements, 1 ; on currency and usury 149. Burr, Aaron. 21 ; the first to nominate Jackson 58; 259; his plans against Mexico and this Union 60 to 63 ; notice of 62. Burrows, Latham A. Skinner tries to in- fluence 197. BuiTows, Silas E. Swartwout praises 222 : notice of 223 ; loan to Webb and Noah 235. Butler, Benjamin F. 5 ; Glentworth affair by 11 ; 16; Polk continues S20,000 a year to, Ritchie defends him — Butler's early life— piety of father and son— Washington & Warren Rochester bank (party) charter, ib. ; one of the bank charter passed 37, 38 ; Butler as its pres- immortal 17, 57. ident 39 to 44 ; his hypocrisy ib. ; Wright en- Bowne, Walter. Voted to expel Clinton ' dorses him 41 ; on Polk, ib.; the Brokers and IV CAN. INDEX. CLI. 43 ; he prays to Biddle for a branch of the U. S. bank 79'; a strong U. S. bank man 84 to8i3; wishes stockholders not to be liable 8t3; 128; borrows U. S. revenue from pets 135; taritf management 139. [Letters.] Pender and principle 152 ; 'stated preaching' 152; Clinton 152; banking 153; law, banking, chancery. Van Buren 151 ; Hoyt and Bank of Buffalo 155 ; banking immoral 15G ; avarice rebuked 157; cmiuing and champagne — the Pairoon 158 ; gulls the people 159 ; bullies bankers and brokers — crows 160; postscript to piety — fair and proper calls IGI ; exhorts Jesse 162 ; Julius Cossar, a bucklail 163 ; V. Buren partnership — Sandy Hill, adieu! 164-5; American Ers- kine, organized corps, envy 166-7 ; piety, cheating in politics — Young's nomination 168-9 ; dear Hoyt, John Duer 170-1 ; on Jack- son and banking 172; abuse of Clinton by 152; 161; 164; l67; for a U. S. Bank— not now! 171,; Flagg on election of 173; Dist. Att'y Alb. 190 ; wrote Bowne's report against popular elections 194 ; on Hoyt's sureties, ib. ; a candidate 206 ; 221-2 ; cant and hypocri.sy, unequalled 254 ; on laws for debtor and credi- tor 267 ; at BaUimore 293 ; moves Texas ! re- solve 294 ; on hard cider 295. Butler, Benjamin F. Letter.s, number 1 to number 67 — 63 letters, in all; pages 151 to 172. Butler, Charles. 154. Butler, Mrs. Harriet. On Mrs. Olcott 156 ; esteems Jesse Hoyt 168 ; on Croswell, Noah, Sutherland, Tallmadge 170 ; makes Edmonds a Belisarius — Hoyt, Butler, &c. 171. Butler, Medad, father of B.F. His piety, &c. 37. Butchers and Drovers' Bank, N. Y. Lo.st in 1828—93. Calhoun, John C. 47; his course on Texas and Slavery 64 to 66 ; vote against Stevenson 98 ; 105 ; on Seminole war and Jackson 106 ; casting vote again.st V. B. 112; votes for Y. B. as president 112, 283 ; on removal of deposits 121 ; for one bank or a specie currency 140 ; afraid of losing the tariff 143 ; Blair and 144 ; Seldenonl74; 189; Godwin on 251; on bank- rupt laws 267 ; on slavery 275 ; on laborers 281 ; on Canada 284 ; on lands 308. Cambret.eng, C. C. In the Crawford Cau- cus 55; 100; notice of 101 ; visits Crawford 108; votes aid to Poles 131 ; votes on deposits 134; endorses for Y. B. 184; on Clay, &c. 200 ; for Coddington 207 ; wants a place 213 ; picks parti.sans for customs 219 ; letters 224 ; 226; on railroad and turnpike 228; against McLane's Treas. report — on Webb 230 ; on bank and workics 231 ; forTibbets's plan 232 ; for a national bank 233 ; on Pewter Mug and private letters 234 ; an M. C. getting P. Ms. and b'k directors appointed 212 ; note by 263. Cambreleng, St(;phen. Stihvell for 226. ' Campbell, James. 112; letter to Hoyt — dis- likes the morchts. 191 — politics and elections 193; on Clinton's death— Sanford 203 ; 219. Canada. A refuge for the slave 65 ; tradw 282 to 289 ; opinions on, ib. ; causes for revolt 285 to 28S ; Marcy on 293, 295. Cantine, Moses I. On banks 31 to 38 ; 129 ; dies 190 ; state bank director 307. Cargill, Abraham. Yote on M. and F. bank 86; 206; 208. Carter, Nath'l H. Editor — Y. B. stops his paper for economy 187. Cary, Trumbull. Safety Fund report by 89. Cass, Lewis. Memoir of 102 to 105; on a bank 104; on Indians, slaves, and Texas 105; before Baltimore convention 292, 293 ; on the Indians 296. Caucus. Y. Buren yes and no 44; Crawford congressional 55 and 195 ; Butler for 168 ; buck- tail 57; J. Y. Buren's appointment by a 148; Y. B. 190; state 197. Cebra, Alderman John Yates. 220. Chancery, Court op. 13 ; [see Wm. T. M'Coun ;] a.'iked to remove old Buffalo bank, a Nuisance 33 ; Kent refuses Butler's injunc- tions 42 ; use of in safety fund b'ks 94 ; Butler and 154; tried for a base purpose by Butler 160; Butler and Yan Buren's practice in 164- 5; fees long in coming 167; its bushel basket 170 ; court of errors worse 193 ; notice of 303-4. Chauncey, Commodore Isaac. Recommends Wasson 220. Channing, Dr. W. H. To Clay on Texas 63 ; on laborers 281. ChemicLil Bank, N. Y. 33; 87. Chenango, Bank of. Its charter how passed 34 ; Y. Buren dodging, &;c. 129. Church and State Unions. 69, 70. Cincinnati. Commercial Bank of, deposits in 124. Clay, Henry. Yan Buren for 83 ; on Ste- venson 97, 98; on St. Lawrence na\igation 112; vote on V. B's embassy 112; treatment of by Kendall 117 to 120; not interested in U. S. B. 119 ; on Duane 122; Young for 128; on state banks 138 ; Campbell on 232 ; Yan Buren on 197-8; 202; Noah's slanders 214; Cambrelengon 232; commis-sioners sent to Pa- nama by Adams and 279 ; on the Colonies 285 ; Ritchie on 292. Clayton, Augu-stine Smith. On U. S. Bank 233 ; on private letters 234. Ciavton, John M. Yote against Stevenson 98; rejects Y. B. 112. Clark, Aaron. 165, 167, 196. Clark, Lot. In Crawford caucus 55 and 195. Cr^iNTON, De Witt. 21 ; Clinton nominated for President, 1812,4-4; opposed by Bucktails and Feds 29 ; expo.ses official corruption 30 ; recommends the Convention of 1821, ib. ; and Bank inquiry 35; Yan Buren his political aide-de-camp 4-1 ; Spencer on his and Van Bu- ren's conduct, 1812, 4H, 49 ; Duane on 49 ; 54 ; the Canals and 50 ; Y. Buren's dujilicity to, ib. ; he is expelled the oliice of Canal Commission- er — American gratitude to 51, 52 ; his perse- cutors 53; Van Bureu lauds him gij'when dead 54; but hated him, ib. ; Col. Stone on V. E. ib. ; Jackson and Ritchie on 55; enmi- 112; Brownson on 144 ; 268 ; iasmrections in j ty to 56; Davis on 81 ; on banking 86; 108; CRA. Die. 127; Butler's abuse of 152; 161; 164; 167; V. B. on 184; 196-7; 202; Wright and Camp- bell on 203-1 ; 206-7; on common law 302. Clinton, George. Gives casting vote against U. S. Bank 77. Clinton Co. Bank. [See Plattsburgh b'ks.] Coddington, Jonathan I. 10 ; 12, 13 ; V. B. to 206 ; Cambreleng comforts 207 ; letters 208, 209 ; office-hunting, ib. ; 213 ib. ; ready to mu- tiny 214 ; Bennett's friend 221 ; 230 ; 238 ; will be P. M. 242 ; 292. Coe, William S. 219 ; Swartwout on his appraising goods 223; a fire commissioner 258; forfeitures 271. Collectorship of Customs, N. Y. 10. Coleman, William. Remarks on 57 ; abuses the United Irish 68 ; on Jackson and the Seminoles 106; peace 269. Colonial Trade with U. S. 111,112. Colles, Christopher. Planned the Western Canal 50. Commerce. Colonial HI, 112. Commercial Advertiser. On Hoyt and But- ler's Lives 18; Van Buren, Clinton's most art- ful enemy 54 ; on Texas 306. Common Law. Defined by Morris and Hall 11 ; a chapter on 302 to 305. Commonwealth Bank Boston. Deposits in 124. Cooper, Judge Thomas. His strictiu-es on W. H. Crawford 68 to 72. Conckling, Alfred. Supports Clinton when driven from Canal board 53. Congress. Committees how named 97. Congres.s of Panama. Van Buren, Polk, Adams, Clav, Buchanan, M'Lane, &c., on 279, 280. Congress. Speakers, rem'ks on 96 to 99. Congicssmen selected for Office. A chapter on the speaking and acting, about 96 to 99 ; Wickliffe, Duane, and Jackson on 9G ; Blair on 97; Ritchie on 97 to 100; paid wages for non-attendance ! 149. Convention, N. Y. Constitutional. See N. Y. Constitutional Convention. Corcoran & Riggs. Walker's sub-treasurers, 143. Corning, Erastits, 90, 228 ; 293. Coryell, Ingham. 10 ; 13, 14. Coster, J. G. A borrowing of deposites de- mocrat 135. Coulter, Richard, of Pa. On Taney's care for Taney, 135. Courier & Enquirer. Friar's jump 230. Craig, Hector. Notice of 213. Cramer, John. Supports Clinton when per- .secuted 54 ; for presidential electors by the peo- ple 57; on banks 86; bank votes, 87, 134; helps E. Livingston, 185. Crawford, W. H. Minority Caucus to nominate for president, 182-1, 55 & 68 ; Young insures his defeat in N. Y. 57 ; notice of 68 ; Cooper on his hatred to foreigners, 68 to 71 ; for a national bank 74 to 78 ; conduct to Cal- hotm on the Seminole war question 107, 108 ; Butler's artful hints about 16S ; V. Buren visits 201. * Crolius, Clarkson. Votes to give the people the choice of electors 57; on banking 86; Flagg on 173 ; scolded 186 ; 195. Crosweli-, Edwin 53 ; set up by Van Buren 74 ; an admirer of U. S. Banks, 74 to 77 ; abuses Jackson 78, 79; for Clay and Adams, 83; on Safety Fund 84 to 87; banks in 1828— ib; prints Young's private petition 129 ; for mixed money 139; notice of 146, 147; Argus concern, by Butler, for 169; Argus 190; artful letter to Hoyt abt. Crawford, &c., 195 ; Bennett and 221 ; Webb on 230 to 232 ; do., Marcy &c 235 ; V. B.'s friend 236 ; to Hoyt— for 5 mill, loan- dared not offer a 10 mill. b'k. 252 ; ag't. V. B. 293. Cruger, John C. Betting with Hoyt, 256. Cuba. Van Buren, &c., on Slavery in 279, 280. Cunningham of Montgomery's gallant de- fence of Clinton 51. Currency. [See Banks — U. S. Bank — and Sub-Treasur}'.] 78; 139; 140; if deranged impairs contracts and changes the constitu- tional protection 141 ; Butler on a sliding scale in 154; Livingston on 178. Curtis, Edward. 9. Custom Houses. [See N. Y. Custom House.] Cutting, Francis B. 112; 126; on the lob- by 174; for free banking 177; swears on paper, advice by 180 ; speculates with Hoyt 261. Dallas, Alex. James. A Philadelphia finan- cier 297. Dallas, George Mifflin. Gets Russian mis- sion 100; Cass admires 104; votes for V. B. as minister to London 112; V. B. lauds 295; notice of— a circular statesman 297 — 298; a mile's a mile 298 ; V. P. ib. Davezac, Augu.ste. 62, 63. Davis, George R. Notice of 94. Davis, Matthew L. 12 ; on Burr's Mexi- can movement 62 ; 121; 185; 197; 220; 237. Davis, Richard D. Character of Van Bu- ren by 81, 80; he joins V. B. 80. Dawson, George. On Canada 290. Dawson, Moses. Jackson's letter to, against the pets 116. Dayton, Aaron Ogden. Electioneers for Jackson 63. Dayton, General Jonathan. Indicted in Burr's affair 63. Debts. Repudiation of 267 ; wretched bank- rupt laws, ib. Decatur, Col. J. P. Office-seeking 221 ; 304. Defalcations, Defaulters. [See Embezzling Public Monies.] Banks in 1814, 124. Democratic Review. See J. L. O'Sullivan. Democrats. On paper money 78 ; V. Buren sort 196-7; timber in ranks of 227. Denman, William. On Van Buren 70. Desha, Joseph. On taking Canada 285. Desha, Robert. Warns Eaton against the Widow 109. Devyr, Thomas A. Would secure wild lands to settlers only 15p. Dickinson, Daniel S. On V. B. 203: his mileage 298. EMB. GAL. Dissolution of the Union. McDuffie on 61 ; Beach on 306. Dix, John A. Pro-slavery-and-Texas Sena- tor 281. Downing, Col. S. Votes for City Bank, Buffalo 90. Dromgoole, George C. 97. Dry Dock Bank, N. Y. 94. Duane, William. On last War 4; on Mer- chants' Bank 28 ; on Clinton 49, 54 ; on'Burr's conspiracy 62 ; on congressmen 96 ; notice of 115; approves of refusal to remove deposits 119; 122; on newspapers 147; ib. 182; on the peace 269. Duane, William John. 100; secretary of the treasury 115; notice of 116; his course re- lative to the public treasure 116 to 121; 141; refuses Russian Mission 122; dismissed 122, 123; married Franklin's grand-daughter IIG; deposits and 131 ; ib. 246. Dudley, Charles E. Votes to drive Clinton from the canal board 53 ; one of the immortal 17 —57; prays to Biddle for a branch of the U. S.'B. 79 ; party votes for banks 87 ; to Hoyt 210. Duels. 3. Duer, John. On Van Ness's bribery 28; joins the Bucktails 29; Butler on 170; 184; 190 ; 209 ; notice of 210 ; Hoj-t bitter against 212, 218, 219. Duer, Col. William. 210. Duer, William A. Joins the Bucktails 29 ; defends the right against Allen 51 ; notice of 210. Duncan, Dr. Alex. For V. B. at Bait. 295. Durben, Dr. On War 4. Durham, Earl of Explains causes of revolt in Canada 285 to 287. Earll, Jonas, Jr. Votes to expel Clinton from the Canal Board 53; one of VanBuren's 'immortal 17—57; bank votes by 87. Eaton, John Henry. Leaves Congress for office 101. Eaton, Lewis. In Cra\vford Caucus 55; president City Bank, Buffalo 91 ; safety fund commissioner 93. Eaton, Mrs. [Widow Timberlake]. Trou- ble about her character 109. Edmonds, John W. Stockjobbing 67 ; 1 1 1 ; | 126; sends J. V. Buren to jail, and advises Wright to give him $1000 148; Butler on 164; Mrs. Butler on his pauperism 171 ; note 205 ; Webb and 225 ; on debt laws 267. Education. By cheap Postage 4 ; 301 ; im- portance of 20 ; Girard leaves millions for 1 16 ; Smithson $500,000 for 116; Young and L. Reardsley and 129 ; Hoyt goes to V. B.'s aca- demy 217 ; of laborers 281. Electioneering. By V. B. 124; Jackson 96 ; Purdy and Hoffman 132; Marcyon237; A. Ward 238-9. Elections by the People. 2 ; by districts 56. Electoral Bill (1821.) Butler against 168-9; Croswell on 195-6 ; ready to vote either way on 196. Ellis, Powhattan. 101 ; votes for V. B. as minister 112. Embargo. Clinton on 21; 34. Embezzling Public Monies. Theron Rudd 24 ; cases 133 ; law to punish, itself a cheat 141 ; 149. Emmet, Thomas Addis. Takes part with Clinton when expelled from the canal board 52. England. [See Britain.] Everett, Edward. 11 ; for aid to exiles 131 ; votes about deposits 134. Ewing Thomas. Vote against Stevenson 98; and against V. Buren 112. Exchange Bank (Barker's.) 39 ; 157 ; 158 ; 162. Fillmore, Millard. Votes on M. & F. bank 86 ; for aiding Polish exiles 131. Fish, Preserved. Director of 6 mill, bank 27; 112; instructs V. B. 214 ; Cambreleng for 234. Fisk, Theophilus. Blair by 145. Flago, Azariah C. Votes, 1824, to expel Clinton from the canal board 52; performs, 1828, as one of his chief mourners ! 55 ; votes with the immortal 17 to keep power from the people 57 ; votes for party bank charters 87 ; tree banks and 137-8 ; his state pet bank system 139 ; buys 3 walls of a house 147 ; on his re- solve against popular election, Butler, Selden and Van Buren 173 ; on free banking 174 ; regency log-rolling, the lobby, gold, and bank restraints 175; his currency cure and notions, ib. ; on safety fund banks 176 ; against foreign monsters 179 ; on private banking 176-9 ; gen- eral banking law I8l, 182 ; succeeds Yates 188 ; 203 ; Bennett and 221 ; councils Marcy on breeches 239. Florida. Jackson in 106; V. Buren ex- pends many millions in 145., 6cc.; bloodhounds in 146 ; Greeley on war in 282 ; 296. Foreigners — Adopted Citizens. Van Bu- ren about 44 ; a chapter on 66 to 72 ; Craw- ford's attack and Cooper's defence of 68 to 71 ; Irving, Denman, Van Ness on 70 ; Blair on 71; millions left by, to educate natives 116; V. Buren and 236. Forman, Judge Joshua. Invents the f^'Sale- ty Fund 84; 88; 206. Foot, Samuel A. On political proscription 112. I Forsyth, John. In Crawford caucus 55; votes for Stevenson 98 ; lOl ; intrigues for V. Buren 107-8 ; in Crawford caucus 195. France. Her views and condition 46, 47 ; Butler on troubles with 172 ; Guizot on 280. Franklin, Benjamin. And England's chan- cery 304. Free Banking. 95; 137-8; Peel against 140; Flagg, Livingston, Cutting, &c. on 173 to 182; Hoyt's 178. Free Trade. America and Britain 270. Frelinghuysen, Theodore. Ill; rejects V. B. 122. French, James M. 20. Fulton Bank, N. Y. Chartered 87. Gaines, Gen. Edmund. Ordered to invade Mexico 64. Gales and Seaton. On War 3. Gallatin, Albert. A candidate for V. P. 71 ; on U. S. banks 77 ; ib. 171. HOS. JUR. ni Gardner, Col. Chas. K. Notice of 18a Garrow, Nathaniel. 101. Georgia Legi.slature. McAllister's account of — not too fond of gold mines 228-9. Gilchrist, Mr. Butler and 157. Gillett, Ransom H. Votes aid to exiles 131 ; upon de- posite question 134. Girard, Stephen. A Frenchman leaves millions to ed- ucate Americans 116, Girard Bank, Phila. Deposit«s in 124. Glentworth. Hi Butler's cant and hypocrisy, bor- rowed for the election 2.34. Godwin, Parke. Strong remarks on relieving public distress, by 250-1, Goldson, Samuel P. 10, 13, 14, Gorham, Benjamin. Report on treasury banks 133. Gospel. Butler's anxiety for stated preaching of the 152. Gouverneur, Sam, A. Bets 212. Graham, John L. 177. Greeley, Horace. On Nativeism 70 ; on Walker 98 ; on a state sub-treasury 139; on protection to land set- tlers 150 ; on Florida 282 ; on Ritchie 299 ; on Texas scrip 301. Green, Bjnram. Votes to expel Clinton from canal board, 1624, 53. Green, General DnfT. 106, 107, 118, 145; V. B. and C.ainbreleng subscribe 200 ; printer to Congres.s 208. Green, James L. 183. Green, Benjamin W. 299 ; 301. Greene, Major, of Boston Post, Ritchie gri«ved at 214, 215; on common law 302-3. Griswold, George. On Banks 124; Butler on 171. Grundy, Felix, Votes for Stevenson 98 ; and for Van Buren 112; teaches Polk law 12.3; on Cana. Prendergast, Jediah. Van Buren and Young's con- luct tovvard him 52. Blair's picture by 144; at Bal- On Church and State Unions duct to Pickens, Frances W. timore 2S)3. Pise, Dr. Constantine. 69. Pitcher, General Nath'l. Davis on V. B's usage of 80, 81 ; on banks 80 ; reason for V. B's nVistrust of 154 ; ib. 207 ; in opposition 234. Planters' B'k of Mississippi. Deposites in 124. Platlsliurgh Banks. 34 ; &4. Poindexter, George. Votes ag't Stevenson 98; on Woodbury and Hoy 1 149 ; Webb for fighting 232. Poinsett, J. R. opposes the Crawford Caucus 55; 2ij0.000 militia plan by 145 ; notice of203; in lVIexico279. Polish exiles. Vote on aiding 131. Polk, James Knox. On private pai>ers 10 ; duly ap [ireciates the Hoyt corresjwndence — selects Morris as P. M. 11 ; rejects Coddington 12 ; keeps Record Clerks 13; keeps Butler in othce, tho' dishonest; why 35; 41 ; 47 ; his inaugural on Texas and Slavery 59 ; nativ ism elected 70 ; Wetmore and 90 ; 97 ; at h'd of way: proyea of Duane's refusal 119; against sub-treaaury and for pets 141 ; on militia plan 145; east room and 201, 211 ; scolds Noah and turns censor 214 ; pretends to be inde- pendent — hired a.*) a state ina<"hine 215; letter on Webb, bets, &c. 240; on Canada 285 ; no friend ef V. B. 291 ; on Clay, &c. 292; memoir of 298 to 301; violent against Jackson 300. Rives, William C. In congre-ss, ts. an embassy 101. Robinson, Morris. May lend the money of a foreign bank 181. Robinson, Peter. Put down for honest voting 94 ; 205. Rochester, Bank of. Vote on 87. Rochester, William B. receives equivocal support for gov'r 82; suspicious conduct of V. B. to 201. Rogers, Halsey. For 6 million bank 27 ; 130. Root, Erastus. Votes on six million b'k and bonus 27; impeaches Judge Van Ness 28; votes ag't V. Burea for bank enquiry 35 ; 87 ; 4? ; for presidential electors by the people .57; on a land jobbing bank 114; 183; for Pit- cher 208; Webb for 224; Cambreleng dislikes 234; 254; on blacks 274 ; anti-slavery 278 ; Spencer to 305. Rowan, Judge John, Ky. 200. Rudd, Theron. Defalcation of 1^4. Ruggle.'i, Ben.j. of Ohio. Rejects V. B. 112. Ruggle.s, Phiio. A friend of peace 210. Rush, Richard. For Cass as president 104. Ru.ssian Embassy [§18,000 first year] John Randolph, iind means 9s ; t's Buchanan from Congress &?; 105;!j gychanan, W. Wilkins, C. C.'Cambreleng. G. M 116 ; notice of 123 ; 124 ; V. Buren's pet bank chain pion 130 to 134 ; on Oregon 131 ; pays HotJman all ar- rears 131— 2 : refuses aid to exiles 131; opposes sab- treasury ViA ; 141 ; is its leading advocate III; checks bank enquiry 135; condemns land speculation, but sug- gests no remedy 150 ; his N. Y. Dist. Attorney and the Patroon 158-9 [and see Butler] ; Butler, Hoyt's sureties and 194 ; 271; lat.49° and 272; 's nativeism272 ; O'Con- nell to 273 ; on colonial system 279 <; changed 280 ; Noah's dislike to, ib. ; dislikes V. Buren 291; his pledges and nomination at Baltimore 292 to 298 ; and Blair 300 ; chooses Ritchie 301 ; on postage 301 ; Beach, Te.xas and 306. Porter, Governor David. Weed, the bank and 298. Po'ter, Peter B. Vote on F. and M. bankSG. PosT-iOE. 4; Tyler secures cheap 111 ; advantages of 301. Post-office. Espionage system in 11 ; Van Buren makes political machinery of it 30. Powers, James. Votes against city b'k, Buffalo 90. Prall, Ichabod. Swartwout on appraisers 223. Price, Wm. M. 112 ; 220: Hoyt shuns him 250 ; 257. Printing. See Croswell — Leake — Cantine— Blair— Ritchie— Southwick — Hill — Evening Post — Newspa- jers. Private Banking. Flagg on 176 ; Tracy for 1 .9. Private Correspondence. Polk on 10, 11 ; Crawford on lOo; Cainbreleng's notions of 234; Webb on 23G; Franklin and 304. Proscription, Political. V. B. for 112. Pdblic Lands. How to stop monopoly, and lay out new states 150; Jackson desired to stop monopoly in 263 ; Dallas on 29b ; American Co. 308. Purdy, Elijah F. 131 ; 220. auackenboss, Mangle M. [surety for SvvartwoutJ ' Randolph, John. Envoy to Russia lOO ; on U. S. Bank 129 ; on Canada 283. Randolph, Thos. JelTerson. 240 1 on slavery 276. Kedfield, Henian J. Votes to expel Clinton from canal boaril .53 ; and agst the people, as one of the imniorUal 17_57 ; votes for parly banks 87 ; Clinton w'd not no ininate 203. Kee.se, Major. A very honest bank commissioner is 94. Reform. Its gigantic strides over Britain and Ireland 46, 47 ; ib. 272. Rejon, Manuel C. On U. S. Mexican policy 65 Religious Freedom. Increase of, in United Kingdom 47. Keprcsenialive System. 2. Repudiation of Debts. Foreign creditors on 267 Revoluti.in of 1776. Walpolc an a— 255. Webber, Robert. 9, 12, 223. Webster, Daniel. Blair censures for giving oflace to Europeans 71, on currency 78, on U. S bank 92, vote against Stevenson 98, on patronage 101, on slave trade 105, rejects V. B. 112, on banl^s 114, on Canada 284. Weed, Thurlow. Takes Croswell's stronghold 146-7, United States bank 298, on land co's. 308. Wellington, Duke of. On war 3. Wells, Alexander. 126. Wesley, John. A missionary in Ga. 296. Westchester Politics. A word on 238, Maroy on 237 Westervelt, Dr. V. H. praises 206, Pitcher upset 207. Wetmore, Prosper M. 22, for city bank, Buffalo 90, Webb's objection to 224 to 226, Sandford for 226. to Swartwoiit about Spicer, Ogsbury, &c. 243-4, on organ- izini; board of brokers 2S1. Wheaton, Henry. Votes to expel Clinton from the canal board 52, for popular elections 57, 169, 189, notice of 19.5, 196, on Canada 284. White, Campbell P. Votes the deposits to the pets 131, and borrows out the dollars 135. White Plains bank. 138. Whitney, Stephen. Against U. S. bank. Why ? 171 . Whittlesej', Frederick. Votes against Polk's pet banks 134. Wicklifte, Robert, of Ky. On e.xecutive corruption by V. B. 96. Wilde, Richard H. of Ga. Report of, agst Polk's pets 134. Wilkin, Samuel J. Votes in assembly against the immortal 17 — 57. Wilkin, James W. Vote on 6 mill. b'k. 28 ; 44 ; a can- didate for U. S. Senate 70. Wilkins, William. Votes for Stevenson 98 ; and for V. B. 112; on land bill 298. Williams, Sherrod. V. Buren to, 30, 77,88,114: Windt, John, and Evans Geo. Their simple plan to protect land settlers and stop monopoly 150. Wise, Henry A. Admirable expose of Woodbury's misconduct by 133 ; votes against Polk's pet banks, 134. Wiswall, ' Commodore.' 155, 156, 160, 184. AVood, Bradfonl R. Remarks on war, 270. Woodbury, Levi. T'n fm congress to cabt. 101 ; on bank suspensions 124 ; shameful neglect of important duties by 133 ; agt. sub-treasury 141 ; sureties t'n Pm Hoyt 194. Woodworth, John. Tompkins's casting vote agst. 28 ; appointed a supreme c't judge 54 ; Butler on 167; in ct. of errors 103. Worth, Gorham A. 85 ; Butler on 165 ; 192. Wright, Silas. Anti-Renters and 14 ; he endorses Butler 41 ; voted in senate to drive Clinton from the canal board 53 ; and with the immortal 17, 57 ; to keep power far from the People 57 ; bank votes by 87 ; praises safet>» fund 93; vote for Stevenson fprinciple involved) 98 ; oil the pet banks 120 ; on U. S. B'k. 121 ; for and aprt. sub-treasurv and pets 1,39, 140 ; divides ' the spoils' §2100 to J. Van'Buren tor assijitivg i\t four triaWft48 ; old land CO. 18:«, 149 ; to speak strongly for Butler, in senate 171 ; Cutting on electing li^2 ; pledge 189; note alit. 197 ; political letters by 201 to 204 ; against betting 205; 208; 213; Bennett and 221; instructs Hoyt and 246; Godwin on 2.51; Potter and 254; Hoyt and 2.59 ; his Texas face 2S1 ; on slavery 301 ; 2 terms and 302 ; ou law 3o3; on convention 305. YouNO, Samuel. Votes Chenango b'k charter 34 ; ■18 ; on the canals ,53 ; his opinions, ib. ; on district elec- tions 56 ; f )r Oawford and agst. Jackson, ib. ; for Clay in 1824, and popiil.ir election 57 ; aids Adams and cen- sures Van Buten 58 ; vote on city b'k, ButValo 90 ; vio- lent for the deposites 120; notice of 127 to 130; on 37 3S uhed by Butler H.>yt and Barker as a means of suffrage— for Clay— on banks 128 ; bcps for bank stock fleecing the cuntry -.f.l t. 11, Butler'.s 151 to 105. — nom's Marcy-for a two million bk. &e. 129 ■■,'^^}'>f'^ Wasson, Geo A. Wants to keep in Custom Ho. 220. debts; ib.; f.r Van Buren 130; bank shares to 131 helps Waterviiet Bank. Broken 91, 130. | CroswcU 147 ; Butler had to go for 169 ; opposing re^- W lor 142, and for offices in family, ib. ; Barker on. 192 ; on party, 196 ; letters on Noah, Clay and Adams — is sure of Craw- ford's success— Noah on V. B., 197,193; Telegraph, endorsing, visiting Crawford, 200 : suspicious course tow'ds Rochester, 201 ; Wright's letter on the spoils to, 203; loiters on election of '28, Noah, bets, &c., 204-5 ; on Providence, Butler, Westervelt, 206 ; Marcy saved, W^estervelt saves, 207 ; Bryan Farrell, Hoyt and, 211 ; Noah on, 214; on Hoyt's bad manners, 216; educated lioyt, ib. ; on Mackenzie, 222; to Hoyt from London, 239 ; Webb would fight for, 231, 232 ; Bennett and Euro- peans, 236 ; electioneering, 2.37 ; Bennett on— on Bennett, 245 ; on Swartwout, 250 ; Godwin on, 251 ; on Whigs, &c., 257 ; notes, 258; takes Plaindealer, 262; help tor God's sake, ib. ; on Amistead negroes, 274 ; Leggett on slavery, outrage and, 277 ; slavery in Missouri and, 278 ; coasting trade in slaves and, 279 ; Cuba and, ib.; agt. colo- nial settlements, ib. ; Canada proclamation by, 280, 289 ; on annexation, 281 ; Iowa and, 282; failure, 1840, 282; author's imprisonment and, 290 ; for Polk, Dallas and, of course, Texas, 295 ; electioneering, 302 ; agt. cheap law, 304—5 ; agt. a convention, 305 ; Bank of Hudson and, 307. Van Buren, Martin, letters by, 30, 70, 72, 79. Van Buren, Martin, jr., 20. Van Buren, Smith Thompson, marries, 20. Vanderpoel, Judge Aaron, votes for Polk's pet banks, 134 ; notice of— to Hoyt, 262-3. Vanderpoel, James (Vice Chancellor), 20; deals in slocks, 252. Van Dieman's Land Prisoners. 287. Van Ness, Cornelius P. 9, 10, 12 to 14, V. B. to again.st slavery 279. Van Ness, William P. 19, on Society— U. S. Judge, New York 23, his clerk embezzles $118,000, on foreigners 70, in Hudson bank 23 and 307. Van Ness, Judge W. W. Tried for bribery 27, 28, Butler's opinion of 164, Van Rensselaer, Solomon. Van Buren tries to prevent his appointment as P. M. 82, S3, E. Livingston on 186. Vail Rensselaer Stephen (the Young Patroon). Butler's wine debauch with 40, ditto 158. Van Schaick, Myndert Van. Voted for city bank, Buffalo 90, for national bank 241. Verplanck, Gulian C. On bank deposits 131, 185, no- tices of 202, 205, note 206, what pledge ? 212, candidate for mayor 247, on equity law 303. Veto on Laws. Should it not be in the people ? 2, bad use of this power by Van Buren 146 to 149. Virginia. Valuing Texas as a slave mart 65, Ran- dolph, &.C. on slavery in 276, 279, Ritchie and 298 to 301. Votes, Voting. Young on 127. Walker. Robert J. On Hoyt letters 12, retains Cor- yell and Goldson 13. notice of 98, on banks— appoint- ments by 99, naval office under 132, Butler and, at Bal- timore 294 Walsh, Michael. A legal contrast 302. Walworth, Reuben H. Applies for a Plattsburgh bank charter 34, action on weak safety fund banks 90, his broken bank receivers 94, his bushel basket 170. War. Conventions prevent 3, opinions on 4, 136. War of 1812. Duane ou 4, Van Buren and Clinton's conduct in 41 to 48, closing scenes in 268 to 270, in Ca- nada 283 to 2S5. War with England. Brownson on Ml, would stop reform there 266, signs of 267, the sobool of experience 2^J6 to 270, penalties of 270, Moore on 289. Ward, General Aaron. Vot^iS aid to Polish exiles 131, great electioneerer 2.'i8, 2.39, a idace wanted 239. Ward, General Jasper. Votes to remove Clinton from Canal Board— takes le.ive of senate himself to save expulsion .53, one of the immortal 17, 57 ; votes of 87. W;isliinston county factions. Marcy on 237. Wa.Khington, George. On slavery 274-.5, Wasiii.noton and Warren Bank. How chartered Butler, H'lyt and Barker as a means of THE LIFE AID TIMES OF MARTIN VAN BUREN. CHAPTER!. Dedication. The State Convention at Albany. Checks on Legislation. Con, ventions prevent wars. Repuhlics should he pacific. Cheap Postage an import- ant EducanonaJ measure. The adder's stone. Adininistration of Justice in the U.S. This volume, like its predecessor, the Lives of Butler and Hoyt, is respect- fully inscribed to the Electors of the Convention, which is to assemble in June next, for the revision of the Constitution of the Slate of New York. The unanimity with which that great measure has been supported at the polls, affords ground for good hope that the delegates about to be elected will be united and zealous in their endeavours for perfecting those cherished Institutions, formed upon popular integrity and intelligence, which the array of facts in these pages, under the title ofthe Life and Times of Martin Van Buren, too clearly proves to have failed, in many respects,* to secure to the people the practical advant- ages of those equal civil and religious rights, which they nominally confer, under any administration. The Constitution of 1-^21, was, in some respects, like those which iailcd in France, the work of factions ; some of the leaders in each, striving so to remodel the instrum.ent as would best conduce to the great object in view, the attainment of power and its many advantages by themselves and their followers ; but I trust that it is yet reserved to the new world to con- vince the old, that men can continue peaceably and happily to subsist under the regime of rational liberty and legal equality, with equal and exalted justice "The corrcsnondence of Edmiind nurke, lately published, shows what he th()Uf^l' „» f^,X|/„72 wounded your feelings and trampled on your "g'\«;, J'7„f:,;='^,i.°g " ,blie ZoMmi be^r^ in your hands than in those of any president or gove nor provident legislation-there would be no need o tie '^^^ ^''lll^'^^^^^^^ down to the'^choice of representatives residing m he ^^'^^/^Xuher nShe^ -that question mi;;ht be safely left to their own discretion. Neithei need CONVENTIONS OF THE WISE AND GOOD MAY AVERT WARS. 3 to be restricted from choosing an honest minister of the fiospel.* Acquaintance with the law of God is as safe a qualification for a republican legislator as an intimacy with R. H. Morris's unknown feudal usajres practised at midniphton Pearce's household a few weeks before the defeat of Martin Van Buren, ui the fall of 1840. The idea of submitting questions as to measures or rules of ac- tion, to the opinion of the people in their localities, is not new, but has been of- ten acted on. De Witt Clinton, Chancellor Kent, and the other members of the Council of Revision, in 1821, wished the amendments to the constitution that might be made in Convention, to be submitted, one by one, separately, to the people — and they were right. I look to national and state conventions, elected by an awakened people, as the best means of averting wars. Once I would have risked war to free Cana- da — now I would not risk it to gain territory anywhere. When in Canada, I had less time for study and reflection than within the last four years ; and al- tho' I dont like the cowardice that skulks in a corner, or drops on its knees, nor a system that aims at governing by dollars and lies, to which war is preferable, forthere, in the groans of expiring humanity, man may learn to speak a natu- ral and true language ; yet would 1 do much to avoid bloodshed. Is not a duel a national war in miniature 1 Did Aaron Burr's superior skill and practice in firing at a mark, by means of which he murdered General Hamilton, prove that Tie was right in sending the challenge, or that in the matter in dispute he had justice on his side ? Surely not. And do not national wars, after ruining, killiiitr, maiming, and butchering vast multitudes on both sides, usually termi- nate in favor of the Aaron Burr like power which is strongest and most skilful, or involve other nations in the struggle, and not seldom bolster up a bad cause, at the expense of the quiet of the world ? Well said Horace Walpole, " I had rather be a worm than a vulture." " If I could avoid, by any sacrifice whatever, (said the Duke of Wellington on a memorable occasion,) even one month of civil war in the country to which I was attached, I would sacrifice my life in order to do it. I say that there is noth- ing which destroys property and prosperity, and demoralizes character, to tho detrree that civif war does; by it the hand of man is raised against his neigh- bor, ao-ainst his brother and against his father ; servant betrays master, and the whole scene ends in contusion" and disorder." And what would a war between two peoples; speaking one language, having one common origin, believing in one God, professing the same Christianity, be, if not a civil war ? How are the hundred millions of happy, benevolent, joyous creatures who will soon fill this country to be held together under the flag of the free ? Only by acting justly, honestly and faithfully towards each other, and towards the world, and '• to brutes resigning carnage." "We were the proprietors of this paper sometime before the commencement of the war of 1812, and were the advocates of that war, [say Gales and Seaton, m the National Intelligencer,] believing its declaration and prosecution neces- sary. We were young at tiie time, it is true." Now they are old, they present us with a picture of slaughter and devastation from which the mind recoils with horror. '• At the conclusion of a ten years' war, how are we recompensed for the " death of multitudes and the expense of millions but by contemplating the suddsn «< "lories of paymasters and agents, contractors and commissaries, whose equi- " pages shine like meteors, and whose palaces rise like exhalations?" After Napoleon's glorious victory at Austerlitz, Baron Larry, the emperor's friend and surgeon, cut off 1400* human limbs, and then the knife fell from his ex- hausted hands. France had made Napoleon dictator — after the piece of Amiens, the money, the armies, the press, and the people were in his hands. He had sworn * I have no desire to see pastors of congreffation'? sent to legislatures, 4 WAR OF 1812. CHEAP POSTAGE. WATERLOO. ;L\Vsdme°;ndt.tH-f ' "'^""^'' ?' ^^--Pl°y-' «" hi^ i^nuence to obtain the absolute and 1 ered tary property of a power of which he had received but the ^T^xal tTcf:T\ n° J'^'^^'^l '^"^ '^ ^'-^'-^^ ■- will-he annex d EurlTto h s nm, . ' r °'''^.°"'- ^']^ ^'^^ ^^^•^'^"'* C"^^ ^"d California of Tnr uL.? jountry-forgot nght in the power of his might, and where is he, and vheeis h,s empn-e? Perhaps the Code Napoleon, "soon, I trust, to be surpassed m ut.luy by the codes civil, penal, and of p ocedure, in N Y is the proudest, best, and most enduring moiument of his name ^>- ^v is srern oemocpl'v'^''' "'"^ ^'''^' ^« ^^knowledge the disinterestedness, patriotism, T)J1J7T^\ a.K,accurHce means of knowledge possessea d^ Loi. \y u . Duane, the ir.end of Jefferson ? Hear his account of the war of 1812-1 quote the Aurora of August 17, 1816. ^ thp'3' '^'^^^'^'■ '"^f ^'''/^''■^y «°"S'<^ered, as it regards every thing-but con u ;:rthe i:. 1 "• ^"'°''' ''■'''' ^^"^ ^"^ ^^^ -ilitia-one'of the'..; woilcl ever san . The system of loans was a most villainous systematic cheat nw"' ImS'tr'^ '^'V '°"^^"^'' °"-^'^^ '^ '^ recorded'ii'n-egistr of intamj. Imposture, perhaps, never ran such an uninterrupted career as for seven years past m the general government and that of Penn^svlvania '' 1 might have begun my narrative of Van Buren's Life and Times withont BuUhe'rrf °^^"^'-°i-^-- , Every leaf shows that such a toTrir^e i eT tanned that iTr' V7 ?'' " ^''"^ '^ '^>' "^^'''^^^ '^'''^' improperly ob- IblateTcnnfii ■' ^ ' -^ ^'^''l ''^''^' °"-''^ ^° '^^^'^ b^^» kept secret- Violated confidence reposed in me-done things not warranted bv law custom and the proper usages of society. Of those who say this, there may be "hose Tre^^ttrs "Z"'h' n-"'t •™^'^' '' "^ ^-at injustice, 'as the^e un'doubledi; me ^itiroh onuv J "^ '' '^'' "l^^Z"' ''''y explanation, desire to cover me with obloquy, however unmerited. To the fbrmer of these two classes I here present that explanation which, in my former volume or pamllet! would have been partial and premature. painpniei, uouin One of the best educational improvements of the age, in the difiusion of a cheap literature, is not overlooked when this hook is Ji^sented in 1 e J^.h test and nriTir '"' '" ^' '""'"^"^'^ ^'"■°' '^'' Union at small expence, by ma t^2r LZ:7T"' ,^-17"^t"'"^/^'"^^^ '' '^'' P-P^« «f deep and lasting impo.t. Honor to those bold and manly spirits in Congress who stood up for We narJaf ' '^'""^ ° "''^'^'. ^^"°-'^d.-, the instruction of the millions! nlnt^^ hi, T, ^''pi^ ^^Jf'-^os and navies, fortifications and the imple- en^d bv hp v"'"r' 7' f "n' °^"^"'""^ forbearance and good will, strength- kbdin^thn '/""'' ^-endenng them dependant on all? shall unite nTan- wars s^.. IopT ";[ ""'''[f ^ brotherhood. Cheap postage will survive, but wars shall cease-the world will become "the United States,- America aye foremost in the glorious work ; the various climates, soils, products and diversi- naS 'tr^ulno^ '::^':: :i;:' Z^. ^^:r ^f " "^.--entions a,ul wi.e rcn.r,n. be a surer road to that pearcf,,! an•• The /r.c™^, rnler,-,o restore the reores^taiive ^' T ~, I r?'~ ^ " ''^"^'^ ''^"'''^ "'"'« ''^^^ ch,„ce'of their had ned before the M.-ii,'of the Peo,.le Tl e Pr, ,h ' ? V?-" \^'"r/"' "■'''"'' ^"^ ^^"* """'• »'"> f™'" "^ich he bring back the suay of the e.u if' Hut f tli^n ?"^'""'*. '^"""'" '" ^^'=''^" ">« 1'""^^^ '"' ">e Pope, to and the aristocracy of En'iri knew for L 1, 7 ''",' '',^"'^«''- ">e loaders ,vere not.' The allied sovereigns with the .econd overthrow orVaZleon Thev 1 n """^^''^'V,',"';; '''''"^y ""'l'^'' "'« ""' "'" P'ineiple, Nvould end victory which hi, countr^n^n an tallies /aS^fwatc^^ '"*?'" '^"''"L ""," ^^^^ ^''^" '"^ ''«"'' °^""' me t,, put back the clock of l/u world sUdf^rec^- ' " "'^'' ^^"^ '"'"'* "'"^ '^' "■*'""' '*^'"*'' '° PROFANE LETTERS. THE ADDER'S STONE. 5 fied seasons, each contributing their part of the means of comfort, content and felicity to a renovated millenial world, in which " the harsh dull drum shall cease, and man be happy yet." Like the word of God, against which it has been wickedly objected that there are many indecent relations in it, there are none in this book that have not been necessary for their exposure and the execration of wickedness ; and by their merited punishment in the contempt and indignation of the public, a due cor- rection will be administered, 0:5" like the records of the divine warnings, (Kir OR JUDGMENTS AGAINST SINNERS, EVER CONNECTED WITH THE 0^ ACCOUNT OF THEIR SINS. The sim is not to be blamed as the au- mor oi mai siencn wmcii arises when he siiines upOfi putnd substances, 'i'ho surgeon is forgiven the wounds of a necessary amputation. The sickness from medicines is a happy token of returning health. If there is a sense of real religion remaining with any one among those that are here exposed, amidst the profession that has been made by some, public in- dignation, the law of God, call for sackcloth and ashes, repentance and restitu- tution. Let such a penitent as Benjamin F. Butler imitate Zaccheus the publican, the patron saint of custom-house officers, and say " Behold Lord, the half of my goods I give unto the poor; and if J have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold !" The greatest of all modern political writers has wittily observed, with respect to an important measure brought into the British Parliament by the present head of the ministry of that nation, that, as the poison of the serpent is said to be counteracted by a stone that grows in its head, so the corruptions of that gov- ernment have-received a salutary check and shall eventually be destroyed by the operation of that bill which compelled the Bank of England to return to specie payments, the work of one whose family and himself have risen into power and consequence by the operation of the fictitious paper-money system of 1812, of which he has been the unconscious instrument of destruction, in the hope, as some say, of giving it strength. The sagacious Scots have gone yet a little further in their ideas concerning the counteraction of poisons. It is a traditional belief among them, that, at certain times, all the adders of the moors, assemble to form, from their slime, an incrustation called an "adder's stone," which receives its crowning beauty from the king of the adders passing through it and leaving on it the trace of all his shining glories. Happy is the shepherd, that at a safe distance beholding the operation, waits till all is finished, and then courageously steps in and secures the prize. He is henceforth held in the highest respect, as possessing an infallible antidote against a deadly poison. But he does not gain the prize Without considerable risk, being pursued by all the venomous brood, and obliged .0 seek his safety in flight. If he does not throw some one of his garments to the adders, to occupy their attention and divert their rage, they cease not their pur- suit till they recover their lost treasure, or obtain the body of their plunderer. Thro' zeal for social and political reform and improvement, I have been in- volved for the last eight years, in difficulties too well known to need recapitula- tion — but would rather endure adversity than enjoy the unmerited honors which traitors to liberty may now be wearing. During an involuntary exile, I made this land m}'- residence, and being acquainted in a good degree with its early history and the excellence of its political institutions, it grieved me to find that complaints not less general than just and true, had been made against their ad- ministration. That to which my attention was turned when a stranger, could not fail still to attract it, according to my love of freedom and desire to promote the common welfare, when I became a citizen. When this second book, as the fruit of my labors, is before the public, it will be acknowledged that I have not 6 ARE THE FOUNTAINS OF JTTSTICE PURE? been altogether unsuccessful in my attempts to expose abuses and the authors, in the hope that tlie people's representatives in Convention will discover and ap- ply a remedy. While in the employment of the state in the Custom House of New York, I obtained possession in a way the most honorable, as all must ac- knowledge, with pure motives, and by means the most innocent, of that which, I trust, will prove an adder's stone. But the serpents that were employed in its formation, with more pertinacity than the adders of my native moors, have not been content with the cloak that I threw to them, the necessary covering of a former work. Ii was to be expect- ed that the whole brood would hiss and rage, as they had not raged and hissed for many a day before ; yet I scarcely thought that one of them would have ventured to follow me, even into the sanctuary of American justice, the high court of equity— but, from some recent decisions there, many seem to expect that I shall be given up to the chilling, slimy folds of the reptile tribe, to share the fateof anotlierLaocoon, who was strangled before the altar by serpents, while warning the Trojans against the wiles of the Greeks. Electors of Delegates to a free Convention, the proceedings of which may deeply affect the welfare of the world, what an important trust yours is ! That the fountains of justice are corrupted, that reform is wanted, all admit. " It is time (says the Courier and Enquirer) for the community to take this matter in hand." " Judging from the history of various parts of the country for some years past (continues Col. Webb) it is our opinion that with $20,000 a man might commit any half dozen crimes that can be named, short of murder, and evlnthat, if he happen to have pretty influential friends, and to be within reach of pretty convenient judges." " True, every word of it, (says the Herald.) The list of criminals who" have escaped by means of wealth and influence aur- ing the last six years, would astonish every body. What has become of the Vircrinia professor ? Where is Levis the forger ? Where is Dabney ? Robin- son,''jewell. White, all escaped." " Men who are opposed to the banking in- terest (says O'Sullivan, the new made Regent of the University,) may indeed be elected to congress, or to a state legislature, but seldom without a severe strug- gle : and, after they are elected, they are exposed to dangers of corruption, as o-reat as any the members of the British Parliament were exposed to in the days of Sir Robert Walpole. In the.couRTS of justice they have perhaps a more de- cided ascendancv than in the legislative halls ; for most of the judges are mem- bers of this privileged order ; and the governors of many states are niere in- struments for the promotion of their purposes." The Globe, while Van Buren s organ, spake of "judges, who in too many instances, show that the boasted in- dependence of the judiciary is only an independence of common sense and com- mon justice." Polly Bodine was accused of a murderthe most foul— her tnends were wealthy— she "had a first trial and a second— a third was set on loot, and because some judge or other had " laid down a rule in Burr's case, 40 years since, 0000 tradesmen were taken from their avocations, a heavy expense en- tailed on the county of N. Y., and the case put ofi" by Judge l^-dmonds, thus wearyino- out witnesses and mocking at right, on the plea that among these 0,000 men, twelve could not be found who were not unduly biased and unfit to try the cause upon their oaths ! Is it not time that scenes like this, discreditable to he a-e and to our institutions, should cease ? If the law is a science it is capable of bein- scientifically and practically arranged ; and if it is not, the freedom ot our institutions is an idle dream. Corrupt the fountains of justice to any peo- ple, and wliat need they care for forms of Government ? It is threescore years since Jeff"erson wrote " The times will alter-our rulers will become corrupt-our people careless. The time for fi.xing every essential ri'Tht on a le^al basis, is while ourrulorsare honest and ourselves united, riom THE CONVENTION HAS A GREAT WORK BEFORE IT. 7 the close of this (the old) war we shall be going down hill. It will not be ne- cessary to resort every moment to the people for support — they will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded." Is it not so now ? The woe, wretch- edness, insolvenc3^ poverty, pain and anguish, of hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens and their families, whom the gambling spirit of the age has ruin- ed within the last seven years, is a warning voice, telling the democracy to come to the rescue of all that is valuable in their loved institutions. Far spread must be that demoralization which in a land of abundant natural resources could ex- hibit in one city and district, one hundred and twenty millions of dollars, the debts of insolvents and bankrupts, blotted out as it were with a sponge. This volume describes Van Buren and his band, the great first cause of this accumu- lated misery — it appeals to facts — it unveils the past. To your wisdom and unanimity it is that the generous and the just must look for a remedy, in the coun- cils of the delegates of a moral, virtuous and enlightened community. Could the people of N. Y. state have read the insulting commentaries of the admirers of European systems on the Somers tragedy, and the unusual features developed in the evidence given before a court martial, in presence of which a captain of the U. S. Navy, hesitated not to avow, that when about to launch three of his fellow men into eternity without that trial of their alledged offences which our laws seem to guaranty, he had told one of them " that for those who had money and friends in America there was no punishment for the worst of crimes" — could they have seen the deep and severe rcgi'et every where display- ed by the friends of progress abroad, while perusing details which indicated a condition of society less favorable than they had fondly hoped could exist here, they would rejoice at witnessing, as they have, the vast majority who united to rebuke Van Buren's doubts by calling together the convention of 1846. That body will, I trust, lay its heavy hand on the knaves mentioned by Jefferson, who '•'set out with stealing the people's good opinion, and then steal from them the right of withdrawing it, hy contriving laws and associations against the power of the people themselves." The letters of Van Buren, father and son — of Butler, husband and wife — -of the Livingstons, Hoyts, Aliens, Lawrence, Cambreleng and many others, cannot fail to be read with profit. I would fain hope they may prove an adder's stone in this community, aiding somewhat in preventing the baneful influence of Van Burenism from continuing to overshadow the state and union, thro' its special organization of all that is cunning, pharasaical, greedy and heartless in this Republic. CHAPTER II Matthew Henry and. Samuel Young on the duty of citizens and christians in dis- covering secret wickedness. The avthor's position. Robert Tyler. Governor Van Ness. The Van Buren, Hoyt and Butler Correspondence. Proceedings about if. StejJs taken by Messrs. Van Ness, Bogardus, Goldson, Coryell and I others. Copies shown to the President of the U. S. and Secretary Walker. • Action of the Government. Van Ness loses, Coddington misses, and Lawrence gains a Lucrative Office. Polk's Bank Committee of 18:U. Recorder Mor- ris on the Bench and in the Post Office. Secretary Forward and the 17 Mea- surers. Ingham Coryell persecuted for daring to he honest. Disreputable con- duct of S. P. Goldson. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Bible is a work of sterling merit — full of interesting and useful information, and of fine thoughts clothed in language which has the eloquence of simplicity and truth to recommend it. 8 SAMTTEI- yOTTNG AND PiAtTHEW HENRY ON SECRET WICKEDNESS. Tn the 59th chapter and 4th verse of Isaiah, we find the text — " None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth '"' — and Mr. Henry has made an excellent comment on it, and so applicable to the course 1 have taken with Mr. Van Buren and his associates in public life, thro' this and former publications, that I copy it, as follows : " No methods are taken to redress j^i-ievances and reform abuses ; none calls " FOPt JUSTICE, none complains of the violations of the sacred laws of justice, nor "seeks to right those that suffer wronger to get the laws put in execution against " vice and profaneness, and those lewd practices which are the shame, and " threaten to be the bane of the nation. When justice is not done, there is blame "to be laid not only UDon the magistrates thai should administer justice, but "UPON THE PEOPLE THAT SHOULD CALL FOR IT; PHlVATtJ " PERSONS OUGHT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PUBLIC GOOD BY "DISCOVERING SECRET WICKEDNESS AND GIVING THOSE AN "OPPORTUNITY TO PUNISH IT THAT HAVE IT IN THE POWER " OF THEIR HANDS ; lut it is ill with a State ivlien princes rule ill, and " the people love to have it so. Truth is opposed, and there is not any that pleads " for it, not any that has the conscience and covrage to ajjpear in defence of an " honest cause, and confront a prosperous fraud and wrong." My lives of Hoyt and Butler, had, I believe, an immense circulation — and I find them referred to, now and then, in the Senate of N. Y. Yet is it not mor- tifying to see how much more astonishment is there expressed that I should have published such statements as are in that book, than that such state- ments could be published ? Col. Samuel Young, in reply to a reference to my book, by Mr. Wright, Feb. 4th, 1846, spoke of it as " a book surreptitiously obtained and surrepti- tiously printed, and which he (Wright) now thinks it honorable to quote from, for the purpose of injuring such a man as Benj. F. Butler." The Colonel's code of morals were not quite so much Butlerized in 1825. He had then no desire to screen successful knavery and honor the delinquents. During the discussion of the state road bill, that year, (I quote the Alb'y D'y Advertiser,) General Root censured the Canal Commissioners, and hinted that the people's money had been squandered on their favorites. Col. Young replied, that '•'■ if the General knew of any dishonest conduct on the part of the Com- missioners, and kept it a secret, HE WAS A TRAITOR TO THE PUBLIC FOR NOT HAVING EXPOSED THEM TO THE WORLD." The Gen- eral's rejoinder was very appropriate, but mv object, in referring to these con- versations now, is to show how anxious Samuel Young is in 1846, to uphold the dishonest president of Jacob Barker's Sandy Hill bank, and to censure me for having followed his excellent advice to Erastus Root in 1825. I now proceed to show, that the book which has given so much uneasiness to bad politicians, was neither surreptitiously obtained nor surreptitiously printed. The materials came into my hands, with the consent of Mr. Van Ness, Collec- tor of the port of New York, Mr. Bogardus, his Assistant Collector, Mr. Gold- son, his Keeper of the Records, Mr. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Polk, President of the United States. The importance of the subject will justify me in publishing, at this stage of the proceedings, a clear and distinct nar- rative of the main facts. In 1842 and 1843 I was actuary or agent for the corporation known as the Mechanics' Institute, City Hall, New York, where my services received an un- animous vote of thanks. 1 miglit have continued, with the approbation of all parties, hut resigned in the fall of 1S43. Certain leading citizens of foreign birth applied to Mr. Robert Tyler, son of tlie then President, to provide me with a'situaiion in the custom house — this they did without iny knowledge orsugges. CURTIS, TYLER, VAN NESS, MACKENZIE. THE CUSTOM HOUSE. 9 tion. Mr. Tyler being at Howard's hotel, sent Mr. Sweeny of Philadelphia to asic me to call upon him. I did so, and he enquired whether I would accept an Inspector's place (-$1 100 a year.) My reply was that I would. Next day he told me to wait on Collector Curtis, who would place me in office, and I did so, accompanied by a director of the Institute. Mr. Curiis was very polite — said I would have the place, but that the warrant or papers had to goto Mr. Spencer at Washin"-ton. Difficulties were raised afterwards, arising out of my very peculiar position with reference to England, but I believe the President and his sons were sincere in their wish to oblige my friends. The following note is a proof of that : " W. L. Mackenzie, Esq. — My Dear Sir : I have just had an opportunity to " read your letter of the 22d April. I am always glad to hear from you, al- " tho' 1 find it impossible to be a very punctual correspondent. Colonel Graham " [then P. M.] is expected here to day, and I shall urge your appointment upon " him. If any accident, should detain him in N. Y., take this letter to him, and "tell him from me, that there is no man in New York I had rather see him " provide for by an appointment in the city post office than Wm. L. Mackenzie. " My own feelings would be highly gratified at your success. Very truly yours, "Philadelphia, A.pril 2Sth. Robert Tyler." Altho' the note was of no use, the kindness of heart displayed by the youth- ful writer, to a person who was poor and an exile, and had no political influence or weight, was very gratifying indeed — and when Mr. Van Ness became col- lector, I was nominated as an inspector, but, as Mr. Spencer had objected, his suc- cessor took the same view — and on reflection, I cannot venture to assert that it was not the more discreet course. I was then placed in the Record office, which had that name given it in burlesque, I presume, for it was the most confused col- lection of papers on a mammoth scale I had ever beheld during the half century of my existence, nor did I hesitate to write a note to the collector in which I frankly told him so. In 1840, Mr. Van Ness wrote me from Burlington, Vermont, a very compli- mentary letter with reference to a newspaper I was then publishing at Roches- ter. He wrote a second from N. York, and enclosed a year's subscription. Being requested by the President's brother-in-law, and son (with his father's approbation,) he showed no unwillingness to give me a situation. For some 9 or 10 months, thi'ee clerks were employed in beginning to arrange the Records, of whom I was one ; and as I found many remarkable documents from time to time which were no records, I copied whatever of such interested or amused me. Six months befere I left, Webber, the chief clerk, had privately informed the authorities that I was copying papers; and in March, 1845, I drew Mr. Bo- gardus's attention to some of Hoyt's and his correspondents' stray productions, by sending or giving them to him. I also asked Henry Ogden, the old cashier, to mention to Mr. Hoyt that many curious papers of his were turning up. Mr. Ogden said that he had told him this twice, but that Hoyt replied that he had left nothing that he cared for. When f)articular papers or books were wanted, we had some 200 or .300 trunks to search, all of them the property of the United States, and some of them open, others locked — some with keys and some without — some with an assort- ment of all things, pious and impious, official and unofficial, from 1739 to 1844, and others exhibiting some efforts to attain method and order. I said then, and I now repeat, that the confusion visible everywhere was in keeping with the ac- counts of Hoyt and Swartwout — it could not have been the result of accident. I must speak plain — how could it be avoided ? " To reform and not chastise would be impossible — the wisest precepts would be of little use unless fhere were examples to enforce them. To attack vices in the abstract without aim- 10 THE HOVT AND BUTLER COERESPOKDEKCE. mg at persons, would be safe fighting indeed, but it would be fighting with shadows." Mr. Bogardus, with consent of the Treasury, had thousands of pigeon holes made, to hold papers as fast as vve could sort and arrange them. He gave his orders to Samuel P. Goldson, a political friend whom he had introduced from the 8th ward, as the keeper — they were very intimate, and Goldson considering Bogardus as his patron, did nothing without consulting him. On the l5th of iVIay, Goldson told me that Bogardus had ordered him to break open, examine the contents and remove to garret, the Custom House Trunk marked ' J. & L. Hoyt's Law Papers.' I suggested to him, Mr. Coryell, the other clerk, being present, not to break it open, but to let the men carry it to the garret, for we had the carpenters at work, and many loose papers. He replied that his orders were positive — took a large screw driver, called Mr. Stansbury, a carpenter to help him, and they broke the screw driver twice, but opened the box. I had had an idea that the papers of all Hoyt's remarkable custom house law suits with the merchants were in that box, the contents of which were immediately thrown upon the floor among other miscellaneous documents, and afterwards carried in baskets to the attic. That box contained a part of the letters of the Van Burens and Benj. Butler, but it is evident from Hoyt's affidavit to the chan- cery bill, that he knew very little about it. The box was not Hoyt's — Hoyt was on record as having embezzled $220,000 — the papers were in possession of the government, but not being official, for the words ' Law Papers' were a blind, we might have burnt them or swept them out. He had told Ogden he didn't want them, or to that effect ; and if he had wanted them, I should have done my best to thwart him after I ascertained their character. I knew that Goldson would tell Bogardus instantly what sort of law papers we had got at, if indeed he did not know before he ordered the box to be opened and examined, a'^.d it is presumed he did not, for, as he says in his letter, the box was doubtless ordered to be opened as many others had been, that we might look in it for some important papers then required by the authorities, for which we had vainly sought elsewhere. In presence of Ingham Coryell, and with the full and entire approval of Goldson, the keeper, I began to copy as many of these papers as were of a public character and fit for the public eye ; and as a gentleman whom I had known for many 5'-ear3, and who had held lucrative and important trusts under the U. S., was about to leave for Washington, I called on him, shewed him the copies I had taken, gave him many duplicates, and requested him first to show them to Mr. Van Ness, and then carry them to Washington, and let the President see them, as they concerned the public welfare. Another of the clerks appears to have informed him about them, and desired him to tell the Collector that I was copying them, with the keeper's consent ; and that altho' he had remon- strated, i was also allowed to take such of them away to be copied as I thought fit. The Collector was very fully informed on these points by this gentleman, and sent for me, but was engaged when I called. About this time I was told privately and also saw the notice in the Morning News, that President Polk had promised General Dix that Coddington, being recommended by him, Cam- breleng, Butler, Van Buren, and the rest of the faithful, was to have the Col- lectorship, and tliat Governor Van Ness, who had tried hard to elect Mr. Polk, was to be thrown overboard without ceremony. I told the gentleman who car- ried the papers to Washington, to mention to Mr. Polk where they were from,* *Mr. Polk's committee to search the U. S. Bank, 1834, F. Thomas, Chairman, demanded of the bank the private letters of members ol' congress to the bank president, or any bank officer, and all unanswered letters from M. C's. during the previous two years, whether about u new charter or the private transactions of such M. C'», with the hank— und Iho' not a lecret committee, they dematided the books of the bank, not merely to inspect them, but to do bo in secret, tuking lliem out of the liftud» of the direcluo, and they asserted their right to carry them where thoy A DISCOVERY ' DULY AfPRECIATED IN THE RIGHT QUAETEE.* H and how, and requested that there should be no concealment as to what I was doing — and he did so. Mr. Hoyt has had hosts of witnesses before three successive city grand juries to get me indicted on account of these documents — but in vain. We shall see whether I meritf;d the abuse and slanders that have been heaped upon me. I think not. I did everything fairly and above board, and even sacrificed the petty office I held, with my^income, time and means, and also borrowed money, that I might be enabled to lay useful truths before the people previous to the era of a convention. A mercenary soul, situated as I was, would only have considered how much money he could alarm the guilty hypocriies into paying for the destruction of the evidences of their shame and dishonor, thus placed within his control. On the 1st or 2nd of June, I received the following note from the gentleman to whom I had given many copies to be shewn to the President. It was franked "Comptroller's Office, J. W. M'Culloh," and had the Washington postmark of the 31 St of May. , " Washington, 30th May, 1845. My dear sir ; I received your letter ex- "planatory of the reference in one of J.' V's [John V. Buren's] letters to Hoyt, "and thank you for the information it gives. The discovery of these letters " seems to be providential, AND IS DULY APPRECIATED IN THE RIGHT " QUARTER. All will go well. I will be glad to hear from you, and on any '■' occasion, in which I can serve you, write to me without reserve. You will " find me ready to render you any aid in my power. Yours Truly." pleiised They actually issued their general warrant to compel the production of all the letters that had beea Cvrilten to the banii or on private or pubUc business with it, for themselves and others, within two years, intending ch the same with the view of instituting a criminal prosecution against the writers or receivers. All this attachment, imprisonment, and infinite distress; a search of books, a search of letters, and an examination on oath of the persons implicated, touching the mutters whereof they are suspected. In what does such a warrant difler from th.ise issued under the 1st Charles and the 2nd James, for which, among other things, Scroggs was im- Recorder Morris, now P. M. of N. Y., selected by Mr. Polk and his cabinet on account of his principles from amoii" 400,000 citizens, held that the end justified the means in the case of Glentworth ; descended from the bench of his'criminal court, joined the mayor, and the two started oif to the quiet dwelling of a private citizen after the mid'ni"ht bout— told him he had in his possession a sealed package ot papers the property of a party then absent— and compelled him to give it up under a threat that they would then search his bed rooms, study, closets, chests and drawers, and take it by force. They had no warrant— no oath, general or special— no sheriff was present, nor a deputy— no not even a constable. Pierce was not sworn as to his knowledge of the contents of the packet, or asked whether it contained the evidence of Glentworth's guilt. Judge Morris' real object was to find aid towards the election of his party leader, Van Buren— his immediate purpose was to prove the probable guilt of persons against whom no charge whatever had come betbre him as a judge, by means of papers which even District^ Attor- ney VVhitin" and 1$ F. Butler had not chosen to keep when they had them ; these papers, too, the property ot a man whom their'"f:iend Judge Edmonds had privately warned to go away, after he had taken them home aad perused Messrs. Morris and Varinn said that they did all this officially ; and when Governor Seward asked Morris \vhat authority he had for his midnight march to Pearce's, he replied that much of the Common Law in force here had never been printed any where ; that Lawyers knew the unwritten parts of the law ; and that these parts would be found to sanction his e.vpedition to Pierce's after private papers. Attorney General Hall flatly denied that the folks of New York live under a code of unknown laws, never yet set in type, or written with a pen. "The extraordniary doctrine of the Recorder, (said he) that some portions of the Common Law have never been reduced to writing, and are not to be found in any book, is equally novel and untenable. Lord Camden says, " the names and nghU of |)ublic magistrates, their power and forms of proceeding, as they are settled by law, have been long since written, and are to be found in books and records." If Mr. Morris is right, common law is like dog law. Pompey oftends me and gets whipt. He remembers the whipping and avoids the offence. A man does a meritorious act— is brought before Judge Morris and punished for it, by virtue of laws, which Morris tells him that nobody but Lawyers ever heard of and which many of them declare to have no existence. If judges and lawyers cannot agree as to whether, in 1845, the laws of N. Y. state are or are not written, how then can they agree as to what the laws are ? Yet this is the man whom President Polk has selected to take care that the seals of the letters of the people of N. Y. and their corresuoiidpnts he not vi:jlated for political or party purposes '. Is it not in character with his maiden choice ol B. F. Uiitlcrl If 40 British ministers have stooped to the petty larceny policy of the administration of a Fouchfe. confounding principle with precedent, and moral law with legal custom— if all the 40, including Peel, VVellmgton, Canning, Goderich, Melbourne, Palmerston, Russell, Graham, and Aberdeen, and all the lord lieutenants of Ireland, have, each in his turn, caused letters passing thro' the postoftice to be secretly opened, read, and resealed by stealth, with counterfeit seals— and they do not deny it— what may not be expected from as convenient a post- rriaster as Morris, who adheres to a code of law unknown to his countrymen, including it is presumed the British practice to which I have had reference ? In the case of Hoyt, the documents were in government boxes, and Hoyt a.\\ embezzler of the revenue, who had escaped the penalty of the sub-treasury act by a quibble— they were mixed up with hundreds of tons of official records— were unsealed, indecent, unbecoming, and left in the custom house because too iioUuted to enter u ptivate mansion. 12 THB CUSTOM HOUSE, ITS INMATES AND THE SEC&ET LETTERS; When I afterwards saw the writer, he informed me that Mr. Polk had perused the letters, and been informed where and in what manner they were found ; and that the effect they produced on his mind was such as to induce him to depart from his original purpose as expressed to General Dix. He said that he would not give the office to Mr. Coddington, but would appoint a man of his own. I have seen a pretty accurate statement of this interview in the National Intelli- gencer, written by its N. Y. correspondent, M. L. Davis, who did not get any of his facts from me. Ritchie did not contradict Davis's statement, nor make any remarks upon it. I sometimes think that it was by way of an offset to these anti-Van Buren movements in May and June, that The Union abused me so out- rageously when my book appeared last September. Horace Walpole repeats a saying of his father, Sir Robert, "that but few men should ever be Ministers, for it lets them see too much of the badness of mankind." Mr. Van Ness was, I thought, a kind-hearted man, and all the Ver- monters I had met with, spoke well of him, after he had been their governor. I would have been glad, if he had kept his ground, but he was less fitted to deal with the host of crafty place hunters who surrounded h;m than Lawrence, whose cold, phlegmatic, calculating temperament, and mind turned toward stockjob- bing and lucre, will remain undisturbed, where Van Ness v/ould almost shed tears of pity. I have been in the anti-chambers of Kings and Governors — and have witnessed the levees of the Colonial Rulers of forty colonies, in Downing street,' but never on earth saw anything so formidable, yet humiliating to human nature, in the way of besieging power for place, as in the Custom House of N. Y. On the 3rd of June last, a friend wrote me in confidence from Washington, that Van Ness was superceded, and Lawrence, the choice of the President, and 1 wrote my resignation the same day and sent it in. The Collector sent for me twice that month, and bade me stay on account of my straitened circumstances and large family. I declined, my mind being fully made up that I had a duty to perform, effectually to uncloak the knaves who figure in part of this corres- pondence. Nor was it any great sacrifice, for I had the smallest income of any clerk in the C. H. Webber and Everett were removed for their political opin- ions, with about ten minutes' official notice, and I was ordered to instruct Gold- son and Coryell, their successors, in their duties, which I did. We had pre- cisely the same v/ork to do, yet I was paid 8200 less than the one, and $300 less than the other. The treasury regulation seems to be purely political, and Committees of Congress, named by their party Speakers, are altogether a delu- sion. Seventeen men, called Measurers, get $1500 a year each, for doing worse than nothing. Secretary Forward proposed to abolish them, but iiis whig cabinet was air built, and it soon vanished. The N. Y. Custom House is the most pow- erful piece of political machinery for neutralizing opinion and controlling elec- tions, to suit the i'ew, that I ever saw or heard of in any country. De Witt Clinton's celebrated warning on that head, is indeed a truth. It is a curious fact that neither Bogardus nor Collector Van Ness, ever spoke a word to me about the Hoyt correspondence while I was in office. During every spare moment, from the l5th of May till July 1st, I copied from these relics of Van Burenism, at my desk and dwelling house, with the keeper's ap- probation, and, as it appears, that of his superiors also, whom he and Coryell had carefully and properly consulted. Had they objected, I must have desist- ed. The power of dismissal or censure remained in Messrs. Polk, Walker, and Van Ness, or cither of them, but no one said a word. They doubtless knew that it would have been highly criminal to conceal such unequivocal proofs of turpitude from an abused people. Mr. Walker examined the letters with great care, and both he and the President were glad that so much con- cealed villainy had come to light. So far from being displeased. President Polk BOW WERE THE LETTERS OBTAINED 1 13 promptly acted on my information, being justly indignant at Coddington's at- tempt to head General Jackson, as shewn in page 214, No. 179 of correspon- dence.* *Talk of violating private confidence furnished me witli such full means lence ! It was in prosecution of my public duties to the state that providence tor the exposure of its enemies. VVInle "Salus populi, suprema lex ' remains the l-iw of God and man, a rule to regulate our conduct towards ourneighbors, and the practice according to which has been approved by posterity in the case of every blessed reformer who has left his toil on earth for his reward in heaven, what could I have been, but one of the worst of traitors, if I had spared those enemies that were delivered into my hands ? Let then Jesse Hoyt, the tool of these plotters, let their hirelings the poor newspaper hacks, Ritchie and Heiss of Ihe Union, Blair and Kives of the Globe, Noah of the .Sun, Bennett of the Herald. O'Sullivan of the j\ews French & (;assidy of the Atlas, Croswell of the Argus, the Solomons of the two Posts, here and in Boston the Tr'ov Bud- get, and Senator Mack, with other more obscure drudges, the bearers of official burthens, on whose "ailed shoulders their masters have often ridden into power over the necks of a betrayed and insulted people ; let them all rejoice in the partial victory which they have obtained, thro' VV. T. McCoun, in hindering the circulation of mv former book for a time. Let the sacrifices which they have already made in the temple of mammon suHice, in gettm" a neigh- bour, in some cases, to burn a coj)y for which he may have paid, but retaining iheir own like the flesh which the heathens took from the altars of their gods to sell in the shambles. Let every covetous christian purchase it and every jew, as hallowed at that shrine where they all mutually and lovingly worship every Saturday and Sabbath The fear of losing his office, when Lawrence came in, must have been the motn e that induced Goldson to lelf and persist 'ii a falsehood, in this mattar. When I had stated in the Tribune how 1 came by the letters Goldson replied as follows : ' " Mr Mackenzie says :— ' With the consent of Mr. Goldson, the keeper, I publicly copied, whenever I had spare "time, such of those letters as I thought the public ought to see (omitting private passages ) and (as iMr. Goldson and - - - . _ , - -Jiy , ledge." .\s reference was made by Goldson to the third clerk, Coryell, I also appealed to him, and here is his answer dated Nov. 12, 1845. ' " W. L. Mackenzie, Esq.— Sir: In reply to yours of to-day, I feel bound, under the circumstances, to say that I "have read in the Tribune vour statement and Mr Goldson's reply, and THAT UPON THE UNPLEASANT "ISSUE THUS MADE BETWEEN YOU, YOU ARE CORRECT. Resp'y yours. INGHAM CORYELL." Mr. Coryell Is well connected, and came to N. Y. highly recommended by the governor and many leadin" men of the democratic party in Pennsylvania. Goldson, on the 14th, wrote in the Tribune, " I repeat that the statement of Mackenzie is in every particular false — false both in fact and sjiirit." Rumor has it that he swore to the same effect before several grand juries. Again, on the 18th, Goldson wrote, that "certain gov't papers v^-ere wanting "and the keys to sundry gov't cases and boxes, in which it was supposed they were deposited, were lost. Mr! " Bogardus ordered these gov't bo.xes and cases broken open and the papers arranged. One of them was found to " contain hundreds of letters addressed to Mr. Hoyt." He goes on to say, that he got a new lock and key ; and that, with his consent, neither Coryell nor myself opened that box afterwards ; but if this had been true a part of these remarkable disclosures had never appeared. As Goldson and Coryell are both retained by Lawrence in the same department, to this hour, with the consent of Mr. Polk and Mr. Walker, f copy Coryell's statement of Nov. 25th, from the Tribune, as follows : " Mackenzie, Goldson and I were the only clerks in the room ; Goldson was the senior and gave Jlackenzie per- mission to copy the letters ; / believed, but did nut know, that he intended to publish them, and "told Goldson that he did wrong in giving him the permission. Instead of aiding him to co[iy them, as Goldson charges, I, through a friend, told the Collector that Mr. Mackenzie was taking cojiies, and that he, the Collector, ougln to enquire^into the matter. Mr. Van Ness sent Mr Bogardus, who is the personal friend of Mr. Goldson, to'inake the inquiry. He did inquire, and he reported that it was all right; and so far from fearing that he would lose his place for permitting him to copy the letters, Goldson, alter he knew that Mackenzie was about to leave the office excused him from other duties, that he might make extracts from papers in the office, which Mackenzie has used in his book. 1 refer to the published letters of Sir. Van Ness and Mr Bogardus, to prove that my statement as to them is true" and knowing these facts to be so, Goldson now says that he could not but know that he should lose his plaee, his livelihood, and alieniate every friend lie possessed by the conduct charged upon him. Now I reply that he did not then think so ; Mr Van Ness and Mr. Bogardus were then his friends, they knew tlrtt he wns the senior clerk in charge of the papers ; they knew that Mackenzie was copying these letters with Goldson's permission or connivance and took no steps to prevent it, and (Joldson knew this." ' On seeing this, Bogardus gave Coryell the lie in the most plain terms, in the Tribune of the 28th of Nov.— saving that his statement was " an unblushing and malicious falsehood." Messrs. Polk, Lawrence and Walker continue to avail themselves of his services also ! ! But the calm and intrepid youth kept his ground ably and fearlessly ; and I trust that his love of truth, and con- tempt of office and $1000 a y<.»ar, if to be dishonestly held, will yet be honored by the a|)probation of the noble hearted and virtuous among his countrymen. On the 29th, he stated in the Tribune that the moment I began to copy the Hoyt correspondence he requested a gentleman of great respectability to mention the fact to Mr. Van Ness, v.'ho did so— and he refers to Mr. Van Ness's letter of Sept. 25, where he states that he had been informed that I had found sime important private correspondence of Hoyt among the archives, and had caused Bogardus to make a private examination, who reported that the papers were of no apparent consequence— and to Bogardus's published rtird, where be says that the documents were of no consequence, and not worth taking away. Bogardus went to Goldson, who had laughed heartily at Butler's mock |)iety, and Van Buren's cursing and gambling, but he never opened his lips to me, nor did Goldson ever mention to me that there had been a search or'an enquiry. Coryell's last epistle closed the correspondence in these words : "I am made lo appear as the partisan of Mackenzie who, by the publication of his book, has arrrayed against him an influence powerful in this community. My accusers have enlisted themselves as the tools and instruments- cf those who are laboring to arraign Mackenzie for felonv, of which they know him to be innocent, by way of pro- tecting themselves. I am not his partisan— I had no agency in the publication of his hook— 1 have iio iiiterest in sustaining him. On the contrary I am well aware that what I have said in his favor will provoke against me the ill will of men whom I have no wish to ort'end, but Goldson and Bogardus have placed me in a situation where I am compelled to speak the truth or else do as they have done, bear false witness asrainst Mackenzie. * * * t * * * * * Mackenzie's book is an exposureof men who have held important financial and political posts; men having great weight and influence in society and with the Government. Among those assailed is the present 14 THE author's apology IOR THIS VOLTOIE. C H A P T E R I I I . The Author's Apology for pubUshing the Butler and Van Bvren Correspondence. Constitutional Reforms urgently required. Governor Wright and the Anli-Retit- ers. L. D. Slanun. Jesse Hoyt's extraordinary Chancery Bill and Vice-Chan- cellar JSP Counts still more extraordinary decision about it. Benjamin F. But- ler's profession of Piety. Mrs. Butler, a Politician. Van Buren^s vacillating Policy. What may he considered Literary Property in these times. With such opportunities as I had of making these disclosures ; suffering as I have suffered in the cause of liberty ; what an incurious creature must I have been, what a simpleton, not to have opened my eyes to that which was so plain- ly spread before my view ; what a traitor if, when 1 possessed it, I had courted or received the reward of silence ; if I had kept silence ! No ! trusting in the coming emancipation of the human race from all the former restraints of misrule and oppression ; already seeing in the words of the ancient heathen poet in accordance with the prophecies of scripture, " a new order of things beginning;'' already seeing a long continuance of peace among the most civil- ized nations, and the progress of the arts rendering the former advantages for war worthless ; either tending to secure a continuance of peace or to end war in one hasty general struggle ; seeing even many of the creatures that were placed in subjection to man, and whose necessary attention to them in some measure humanized mankind, rendered unnecessary, supplanted ; seeing all things prei)aring for tlie greater happiness of mankind in a universal reign of love, should I not do what I could to wipe off the reproach of this land, as fail- ing in the experiment of self-government, through the remnants of ancient fraud that still remain amidst that glorious progress which we once seemed destined to make in the career of improvement among the nations ; the last but the best form of government far outstripping them all ! How must the heart of every sincere patriot be sad to see the Declaration of Independence nullified in so many cases, if not in very state, by the state Constitution, in what is it not disregarded in the practictl working of it I Who would not grieve to see, amidstthe late troubles of one of our smaller States, instead of the great political parties in the others suggt^sting aught as an effec- tive remedy, fomenting the quarrel and triumphing in its progress, for the sake of political efloct, without any measure for the full establishment of those equal rights to w!)i(;h the whole nation is pledged in the sight of God to one another, before thw world ! Who would not grieve at the success with which the guilty often escape through the meshes of law in this State, and the innocent are overwhelmed ; to see a governor proclaim the injustice of certain usurpations, ad- vise their abandonment, but yet hold out the terrors of the law against {hen viola- tors ; to sec men condemned for murder that are said to have taken the life of one that came to oppose tiiem and execute an unjust law! To see such things, and here find so many felons go " unwhipt of justice," assisted in their crime and their escape from its due punishment through that imported, foreign, feudal legislation, and those relics of ancient fraud which seemed to have been swept away in the spring-tide flood of the revolution ; yet here, carried back and settling down upon our shores in every ebb and flow of tlic change of parties and pre- Ti. Hector, whose .-ipiKiinirnent lias clinngeil the relations between Messrs. Goldson, Hosiirilus nnil Mackenzie. Hofore this, Mr. (JoIiLmim ynve Miickenzie pprinis.sion to copy the letters, nnd Mr. Hiij;iiriliis cnnld find "nothing of im)iort,mce in the iimtior," hut now none londer than they in denouncing' Mackenzie. f)cniinciation is not enough ; they, or oiio of tht-m, ut least, have fjoiin before the grand jury fur the pnrpose of bavin? hini indicted for a (iJlony. \Vliy is this ! Is it not iiiaiiifest that that which wis of •' no impurtancc" under Mr. Van Ness, in their eslimnl'ion, has' heuiuie u fclonv under Mr. Lawrence 7 .\iid is it not e(iunlly manifest that all this zenl against Mackenzie ori?inates in n hnse and groveling desire to conciliate the Collector at the e.vpeii'.e of trutli and honur ! , « * .y 4 * ♦ I do nut stop to enquire what are the collector fLawrcnce]'s opinions or wishes. I dare he lior.i'i-t und ►peak the lr\ilh, Iti it pleuse or ofTeiid whom it niuy. 1 hope 1 urn done with Mr. Bognrdus. ' INGHAM COKYKLL." THK CONVE^'TION — PRINCIPLE — L. D. SLAMM. 15 tended reforms in the framing of constitutions and the revising of laws ; if not ready to wish for the abrogation of human laws, and with a trial of a jury of our peers, the palladium of liberty, in a court where only the enlightened con- sciences of good men and their sense of honesty should be allowed to affect the decision in pronouncing sentence according to the evidence; how must I have been excited to do at least what was put in my power, to afford a demonstra- tion of the truth of sacred writ, " that the love of money is the root of all evil," and to call upon the people of this state, in prospect of holding a convention, to reform and perfect its constitution; and of all the states; to establish more checks, and henceforth allow of no office holder but by their direct suffrage, of no nomination but with your full knowledge — and to permit no one elected to legis- late in any pecuniary matters regarding his own pay or whatever else may con- duce to his own personal and exclusive advantage ; but to enjoy his salary ac- cording to the appointment of the people, in his election ! Such are the nrinci- ples in which I have had tiie happmess to be indoctrinated ; * principles that I know not if they are fully carried out in practice among any society of men but the Seceders of Scotland, a church strongly attached to Democracy in cleri- cal government, and which I may call my mother church, having been born and baptized in it. Whatever motives of disappointed ambition, whatever motives of self-seeking and hope of future favor may be imputed to the author, he is conscious to him- self of the rectitude of his conduct, and, that, in due time, it will be approved by every sincere lover of his country's welfare, by every one that reckons himself bound to guard the republic against injury. If it had been revenge that had prompted him, he might have had that long ago in matters that more nearly related himself; but, when he considered himself able to serve the pub- lic, he overlooked personal injuries, and instead of being the opponent of the party, the worst part of which reckon themselves chiefly aggrieved by this pub- lication, he became its advocate and pleaded its claims to State and National power as far as he was then deceived, and, as far as he reckoned its proposals preferable to those of the party that then defeated it. Laboring for the good of whatever land it has been his lot unrler providence to inhabit, amidst the ill-treatment which he has received for the want of suc- cess in a cause at least equal to that for v/hich our revolutionary ancestors of this nation, are justly honored ; marked and proscribed with a price set upon his head, equal to that at which some of the most illustrious of them were valued by the same government ; the last anions all the survivors of that ill fa,ted stn)jr- gle, that has not obtainea a paraon and an allowance to return to his untorfeited rights and property ; were he to be crushed now by such an attempt as Hoyt, Butler, Van Buren, and their supporters have made, how would tyrants rejoice and the lovers of rational liberty lament, reckoning the refuge of the oppressed, the dungeon of the free ! Is it to be supposed that I should destroy my fair fame, lay aside every prin- ciple of honor, sacrifice a life-long reputation, and disregarding all consequences, * When the question of a state convention wasSrsI spoken of, I wrs in the Mechanics' Institute, here, and wrote many articles in its favour, tho' net over my own signature. Levi D. Blanim, a trusted editor of the Democracy, or perha|is of their artful and selfish leaders, has, during the last three years, bestowed much abuse upon me, and done ineall the injury he could with the people. Himself the son of a German fither and an Irish motlier, he descended to denounce me as " a foreign renegade" thro' his press. Let his private sentiments, published by his consent, stand as a reply to the slanders of his journal. "William L. Mackenzie, Esq.— Dear Sir: I thank you for your attention. The article you allude to never came " to my possession, else I should certainly have published it. lie assured that the fears you intini;.te do me iniustice. ■' Innately a Democrat, 1 can never forego the utterance of truth from any mutive ol policy or expendiency. A '• pressure of business — the warm interest I have taken in municipal refor.ni. as the columns of the Plebeian will show, " the various subjects which arise every day requiring some record of opinion — and the little assistance I have in " the conduct of my journal, is my e.xcusk for not entkri.ng positively into the contemplated Con- ' STiTDTroNAL Rekot.m (jlestion. Ycur friend. Levi D. .Slamm," •• June 20, 1843." 16' ^ HOYT, BTTTLEE, AND THE COURT OF EQCITY. like "amadmap . firebrands, arrows and death," not caring thougl) the greatest and noL niple ot' human liberty ever erected, should be burned up, if I should obtain a name ? Far from it ! An admirer of the jrlorioiis principles of the Declaration of Independence ; hoping to find the practical effect of such liberty here, as a Knox had established lor the Church in my native land, and a Buchanan pleaded for the state ; the practical working of the true political prin- ciples which a Locke furnished to the immortal author of the full draught of the Declaration of Independence; hearing this government praised by every lover of liberty ; living under oppressions myself ; admiring everything good, and carefully endeavoring to excuse everything evil in the working of the re- publican system ; engaged at last, as is well known, in a desperate, (though for the time,) an unsuccessful, attempt to transplant the same institutions into a neigh- boring region ; was I not accurately to mark its workings according to my op- portunities ; and when made to feel its evils so bitterly as I have experienced in my own person ; was I to content myself as an idle drone in the Custom House, sucking the honey of the public hive ? Far from it! I endeavored to improve the opportunities which were there furnished, and the leisure which the present arrangement of the public service allowed, for the benefit of the public; and here is the result of a part of my labors. But, in an attempt to cloak up again the villainy and fraud which has been exposed, here we have a defaulter to the public, an embezzler of the revenue, that should have been glad to have retired from view into 'h? shades of those jungles which it is now becoming fashionable for public nioj to court, after a certain period of office, where they may live like wild beasts that drag their victims to their dens, to devour them and fatten upon them at leisure ; there he should have sought to spend, after " a youth of labor, an age of ease" with his guiltv companions, instead of darkening a court of justice with his presence, or deafening it with his complaints. But, " Oh ! shame, where is thy blush !" his claim is allowed, sanctiened ; and letters by the lovers of stock-gambling and betting on elections — on the best mode of intriguing for office, and how that office should be used, not for the public weal, but to subserve the basest and most wicked personal and party purposes — of the easiest way of robbing the widow and the orphan by an artificial and corrupt upholding of a rotten bankrupt Banking Institution — letters composed of langu;ige and epithets the most blasphe- mous, the demoralizing tendency of which cannot for an instant be doubted, evea by the most liberal reader — these are adjudged worthy of the protecting mantle of an EQUITY court, as literary property, and the booksellers enjoined not to sell nor permit the public to read the Lives of Jesse Hoyt and Benjamin Butler.^ * Lenving Ibr a time. Mr. V. Buren's ready tool, let us cnst a look at the principals, tlie chief con-spirntors amoi)» their accomplices in guilt. Pee one filling for a time a high legal station, in which he must tremble nt the blast of public indignation, when the cnnfineil wind of the Custom House, that Eiilns Munufiictory of jmhlic opinion, has been let out at the proper (juiirier, no longer belched forth from the thronts of its greasy demagogue? ! Pee him with a carria^'e beyond mo.st of tlie traders in politics, early making a profession of religion : not waiting till retire- ment from oHice to be trammelled by the restraints of sect, but all the time using his religious (irofessioti as a cloak, pretending " to be denied to the world, but following the mammon of unrighteousness with a step as steady as time and an appetite as keen as death." If there are certain pictures so ludicrous, acciirding to the description of the poet, to see which, when admitted, must furnish a subject for unrestrainable iiiughtcr ; how could it be thought that \ conlil restrain my indignation when the opportunity was allc>rde,l admirer, Mordecai M. Noah, gives the following br.ef h.story of .t .„ ih.pJ\r Y Ktt/«'n" W'lr of Au^'iial J, 1834 : . Th. ..iv.ri^rs of the Kank of New York, the Hank of Albany, the Far.ners' Bank of Troy and the Bank of tol- ,r ,1,, ex ,ir n- ind O.ev hmi a 1 applied for the extension of their charters. The co.n.nercm cond.tion ijiiihia, were ahoot e.xpinn-, .inu ''"'-■'^ "'"''. > , „.eat embarrassment, resulting from the then emhar^'o. and grants were part.a J" ' '"'I.^lHoV r" ie^d I ^t e^^^^^^^^^ charters. To obviate this alleged partiality c.,uld not, and would not be 'f"^"*'!" ,;,"' ^^'^V ' ,>^J 'f,^7,„,,n „us drawn by the tkcn Attorney General, .1 1 mem Ihc loan ot 1808 was adopted ^''^ J'' '/^f/X '''tUc wh "h o^^^^^^^ at that time, the incorporation of the Bank ,,er of Assenib y frorn th,, cuy^ Jhe -;;-;'7, ,^ ^^Xe sessmn of 1808, a lobby racier for the chartermg of r/<«t :!n;;::orJl^X'(r«.:w^^^n;^:i^^rn;;l^^^^ of thatinstitut.„ IW a numbers years." VAN BUREN WEARING HIS HARD MONEY FACE, THE BANE OF AMERICA. 26 CHAPTER VII. Van Bur en sets up as mi enemy to Chartered Banks! The Bank of America^ or Six Mill/on Bank. Tompkins opposes it, and describes the dangers of tJie N. Y. banking system. Southioick and the friends of the hank support Van Buren in 1812 for the Senate. General Root, James W. Wilkin, Ambrose and J. C. Spencer, and Samuel Campbell sustain Tompkins. The Common. Schools cheated out of the Bank Bonus. Judge W. W. Van Ness's bribe. The Merchants^ Bank Charter, 1805. When Van Buren was a candidate for the Vice Presidency, a sketch of his life appeared in the Albany Argus, and afterwards in pamphlet form, by B. F. Butler. When in 1835, he was put forward for the office of President, But- ler's pamphlet was enlarged into a duodecimo; Dr. Holland was the repu- ted author, but Butler compiled the more important parts. Blair's Globe, the Argus, and other prints under Van Buren's control, warranted the narrative to be authentic, and I therefore quote it as Van Buren's own version of his history and principles. In page 301, it tells us, that " Of all inventions which have been put in operation, in this country, to promote the inordinate accumulation of wealtli, the most exceptionable are incorporated companies ; and the worst of all incorporated companies are banks." In page 40, it assures us, that, in the days of Washington, " the leading doctrines of the democratic party were * * * * no privileges to particular sections of the country or to parti- cular classes of the community — no monopolies, trading companies, or gover- mental banks" — while "the doctrines of the anti-republican party were similar to those of the present day. They were for a splendid, consolidated govern- ment, SUPPORTED BY A NATIONAL BaNK, AND REVOLVING ABOUT AN INTRIGUING AND CORRUPTING TREASURY." In page 303, it denounces " incorporated banks," and a paper currency ; remarking, that " it may be reasonably doubted whether the whole [banking] system, from beginning to end, is not an infraction of the constitution. It is, at least, an evasion of its plain provisions, pernicious in its influence upon industry and morals, and meriting the firm resistance of all true lovers of equal rights." When, in 1811, George Clinton's casting vote in the United States Senate, closed the career of the first national bank, its friends pursued very nearly the same course which the directors of the second national bank followed, when Jackson's veto prevented a renewal of its charter. They endeavored to incor- porate it as a state institution; and as Pennsylvania was opposed to them, and her legislature refused them a state charter, by a vote of 69 to 22, they came to Albany, and thro' persuasion, influence, interest, and I regret to add, bribery, obtained majorities in both branches of the legislature, for chartering '■■ the Bank of America," with a capital of six millions of dollars. Holland, page 304, tells us that "In the spring of 1812, Governor Tompkins prorogued the legislature, to prevent the passage of the charter for the bank ; and Mr. Van Buren yielded this energetic, but necessary, exercise of power, his firmest sup- port." This may be true, for Van Buren's opponent, E. P. Livingston, was a thorough Bank man — yet I perceive that Solomon Southwick, State Printer, President of the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, Albany, who was the most ultra advocate of " the Bank of America" in the Union, and employed by its projectors to travel over the state in 1811, and enlist recruits and manufacture public opin- ion for its use, and who had become deadly hostile to Tompkins, earnestly urg- ed the people to choose Van Buren as a Senator ; this he did in April, 1812, only a month before the bank bill passed into a law in spite of Tompkins and the war party. These were his words: 26 southwick's two characters of van btjeen. " Albany Register, April, 1812. — Middle District — for Senator, MAR,TIN VAN BUREN. In the Middle District, WE REJOICE in the nomination of MR. VAN BUREN— WE HAVE LONG KNOWN AND ESTEEMED HfM. He possesses genius, intelligence, and eloquence — has long been one of the firmest props of the Republican interest ; and with a spirit v/hich will not bend to servility or sycophancy, cannot fail to become a distinguished and useful member of the Senate. Attempts are now making to divide the party on a question which has no connexion with it. We allude to the bank question. Attempts are said to have been made to corrupt certain members, but without success ; and surely an unsuccessful attempt to corrupt ONE member who voted against the bill, is not to be admitted as proof, nor ought it to give birth even to a suspicion, that another who voted for it had been corrupted." Van Buren, was elected — the six million bank bill became a law — and on the eighth of December, 1838, Mr. Southwick wrote me as follows: " I hope, my dear sir, that you are now convinced of what I told you in August last, that Van Buren was heartless, hypocritical, selfish and unprincipled. He is the tool or slave of a foul heart and a false ambition, and never possessed a particle of true greatness. I speak not from prejudice — I knew him inti- mately— VERY INTIMATELY FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS, and never knew him to act from a noble and disinterested motive; always full of low cunning, dark intrigue, and base selfishness." He died soon after, and the Albany Argus, and Evening .Tournal, thus de- scribed him : " He was among the most ardent, generous, warm-hearted men that ever lived. He was in his manners, feelings and sentiments, a republican. Oppression and tyranny found in him an enthusiastic and fearless opponent."' Hammond speaks of him in the same strain. In less than three months from the time when Southwick took the field for Van Buren, as above, namely in July, 1812, John C. Spencer, in the Ontario Messenger, remarked, that, " next to the tories, we think apostate republican editors deserve to be marked and known. The first whose name is entitled to be enrolled on this list is Solomon Southwick." The memorial of Cornelius Ray and others, read in Senate, February 15, 1812, set forth, that the trustees of the late Bank of the United States had accumulated a large sum in specie in their vaults, which they were desirous to employ in the business of banking ; that of this money a considerable sum was owned by foreigners, who could neither vote on their shares nor be direc- tors ; that a partial revival of the late national bank was desired by its trustees ; who wished the stock-holders of the late United States Bank incorporated as the Phoenix Bank, for tAventy years, with $5,000,000 of capital, which privilege of incorporation they were ready to purchase at the expense of $500,000 in cash, to be paid to the state, and other $500,000 they would lend to the state at five per cent. An additional million of stock was afterwards added by the legislature, which refused to allow New York state to hold the $60,000 she had held ill the old U. S. Bank, and refused to give U. S. Bank .stockholders, if natives, a preference to ditto, if foreigners. The bonus or price of the charter was raised to $600,000, and a loan to the state of $2,000,000. Of its capital, {$5,000,000 were to be paid in specie at once, and it was to be restricted to a bank note circulation equal to its capital. No other bank opposed its charter. On the twenty-eighth of March, Governor Tompkins prorogued the legisla- ture to the twenty-first of May. He had no veto power. In his speech at the prorogation, he mentioned tliat, at the previous session, members had been tam- pered with to induce the passage of the late Jersey Bank charter — and " that some y&ars since, it was ascertained beyond any reasonable doubt, that corrupt jp.ducements were held out to members of the Legislature in order to obtain GOVERNOR TOMPKINS ON N. Y. BANKING* BRIBERY TRIALS. S"/ their votes in favor of an incorporation of a banking institution [the Merchants' Bank] in the city of New York ; and the very stronsj and general suspicion, that the emoluments tendered were, in certain instances, accepted, inflicted a deep wound upon the purity and independence of legislation. That it appeared by the journals of the Assembly, that attempts have been made to corrupt, by bribes, four members of that body, to vote for the passage of the bill to incor- porate the Bank of America ; and it also appeared by the journals of the Sen- ate, that an improper attempt had been made to influence one of the Senators to vote for the bill." Governor Tompkins, when he opened the session, on the twenty-eighth of January, said, that, " not un frequently, the prominent men who seek the incor- poration of new banks, are the very same who have deeply participated in the original stock of most of the previously established banks. Having disposed of that stock at a lucrative advance, and their avidity being sharpened by re. peated gratification, they become more importunate and vehement in every freoh attempt to obtain an opportunity of renewing their speculations. If (said he) we still persevere in multiplying banks, will there not be danger of infusing into the public mind a suspicion, either that we yield too plainly to the management and pressure of external combinations, or that the unhallowed shrine of cupidity has its adorers within the very sanctuary of legislation — such a suspicion will be the prelude to the downfall of republican government, for it is erected and supported upon the afllictions of the people at large, and upon their faith in the inviolable firmness and probity of their public agents, and when once the found- ation is removed the superstructure must fall, of course." Among those who were opposed to this bank and approvers of the governor's course, I find the names of Archibald Mclntyre, James W. Wilkin, Erastus Root, John Tayler, John W. Taylor, F. A. Bloodgood, Ambrose Spencer, John C. Spencer, Samuel Campbell, B. Coe, Nathan San ford, Henry Yates, Alex- ander Sheldon, and Isaac Ogden. Among the friends of the bank, were Sam- uel Jones, Jr., Halsey Rogers, E. P. Livingston, Morgan Lewis, Jonas Piatt, and Ab'm Van Vechten. Van Buren's biographer, Holland, states, pages 86 and 87, that he supported Tompkins Avith his " utmost influence and best talents," and that the bill " did not become a law ; but owed its defeat to the firmness of the governor." This is not true — the bill becatne a law in June, 1812 — Oliver Wolcoti was the first president — and Preserved Fish and Theodorus Bailey, ultra democrats, were named in the act, with others, as directors for two years. Next year (1813) in March, the opponents of Madison came into power in the Assembly, but the senate remained democratic, so called. Of the bonus agreed to be paid towards common schools for their charter, the Bank of Amer- ica asked to have 6300,000 returned to them — and it was done, by 16 to 9 in the senate, Root and Van Buren, Bloodgood and Wilkin, being among the nays, to their credit be it recorded. It does seem to me, that, as neither party wanted to be rid of banks — and, that, as there was as much rottenness about ' the Man- hattan' of the Democrats as 'the Merchants' of the Federalists — the offer of the trustees of the U. S. Bank, was, in its way, very liberal, had it been unac- companied with bribery — but the corrupting of the next year's legislature to induce them to give back to the bank $300,000 of the purchase money of the monopoly, out of the common school fund, after the bank was afloat, through wholesale corruption, was a refinement in knavery evincing talents suitable for Botany Bay or Van Dieman's Land. Southwick, Thomas, and others, were tried for bribery, and acquitted. Judge W. W. Van Ness, of Columbia county, presided at Soutlnvick's trial, and took a bribe of $5,000 out of the funds of the bank, for his services in voting for the bill as a member of the council of revision (!!!) Charles King, J. A. Hamilton, and J. Verplanck, manfully stated 28 A JtJDGE TRIED FOU BRIBERY. THEODOEUS BAILEV. VAN BtJREN. the facts in the American — General Root, in 18'20, brought the judge before the legislature, where, instead of telling a plain story like a man, he appeared en- trenched behind the legal quibbles of four hired lawyers, six of the committee being also men of law. John Duer and Rudolph Bunner swore positively that Van Ness had told them that he was entitled to the third of $20,000, secretly appropriated by the bank for a gratuity to him, and the services of Grosvenor and VVilliams, and that he feared he would only get $5,000. The receipt and books of the bank were not forthcoming — the judge had the cash — but the shock he got through the enquiry affected his health — he died in 1824. Butler alludes to him in letter thirty-eight of Correspondence. I am particular in noticing the system of New York bank chartering, to show how well aware Messrs. Van Buren, Cambrelenor, Wright, Flaafsr, Dix, Younar, Kendall, Butler, Beardsley, Marcy, Benton, Dickenson, Lawrence, Hoyt, Allen, Fish, &c., were, of what would be the results of their tampering with the cur- rency from 18-^8 to 1840. Theodorus Bailey, who was one of the most active and urgent of the lobby waiters for the Bank of America, in 1812, presided at a meeting of the demo- crats of New York, on the twenty-third of April, 1805, at which an address was got up, signed by him, and sent through the state, denouncing the infamous proceedings connected with the Merchants' Bank charter. Here are extracts : " Alas I the influence of gold has triumphed over the honor and interests of oiir country. — It is undeniable that a member of the senate endeavoured to bribe one of his colleagues, and that he is still permitted to degrade that honorable body by his presence. Can future confidence be reposed in him? Can our lives, our liberties and fortunes, be safely entrusted in such hands? If he was guilty, why was he not expelled ? If he was innocent, why was he censured by a vote of the senate? When the charge of corruption was openly announced in the Assembly, a com- mittee of investigation w-as appointed by the Speaker, by the command and with the sanction of that house. The chairman of the committee presented a report, and a majority refused to receive it? Can we believe that men, conscious of integrity, and jealous of their characters, would have shrunk from evidence calculated to vindicate the innocent, and detect the guilty? Would they luive added to such committee individuah subject to the general crimination, knowing as they must have knoicn, that their conduct could be attributed to no other cause than a determination to suppress the truth V " Corruption [says Col. Duane] was first employed in the senate house, it produced the desired effect — the press proclaimed the fact ; the senate, in consequence, instituted an enquiry, passed a vote of censure upon the corrupted member, and yet, strange to relate, this very senate ordered the printer who proclaimed the turpitude to be prosecuted, denying bun the privilege of giving the truth in evidence." CHAPTER VIII. Yan Buren removes his law office to Hudson. Is appointed Attorney General. Receives the support of the Anti-Renters for the State Senate. Changes his residence to Albany. Is removed, from, the Attorney Generalship, and elected to the United Stales Senate. Fifty-one high-minded Federalists join the Buck, tails to put down Clinton. Clinton exposes " the organized corps.'' Van Buren' s early effort to convert the post office into a machine of party hy pun- ishing post -masters for opinion's sake. I.v the latter part of 1808, or beginning of 1809, Van Buren removed his law office to Hudson, and continued to practice in the state and county courts till February, 1815, when he succeeded Abraham Van Vechten as Attorney Gen- eral of N. Y. The Council of Appointment chosen by the Assembly voted, two for Van Buren, (Jonathan Dayton and Lucas Elmendorff,) and two (Ruggles Hubbard and Farrand Stranahan) for John Woodworth, whom B. F. Butler appears to have so much disliked. Governor Tompkins gave the casting vote, in favor of Van Buren. In May, 1S12, Van Buren was elected Senator for the Middle District — the anti-renters of Columbia county, whom he frequently V. BURSN IN THE SENATE. HE UNITRS WITH THE FEDS TO OUST CLINTON- 2^ haransueJ, and the friends of De Witt Clinton in Rockland county, having turned the scale in his favor. He received 5,033, votes and his opponent, Ed- ward P. Livingston, whom he afterwards stronfrly recommended and supported for the office of lieutenant governor, got but 5,81)0. Holland says there were over 20,000 votes polled, which I believe, was not the ca aud the ttpi>ointment of Mr. Lot Cluik. JOHN B. DRAKE, (M, C.) VAN buren's bank principles—1816 and 1836. 31 lody will show that I took an active part in all the qiiesthns which arose upon the suhject. Most of the applications for banks that loere rejected, viU he found to have been so disposed of onmri motion ; AND EVERY APPLICATION, SAVE ONE, WILL BE FOUND "TO HAVE MY VOTE RECOHDRD AGAINST IT. THE EXCEPTION was that of a hank establislied at BUFFALO at the close of the war. It was established with the avowed desin;n of enabling the inhabit- ants the more speedily to rebuild the town after it had been burnt by the enemy. That my vote in that particular case would be governed by that consideration, and should not be construed into a departure from the course which I had pre- scribed to myself, was stated in my place. The motive proved in that in- stance as delusive as usual." ' This was as far from the truth as Scott's first assertion about the authorship of Waverley ; but, doubtless, Van Buren well knew that his hard money voters would, in general, read only their own parly journals, and listen to no orators beyond the pale of their sect. Party, or rather faction, is every thing. The people at elections move as armies do, under command. The mind that directs is not that of the people, or of any great part of them, but of men who are call- ed leaders — an oligarchy to all intents and purposes. Their leaders were, in general, aware that Van Buren had no principles whatever — that he had pro- fessed every thing, or anything, and been on any and every side — but they en- dorsed his orthodoxy, because he suited their purposes, and he succeeded. To show how necessary it is to investigate character by the use of well ascertained facts, this volume is written. Van Buren and his confederates are on trial, and the testimony for their conviction shall be ample, clear, and un- doubted. Let us hope that the time fast hastens in which it will be esteemed infamous to gain power and influence by false pretences. Even Lucifer, when about to approach the mother of mankind with falsehood on his lips, doffed his natural form and garb as a fallen angel, and assumed the guise of the serpent as best suited to the deceitful part he was about to act. Blair tells us that " sincerity is the basis of every virtue'" — Thomson, that it is " the first of vir- tues." Were it in more general use among the lawyers, priests and politicians, America would again become the Eden from which the effects of the first false- hood, from Tophet, drove our first parents. The Bank of Niagara at Buftalo was chartered in 1816 — Van Bnren was then attorney-general, and the bucktail leader in the state senate — his friend Jacob Barker was a senator from the city of New York ; and his brother-in-law, major Cantine, a senator from Columbia, Greene, tfcc. Van Buren, on this occa- sion, made the only effort I ever heard of to gran! a bank a charter during a time when cash payments were suspended, with the condition that it should never be required to pay specie, unless when it thought fit, but might go on twenty years, issuing notes, promising to pay specie, but never fulfilling that promise. Jonas Williams and others memorialized the senate on the 6th of Feb. for a bank at Buffalo, with $750,000 capital, stating that the agricultural and com- mercial pursuits of the people required it, but not one word about " rebuilding the town." The memorial was referred to Jacob Barker, Philetus Swift, and A. S. Clark, who reported a bill chartering a bank. The bill was considered in committee of the whole on the 8th of March, on which occasion Van Buren rose and stated, that its provisions met his hearty approbation, and that he should vote for it. He did so — so did Cantine. Barker kept below the bar. Two- thirds of the senate went for the bill, which passed. Its provisions are import- ant, as shewing Van Buren's views in 1816, after the state banks had suspended, the United States Bank been put down, and he had had much experience as a Hudson Bank director, attorney-general, &c. The bill provided, 1. That the Stockholders, none of them liable for its debts. 32 THE OLD BANK OF BUFFALO— PAY WHEN YOU FLEASE. should continue to be a corporation till 1832. Even then it was planned to have all the bank monopoly charters run out as near together as possible, that the powers of corruption might be invoked, as they were in 1829, to perpetuate them. — 2. The capital was to be $400,000. — 3. One notice in one paper in the county, 30 days before an election of directors, was to be sufficient; and stock- holders were to vote in person or by proxy. 4. If John was a poor farmer with one share ($50) he was to give one vote. If his brother Martin had 500 shares, he was empowered to give one vote more alone than 499 farmers with a share each, taken together. [Would Van Buren like to introduce this sort of de- mocracy at the ballot boxes ?] 5. The bank was not to be compelled lo pay specie for any bank notes it might issue, by virtue of the charter. G. The first di- rectors were to be chosen by the Legislature. 7. And might begin to bank and issue notes when they pleased ; and call on the stockholders to pay 10 or 12^ cents in the dollar on their shares at first, and the rest when they saw fit. The Senate, without knowing who would or who wouldn't take stock, named the first directors, and took care to appoint one of themselves on the board. There was no commission named to apportion the stock equally — it was left to be jobbed for. The Jefferson Co. bank bill appointed commissioners, and left it to the shareholders to elect directors. Van Buren voted against it, and against the Herkimer Co. bank petition, March 28th. The banks he voted against suc- ceeded better than those he supported. On the 5th of April, 1816, (see the senate journals,) the Council of Revision admonished Van Buren, Cantine and their majority in the Senate, that it would be unjust to allow the Niagara Bank bill to pass into a law unless it were amended so that if the bank issued paper it might be bound to redeem it in money — that it need not pay out a dollar in money as the bill was drawn ; and that if it had no money to pay bills with it had better not issue any, because the more banks there were issuing such paper the less of specie we would see in the state. It was notorious (said the Council) that for more than a twelve- month the incorporated banks of the State had refused to redeem their notes in specie. They had found it far more gainful to sell their dollars to the usurers of Europe, and to charge our merchants a high premium for silver, while they glutted the American market with paper promises on which they charged 7 per cent, interest, though they cost them nothing. They further urged, that this was the first attempt made in this State to give special privileges to a new Bank, since the old ones had defied the public and refused to pay their debts ; and that they, (the Council,) returned the bill to the Senate, because they wished to protect the public against the multiplication of corporations issuing a currency which they refused to convert into cash on demand. On the 10th of April, (see senate journal, page 236,) VAN BUREN made a speech to ])ersuade two-thirds of the members of the Senate to incorporate the Bank in spite of the Council of Revision, and WITHOUT A SPECIE PAY- ING CLAUSE, in the very teeth of its honest objections. He MOVED TO INSEKT A CLAUSE TO THAT EFFECT, and thus pass the bill! On the 1 1th, the bill was reconsidered in committee of the whole, but as it was found utterly impracticable to get two-thirds to vote for paper currency, not payable in cash, by a direct vote, the Councirs amendment had to be reluctantly adopted by the " democrats," and Van Buren and Cantine again voted for the Bank, which became a bad law. Altho' Van Buren could not get a clause in the bill to permit the bank to flood the country with paper promises it would be under no obligation to redeem, he contrived that the charter should allo\V the bank to stop when it had no specie^ buy in its worthless rags at 10 or 12 cents to the dollar, and begin again as often as it pleased to play this game. It did so, and cheated the public whole. VAN BUREN's buffalo AND CHENANGO BANKS, 33 sale. I sold its notes in 1820 and in 1821, eight dollars for one — the State was defrauded out of its deposits, the farmers out of their produce, and the mechanic out of the fruits of his labor. Once more the bank started, its Presi- dent was indicted for cheating, J. Barker was to have $5,000 for procuring a $25,000 loan to keep it going, but it broke again before aid could get to Butialo, Kibbe, its first President, was a Burrite, concerned in frauds by which the Mer- chants' Bank Charter passed in 1805, and one of " the lobby." General Swartwout writes (1823), " My Dear Morrison — The Dutchess must pass the House on Tuesday, and yours [the Chemical Bank] will pass the Senate on Wednesday, certain. See Kibbie as soon after dinner as possible — he knows the cords to pull upon, and will carry you triumphantly through. Your friend, KoB. Swartwout." Van Buren's bank initiated the Buffalo people, who had become such proficients in the mysteries that thirteen banks broke down in that place, cheating the weaver of cloth, and the grower of wheat, wool, &c.,out of at least three millions of dollars. CHAPTER X Even Abon Hassan, the most disinterested of all viceroys, forgot not, during his Caliphate of one day, to send a douceur of one thousand pieces of gold to nis own household. — Walter Scott. Van Biireiis confederates blow vp the old Buffalo bank. — Its cashier (not Hoyi) becomes State Printer to the Bucklails. — Marcij, Leake, and the New Hape^ Del. Irridge Company. — Van Biiren not fond of swarms of Banks. — How he acted with the Chenango Bank Charter. — Walworth, Van Buren, arid the old and new Plattsbiirgh Banks — On taxing Bank Stock, and chartering Utica and OiUario Branch Banks. — Clinton and the Assembly of N. Y. defeated by Van Buren and his hold over Senate in an effort to expose errors in, and amend the Banking System. — The Pennsylvania arid Ohio Banks. By reference to pages 154 and 155, letters 9, 10, and 11, it will be seen that B. F. Butler had a keen scent ; he wanted Hoyt to be cashier, and Barker owner of the BuffMo bank which Van Buren had created, and which was then ready to burst up. Van Buren's unprincipled followers had it in their own hands from the commencement. Isaac Kibbie was its first President, and Isaac Q. Leake its first cashier; and when it broke down in 1819,* Van Buren in- * Attorney General Taicott applied to Chancellor Sanford in 1824, enumerating the enor- mities of Van Buren's Buffalo bank, with a view to the sponging off its charter from the statute book, but it couldn't be done. Perhaps, like a Scotch peerage, it's only dormant now. In 183G, its parent. Van Buren, gravely addressed S. "Williams thus : — " As if anxious to con- tribute their share to this inroad upon the policy of the federal constitution, the state govern- ments have not only created swarms of banking institutions, but until recently, most of these institutions were authorized to issue notes of as low a denomination as a single dollar. The consequences of this departure from the appropriate functions of the federal and state govern- ments, have been extensively injurious. That gold and silver should constitute a much greater proportion of the circulating medium of the country than they now do, is a position which few are disposed to deny." On the 20th of April, 1818, during the same session of the Van Buren majority in the Senate, all hurry and bustle to hasten favorite measures, on speculation, a bill from the Assembly, to withdraw from the democracy, the many, and confer on the ari.stocracy, the few, more power and influence, came up in the form of a bill to incorporate the Bank of Chenango. What madness is it that blinds the tillers of the soil to their best interests 1 Such a bank confers on a few anxious gamblers power to hire and employ lying attorneys and lying editors ; to tax the country many thousands of dollars yearly for the use of the idle and profligate; to make paper money promises scarce in a country, or plentiful, at pleasure ; to hire election- eering oracles and orators ; to bespatter honesty and sincerity in homespun with falsehood ; 34 LEAKE AND CANtlNE, VAN BUREN AND THE PLATTSBURGH BANKS. vited Leake to join his brother-in-law, Cantine, as one of the state printers, and joint editor of his mouth-piece, the Albany Argus. Leake was turned out of the Argus by Van Buren in 1824 to make way for Croswell, and sent out to Pennsylvania to take charge of another leaky vessel, or bank craft, as treasurer of the New Hope, Delaware Bridge Company, a concern such as Van Buren would have made the Buffalo Bank if he could, with power to fail from time to time, compound and so on again, for ever. It went down in lb21, the treasurer vanished. Leake & Co. began again in 1825, and in 1826, we find him puffing the frail bark in the N. Y. Evening Post. Governor Marcy was one of its bor- rowers, and a knot of speculators used it in N. Y. as Butler and Barker did the Washington and Warren. The Pennsylvanians were so often pillaged that they drove it°out of their State, and it is now set up again the six*h time, and its notes have a wide circulation, hailing from the Jersey side of the Delaware. In 1817, Reuben Hyde Walworth appeared before the legislature, as senior petitioner for a bank charter, of like character with the others, to be located at Plattsburo-h, the stock to be discreetly distributed, &c. Senators Hascall, Bloom, and Waller Bowne, of the Seventh Ward Bank, N. Y., reported that the land round Plattsburgh is " fruitful in' the productions of the earth," like Canaan of old ; and that "^it is believed that a bank will enable the merchants to purchase this' produce, and save the farmers much, if not the entire, transportation to Montreal." Of course they reported a bank bill, which passed the Senate in committee on the 21st of March (page 222 of Journal) : Van Buren and Cantine declared that they could not possibly support the measure, and recorded their votes to throw it out, but failed ; yeas 14, nays only 11. Next day two addi- tional senators were present, and it was seen that if Van Buren and his brother- in-law should both hold out, the bill would be lost, 14 to 13. This would never do. Nor would it suit Van Buren to wheel round on such a short notice. The leader therefore kept among the nays on the final passage of the bill, but Cantine declared that he had got a new light within the last twenty-four hours, and immediately reversed his vote, thus securing the passage of the charter in the Senate, by a majority of one.* He played the same suspicious game on to ioin with others in becoming bankrupt, and refusing payment of debts, while compelling individuals to fulfil their obligations to the bank ; and, should the concern become insolvent, widespread ruin ensues, while those whose folly or guilt, or both, did the mischiel, lie by, ready to lobby at Albany for new means to plunder by law, when public indignation is hush- On the above day the Senate went into committee on the Chenango bank charter, Va7i nuren being most appropriately in the chair. Senator Yates moved to reject it as anti- democratic, &c. But the party loved it, it promised to add to their temporary power, to yie d enormous gain on the .slock, and form an ofisct against the opposition. Major Cantine held up both hands in its favor ; Samuel Young declared that his heart was in it ; the committee rose- Van Buren reported that the bill had been adopted; no one even whispered \cr-i^vc its the ai/cs and noes," as was usual ; the bill was ordered to go ahead without even a division. Had Mr Van Bu)-cn been averse to this charter, he would have called for the ayes and noes on the report, but he agreed to its reception ; and when the bill was engrossed and pas.sed(sce Senate Journal, pages 3.53 and 354),Canlinc,Skinner, andSamuel Young, voted lor it while Van Buren slipped below the bar to avoid a vote, Icnowing that his mends votes would eAsure the success of the bill. Here, again, the oflicial records of the State give the lie to his assertion that " eveiy application [for a bank] save one, would be found to have his vote recorded against it." . . . ,v,„ i.. „ ,>„.. *In l-T) the hank of Pliittslmrfih explnded, and there were many recriminations amonR the dtnioirAcj. .I.idge Piatt' prosecuted Comptroller V\uK. tl.en a spimky country editor, tor libel ; the bank direcl..r.< pros^^^ PiKtf the fi'rmers found their produce In thi.t " fruitful " land transmuted mto bank pupci ot bad repute , and Van Uuren contrratulated irunselfin ndt having voted with brother Cantine in 1817. To help Van Buren to the Presidency In 1830, the party chartered a second b-ink «t P attsburgli , and, with no ^'ood 'v,ll towards Clinton, named it'after him. The nominal capiu.l was S200,000 ; the real >v."ney n Us vaults very little indeed. For somy tne leimhlic-in- oi NewYoik.'' Alegislitive caucus in February, 1810, ai Albany, instructed tne dehgation from New York in Congress, to vote for Tompkins, but as this would have rendi red M nroe's success certain, Van Bur n and sev- eral others only professed to approve of it. It was not, (like the Albany tariff instructions, ordbred from Wash- iiigtouin 1828,) lo be acted on. 50 A NOBLE INSTANCE OF AMKRICAN GRATITUDE. CHAPTER XIV. Like some tall cliff that, lifts its awful form^ Swells fiom the Vale, and mid-way leaves the storm; Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread Eternal sunshine settles on its head. — Goldsmith. Clinton ejected from the Canal Board. — Elected Governor by acclamation.— Christopher Colks.— Canal Act of I SU.— The Tammany Bucktails.—Cun- ninqham's Warning.— hstice trampled on for the sake of the spoils --Peter Alltn— Young and Van Buren's Scriptural Majoriiy.— Who expelled Clm- lon?—Col. Young and the Canals.— Van Bur en Self Condemned.— Bis per- ecution of Clinton. Thf bold and wise determination with which, from IS 10 to 1828, De Witt Clinton linked his fortune and character with the success ot the great canals of this State,* and the vindictive opposition with which he was met at every point bv Martin Van Buren, and his followers and dependants, are matters of history. In 1824 while President of the Board of Canal Commissioners, actmg, as he had alvv'avs acted, without salary or emolument ; holding no other pubhc office in the State ; and the Van Buren or Bucktail party then holdmg m their hands the reins of government, with a majority of their friends on the Canal BoarU, he was suddenfy and summarily ejected from the Board, although not a whisper was heard against the purity and noble disinterestedness of his conduct m that hisrhlv important trust. This wanton attack upon his feelings roused the whole State--the slanders of the Butlers, Croswells, and their allies, could not prevent the manly and the generous of all parties from perceiving their jealousy, in- gratitude, and malignant enmity-and at the next election lor Governor, De Witt Clinton was borne to the seat which his honored uncle, George Clinton, had so lonE and so worthily tilled, by the acclamations of the people-h.s majority over Col. Youn-, the candidate of those who had expelled him, having been nearly 17,000. "How an act like this atones, in the minds ot good men, tor many popular errors ! How the memory of such a deed of justice warms the soul to new exertions for enlightening and bettering the condition of society. "TirWitt Clinton bears voluntan- testimony that Christopher t<>'l««V?hP^s';i?e "Ihe" cfnTs'and tu^ovf- from Ireland, " wa. tho lirstpersot. who «"S!^ested to the govx-rnment rf^^^^^^^ ,nents on the Ontario roiite. Colles was a man .>! f "'^ chawctcr «" ^fj! ;'\'^^",p„i,iature referred his plans m the nmthematics." This suggestion wa. ^^<^<^^}f"^^ ' 'f^: "-.^s ma^ to enah e h'm survey the rente, to a coinmiuee ; next yenr a pnblle appropriation <>( just f}^-^^''''t^f^,eVm'^^Yhnv far we owe the occa- wh.ch he did, and published a pan.phlet '^^vorable to a cam 1. ..Ler es C D CokllnJ, -to the ability with sion," of celebrating the union ot the f tiant.c and tl^^e srcat 1. krs^^^ ^^.}^^ ^^^ which he developed the great »'>^f"|'^ef,/''J^3'^rf,t\,icnheTr^ niigiil be made-and !akes-to the clear views he presented of the laciluy ,^f''X, f" CoUes anned the canals-Clinton, the there were 64 yeas, " principally, .f "'"' ''"'''^'V 'f,*' .[s onoo«ents " Vaa Crcn nav have been friendly to ralists," says Hammond. " The 36 noes were chictlj ^'f "W>""«".'^: tv,,; .t",,, whoi when dead, ho mcUiiow- the measure, or he may not. VVhy was h<> so v,,,d cl.ve l n .% ids the m.n ^ ^^_^^^l ^_^^^^^|., ledged to have been the means of its "' ~<^,'"P''f' "J^^" ;,„]1';V '! ^t i, |rny HMl sent repicsentutives to Whv did the presses of his party try to un.lcrvalue the , "f "''''^^•'■' ■„ ™' •;;ji!/^^^ Tammany society the Assembly who were the deadly ;>tn'""e"t^of the canals. Aim ng 11 e '»»V 'a ^^^^^^__^^_^j g^^,^^ was a part of a deer's wil worn in the hat. Hence ''^« ."" " f 'l\,f,'',';^^^^^^^ Even when Van 'page 163. No. 37), Van Buren, and the enemies of t-l'nton . nd 1 is can.> pon^^ [luinmond. Buren joined in the nomination of Clinton f^ /"^^f "«.'•• h«/^^'Vo'^»' ^/^^^ tiJne. should be he " wished to create n council which shoul.l be "^'"'"''''y^''" ""'""■ ''^^^^^^^^^^^^ to a friend in Columhie really hostile to the Covernor." He succeeded, ami the moment it was cnosen vmoit county, " All is safe Seymour ! Peyinour ! Seymour . CUNNINGHAM, OR THE EVIDENCE OF A MANLY SPIRIT. 51 For What Sin, smce committed by those electors o. their forefathers have such Intriguing, cold-hearted, artful partisans, as a Van Buren, a \ nght a Ihroop, and iTla cy, been since placed in the elevated station wh.chth.s great man once aSorned' Perhaps it wis to render n.ore striking, the difference between men merX popular, and those noblemen of nature (or, il ye willot civilisation), who leivJ the mpress of their worth on the earth and the dwellers therein. On the 12^ of April, 1S24, the Assembly received h-om the Senate, a resolu- tion to which their concurrence was requested, for the numediate removal of Dp Witt Clinton from the office of Canal Commissioner. Mr Cunningham, of Montgomery, warned the House against becoming a partner in the ungrateful deed. His eloquent speech I take from Hammond s History : " I rise " said Mr. Cunningham, " with no ordinary feeling of surprise and astonishment at tlicresoTutiunust read, as coming from the Senate. Sir, it is calculated to rouse the leehngs • ™ h eit man on this flooP Its very approach Avas marked with black ingratitude and blrJ i ' F "w yS Snd iionorabJpJi^ose has this resolution been sent here lor con- Srrence a the very las^ moment of our session ! Is it to create discord among "^ and de- stTcv hat ha mon and good iVeling which ought to prevail at our separation ? We have e U ri^n ' o th ee montl.s in legislation, and not one word has been said, intimating a desire o itemion K. expel that honnralile gentleman from the board ot canal commiss.one..; & . , he was cal le I to that pla.e bv the united voice and common consent ot the people o his state on ac^oun of is pec , liar and transcendent fitness to preside at that board, and bv •"- «.unsel s inu\a e and forward the great undertaking. His labor, lor years, lias been ardent and un- 'easin'lortle public goodt he endured .slander and persecution trom every direction, like a Chdst?an na tn but^steadfa.st in his purpose, he pursued his course with a lirm and steady s^eruntil iTwas crowned with success, and the most ardent ot his oppc^ers sat in suUeu s See For what, let me ask, did Mr. Clinton endure all this 1 H'^. rt for Lkcsakc ofamlan, ? No sir- i. was lor Ihe honor and welfare of his state ; it urcs /row noble and jmtnotic molvvesjo, wkkh he r/s/.-s nolhin "; nor did he expert anything bid tlw gratiMtde ofmfdoi,-cil,=ens xNow sii , I pu the question to th s honorable House to decide, upon the oath which they have taken, and upon fhei i se of proprietv and honor, whether they are ready, by their votes, to commit the sin : iStul ! What can we charge to Mr. Clinton 1 What can we say he has been gui ty of t at he should be sin-led out as an object of state vengeance ? Will .some Iriend ot this reso uti. n be kind enough to inform ine ! Sir, I challenge an inquiry; I demand Irom the suppoi e s of this high-handed measure, that they lay their hands on their hearts, and answer me?m V lor what cause is this man to be removed ] I dare assert, m luy place, that his doings a a caaal commissioner are unimpeached and unimpeachable, ^."^.^"^'L^^^^ave even elicU^^ the plaudits and admiration of his political enemies. This, sir, is the official characte ol the nia. whom we now seek to destroj'*. I hope that this House will pardon me, when I freelv declare mv opinion that this resolution was engendered m the most unhallowed leehngs ot malice to effect some nefarious secret purpose, at the expense ot the honor and integrity ot this Le-islature. However hard it may seem, it is the irresistible impulse o my mind. Mr. ainUmisnot in th^ political market; he reposes in the shades ot honorable retiremeM;/«; asks for no office, and possesses nmie but the om of which he is abovt to be stripped Ihe benatt, it appears, have been actuated by some cruel and Malignant passion, unaccounted for,* and tiavc * To show how (lead t.. every other feeling, save that of banding together for party pliuuler Van B"ren and his band of'iro iJiuen wert. I offer the following ca.es. Until 1823, a Council ol Api-ointn.ent, elected by the Hour f A^ie" 1, y!co Urollecl the otiicial patronage of the state of N. Y, This Counc, ^as annually chosen, and iii I'eb IHIG when th.^ House met, Peter Allen, from Ontario county, tnuk his sea , with only 3095 votes. ^rtheexclnUon of Henry Fellows, who had 37-J.->. In Pennington, printed ballots .narked " Hennj Fe ow^ in uU werp used- and with the town clerk was tiled the certilicate of votes, with the name also in lull , but in he duiXate sent to the county clerk it was written " nci. Fellows." Well knowing that the forty nine lotes were lor M^tV 1 fco^^^^^^^^ frandulent clerk rejecte.l them, as the rejection w-ould return A en though h^ had the fewest votes. In the Assemblv, W. A. Duer presented the petition ol Jellows. offering Z-t .at he" n^ha AlU not a member.and desiring that justice might at once be done the count> Alenw-ls asked if he had any statement to make to the contrary, but he was silent. Fellows belonged to the ftderal Dartv • Allen to the bucktails. When a preliminai-y question was to be taken on Allen s case, it was obilcMat ke ou"ht not to vote where he had a personal interest ; the Speaker decided that he co, Id vote ; aSieal was n.-ade to the House, and the Speaker decided that Alien '^•'"'if^^Vh' ''>" ..^j, Jthe seat U so very equally divided, that if the appointing power or council conld be voted tor- ^jh « A'"e" f d the seat, it would be Van Burenish, bucktail, democratic ; but ,f justice were ^^^t.^lone and tell vs put Alle^^^ the federalists would elect the council. They therr^^ore opposed steadily »!' .»'^'' ""■':'" ^^"^^^^ vote hid secured Uhroujjh Perley Kcyes, fcc), for their friends, the control ol the oihces throughout the state for 181G and next day appointed a committee on elections with a bucktail majority who unanimously awarded he seat o Fc"rows on no other evi.lence than that which was before the House the day ,t rne , and which the worhress party ^, Allen, had not then gainsayed ; the Hm.se then vnte.l Allen out and Fellows in, 121 to 1. 52 COULD FLAGG DESCEND SO LOW ! LOOK AT THE NOTE. made a nish upon this House, and taken us on surprise. The resolution may pass; but if it does, my word for it, Ave are dis?:i"aced in the judgment and good sense ol an injured but inteliio-en't comuivmitv. Whatever the fate of this resolution may be, let it be remembered that Mr. Clinton has acquired ;i reputation not to be destroyed by the pitiful malice of a few leading partisans of the dav. When the contemptible party strifes vi' the hour shall have passed^'bv, rnid Ike political haranincrs and jugiilcrs, who nov; hang round litis L'apit'jl for mhsid- mrc shall' lie overwhelmed and forgotten in their own insignilicance— when the gentle breeze shall pass over the tomb of that great man, carrying with it the just tribute ol honor and praise which is now withheld— the pen of the future iiistorian, in better days and m better times will do him lustice, and erect to his memory a proud monument of fame, as imperisha- ble as the splendid" works which owe their origin to his genius anil perseverance. This vote is probably the last that Avill be given this session, and 1 pray God it may lie such as will not di.sgrace us in the eyes of our constituents.'' Give me a Cunningliam and a Clinton for " Native Americans I'' Such men will always know how to treat aright foreigner and native, friencj and foe. Of such natives as them any land might be proud. Cunningham's heart was in the rigiit place. The Assembly concurred with the Senate, 64 to 34. Among those who voted to expel Clinton thus summarily, I find the names of H. Wheaton^ now envoy to Berlin ; A. C. Flagg, now Comptroller ; General James Tallmadge, Isaac Pierson, and Thomas Hyatt. Among his friends were Messrs. Barstow,^ James Benedict, Campbell, Cooper, John Crary, Furman, IMcCrea, Isaac Rio-gs, Thorne, Whiting, Tredwell, Ezra Smith, and Wilkin. \ddresses and resolutions in honor of Clinton were signed on this occasion, by M Clarkson, W. Bayard, P. Hone, T. A. Emmet, N. Fish, W. Few, C. P. White, S. Whitney, Preserved Fish, C. D. Colden, T. Eddy, R. Bogardus, John Rathbone, and C. G. Haines, New York ; and by John Tayler, James INIc- Kown, William James, J. H. Wendell, Chandler Starr, Hammond, the historian, Gideon Hawley, Isaiah Townsend, T. Van Vechten, E. Jenkins, S. M. Hop- Van Buren was then a senator and attorney general, and his party, to a inan, si.rported this great wron?, and their presscritphedt How little of .Icn.ocracy, of justice, of the spirit of Irce n.sutut.ons there was lu the e ,roceedin''s, the cool and candid reader is left to jud«e. The evi.lence was read openly an. vva. entirely dou- menmv the proofs were clear and nut ^'ainsayed, yet the real representative was shut out til the "«"? ''i^si- nessoPthe session was achieved «njuslly ; J.y which the l,uc!<,ai!s, to a n-"; -'>"'"-' '«li: °-", f,',f ^"«^' conduct bv votinc out lli6 intruder almost unanimously. "The democrats n the As»emhl> , says the. >^.Y. Even ng 'osrof Fel>. 2-2^ '"= ^viil not be bound by the rules o the JIou e fheychm so the executive branch of ^rovernment by means of .he vote of a man who they bcnrselves after h s vutl has been civcn, acknowled-ie had no business there, but whom they had first pcnnitle.l to declare bj h,> own vo'elhat^he had ; tiiey publishc.i an answer to the Governor's speech which was never accepted ; n al V thev s v such a iir^ceedure is, in the opinion of this House, unconstituKonal and illegal which is so lar from the tnth that drecy the contrary ai)pears on the face of their own journals. A true specimen of unbrii. -kd democracy." v'rn Buren would Imvi lost his ofricc of Attorney General had his parly acted honestly as judges '^\amMiond who in many things, displavs, to inv mind, real independence of character ; although i^'-]f^ ^!^2:r crt ,a ri HnCwml " o^^^^^ doctrin, s a • a test, seems to show that he was not always so ; M.ve-s anothe. Pe er AllVnr^^einZ-Se-nen 1817 in which Youns and Van Buren cut a wr.lchert tigure as judjios It is this: ^ ™e wl^tern'Di'u;;'! twc'sc^-uo;: were to be' cbosen-o„e for four yea.. »f^. "-^''-/•;.-;!-;, f, ""l^ "^^ tjon. ny law, 1.., of the two chosen together, who has the most ^"'V^' '^f^^ " , .P/'f:;' f, , r 'ed that 5 009 wZuI iCnd ■ as^ I^ v- w- f t leelecr.rs who spelled Jedcdinh swore, to the ^nt.sfaciion ot the senate s oin .it^,'th^ Oiey \J ;m^:;cd ':L:d., and these. 4^ added U. the 14 085 wh.. ^^/I- -'.; - «-- j;?^ v^-.,i.. i-id-V ni- 18 nioie iban Wilscin wavin" noliing of Dili other 59, which II wat- cltJr wi ic .iiso iiii< iiu<^i iwi r." dergtst' The Zn U^ that Wilson had not alleged ^^ ^}:''^^^^l^:^ HZ, ^ i ist in tl e dislri. .-and, of course. Ihat Jrdiah I', ought to sit lor four y. ais and Isa.ic WiUo.i for ' < ■ | " .e"; be wo opinions on ^uch a .pics.io.i 7 There wer.^ Van Buren rose ,,, his place ami ..^-..lys p^^^^ calMle fewest votes .he most an.l give the long leri.. lo Wilson-and Samuel Voiuig pro.luced the iWM.t .aid 'her. we e in it bo.li .1, diali and Jmlediah, and hence he w;ouia say .hat W> son had he mos, "t-^^;^^ V,m Bu- r".-s parlv {M hut Waller Bow.ie) w.nt will, l.im in iavorol Wilson, M .o ''• ' '>f ^jvo I " ^ ^ |,-_^s^s "^^ \\'. „> li,l not vo'e Lawvers Canilne Van Buren, Young, Roger Sliinner, and Ogdeii weie in ihi lajoriiy— , w ; w"t:"i;e ,.!;h"^:.^,ing"hus opemy, can we wo.ider at seeing ^V^-^.^^^^^:^:, slSbir- bliiiL' li-'h.in.' in the roiirts. and using Maicy-s mock messages to make money h), as a Wall slie.i Mockjoo rr T S\ r> "mde r IS .ba. N. Y. shonfd appoint such a person her ut.on.ey P'^"<^7 ' "%'f ' ''"^''-i^.^ ,^',^^^^^^^^^^^^ admin istVrin.' nubli.' instioe ihroiigh the most proHisate characters m llie community. Well micbr llammo u si y hie comptroller of the stale, whom Skinner and lii« conned had just f^^oved from omt^^ o^^^ simple prlnroJle ihal he was too honest, too great a check upon octin^-democrats, such as I am here describmg. WRIGHT AND VAN BUREN PERSECUTING CLINTON. $3 kins, and Alfred Conckling, Albany. The malice of his enemies must have injuriously affected their insulting bargain of the State, which was to be deli- vered to the minority caucus for Crawford next November.* Clinton's expulsion was proposed in the Senate, by John Bowman of Monroe, and voted for by (^ Silas Wright, now Governor — ^ Walter Bowne, since Mayor of New York — {^ Charles E. Dudley, successor to Van Buren as U. S. Senator — ^i^ Jonas Earll, junior, Canal Commissioner, P. M. of Syracuse, &c. {^Heman J. Redtiekl, whom Wright wanted Clinton to make a Judge — ^fe. Edward P. Livingston, Van Buren's candidate for Lieut. Governor — §t^ Judge James Mallory, for whom Marcy had such tender feelings, [p. 199, no. 140."] — {ji^ Perley Keyes, the political schoolmaster of Silas Wright — ^ John Letterts, from Long Island — i^ Bowman, the mover— ^ James Burt— ^ Byram Green — (^ James McCail— (i^ Greenly—^ Haio-ht — i^'Co], Farrand Stranahan — {a^=> John Sudam — fli^^ Stephen Thorn— gf^ Melancthon Wheeler — (jr^ Sherman Woostef — and ^ General Jasper Ward,,Avho did not wait to be expelled the Senate, as his history will tell. Some of these men may have acted without thought, but the Wrights, Bownes, Dudleys, Earlls, Stranahans, and Wards, knew what they were about. As Wright says to Van Buren, they did not want to do "journey work," like the Feds. It wouldn't be their fault if they failed to seize the spoils. When this vote was o-iven, Marcy was Comptroller — his father-in-law, Knower, Treasurer — CrosweTl printed for the State, and manufactured " opinion " for the retail presses of the party. The men who went this length would have enacted " Joseph's brethren " in Genesis, or driven Mordecai from the king's gate, as ■we have it in Esther. Bowman got the Rochester Bank charter that .season. * Colonel Young was Clinton's successor, as the leading member on the canal hoard, and approved of his unjust removal. Unlike Clinton, however, the CciUmel served for fny, juul the comniis^inn, instead of beini,', !isit()U"ht composed of men of various politics ami hisjh character, liegenera ted too much info a mere party machine to enrich the political leaders and their electioneering depemleiits. Marcy wrote in the Troy Budget, and Croswell in the Argus, censurins.' Clinton's canal policy. When it was seen that a few years would coni- presented to the legislature a report, in his official capacity, stating his belief that a parallel canal, or double locks the whole distance, alongbide the Erie canal, would soon l)e indispensable— that the canals would soon pay ofl" their debt and yield a great revenue besides— and ihatotiier states would profit by the laudable exam- ple o*" N y — that within ten years the tolls would probably be tripled, and (it iu)t rpduc^•d) might, in less than filty vear* amount to §10,000,000. V\^hen reminded of this report lately in Senate, he remarked that even now the tolls on the canals would be five millions had they not lieen reduced. Why then, asked General Clark did vou state in 1839, in your report on finance, that " Human governirient is, as it always has been, the crave of productive industry :— that every step it takes in endeavoring to carry on works of labor of any kind is attended with sacrifice and waste to the conmiunit^,-, and sinks it deeper and deeper in debt :— that the songs of ' internal improvement' are libels on the laws of God, and a deadly mildew upon the happiness and prosperity of man !— that, with reference to canal loans, &c., a convention will be called, which will be in structed to reon-anize and remodel our prostrate constitution; and which convention will repudiate the debt ; will affix the impress of infamy upon past profligate laws ; and erect new barriers for the future !— that the community has been abused and deceived, for years, by the constant reiteration of the falsehood, that the Erie and Champlain canals were enriching the state, whereas, it is a truth within the reach of all, that so far from having paid the cost of their construction, there would be now a debt against them, had they not received the aldof the auction and salt duties of $8,4o9,0fi9r' j. ^,, . u ..u • t , On the 17th of August, Young's report, above quoted, appeared in full in the Albany Argus, the editor of which said, " That this is a most able and powerful document no one will deny." Of course he did not say that he concurred in all its positions. „ ^^. ... ^ ,, ,, ,.,, . When Young's Internal Improvement Report of 132) appeared, it was followed by a bill in the Senate for the survey of 19 new canal routes, including the Chenango, Black River, and Genesee Vallev— yet in a few years thereafter, he denounced the Chenango canal, affirming that Pennsylvania and New York " had been forced by the de'mafozues of each, into the hostile attitude of profligate rivalry ; and each has been recklesgly goaded alon" bv th" bloody lash of internal improvement." I ought to state here, that, in 1835 and 183fl, he offered an ableopposition'to the bills for constructing the Chenango and Genesee Valley canals— and that, in his report of 1830 he showed that the Chenango canal would cost over a million of dollars, and that its reve- nue would not pay either for interest, repairs, or even superintendence, but give value to the lands of specu- lators at the public cost. In the late discussions in Senate, on the extravagant expenditures on the canals, Mr. Wright said, and, I think, truly, " Let there be competition in labor, not in mere parly fealty. This busi- ness of repairs ofrepairing the caaals, had become a party machine, put in operation iust before election, and hence the increase of expenditures." Another senator, Putnam, showed that ?500,000 had been paid for neglects to fulfil contracts, in giving which it appears there is enough of favoritism. It seems that two or three millions of the canal funds have passed through Young's hands : but 1 hear of no case ia which he lias misapplied them. 54 IN LIFE HE CURSED HliM WHOM IN DKA'i'H HE ULESSED. Was there a bargain to immolate Clinton and raise Crawford, connected with that sale of the public patrimony, also ? Jedediah Morgan, John Cramer, and Archibald Mclntyre (not the comptroller) were its only opponents ! They may well feel proud of it. Allow me to change the scene to 1828 — Clinton in his coffin, and Van Buren in Washington, thus addressing the members of Congress relative to the deceased : — " The high order of his talents, the untiring zeal and great success with which those talents have, through a series of years, been devoted to the prosecution of plans of great public utility, are known to you all. * * * The greatest public improvement of the age in which we live, was commenced under the guidance of his counsels, and splendidly accomplished under his immediate auspices. * * * The triumphs of his talents and patriotism cannot fail to become monuments of high and enduring fame. * * * I am greatly tempted to envy him the grave with its honors." How like unto Balaam's conduct when Balak sent his princes to induce him to curse Israel, [Numbers xxiii.] was the politic Van Buren's ! Balaam wished to curse but durst not. " Hoic shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? How shall I defy ivhoin the Lord hath not defied ? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his P"** What a commentary upon 1824, was the funeral * In 181!>. there was a va(?anc\ on tlie l)eneh of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, which a mutual friend of Clinton and of Van Buren, then high in office, told Clinion that Van Buren wished to till — that he had said .so to him, and given as a reason that he was weary of thw turmoil of politics--and that it was politic and expedient to give him the judge- ship. "As a measure of mere policy,'' said Clinton, '-it might be expedient; but so unprin- cipled a man do I consider Mr. Van Buren, that 1 could never justify myself in making such an experiment, merely for the sake of disarming his resentment aijainst me."' John 'Wood- Avorth was appointed, of whom Butler speaks so spitefully in his letters, and Van Buren, Butler, and their confederates, persecuted Clinton till his death, and then — not till then — praised him as the greatest of .statesmen and of patriots. The bitter hatred of Van Buren to Clinton may be inferred from Butler's letters. He was at Sandy Hill when Woodworth was appointed. Van Buren was a Senator at Albany in 18lft-l9, and was almost violent in his opposition to Rufus King, then a candidate lor the U. S. Senate. In December. IHl'J, he wheeled round to the side of King, wrote a pamphlet on his behalf — and why ? He had become satistied that King was not the friend of Clinton ! " Sensible as J am (.^ays Van Buren) of the great merits of Mr. King, and of the advantages wliich would probably result fiom his ap])ointment, still, did I believe that he was opposed to us in the present coniroversy between the jepublicau jirniii and Mr. Clint, fn and hia Jollnvcrs ,- could 1 even supjiose that he looked with linlilji r< nrr on tlic stru<.'<.(le of the great body of our citizens to extricate themselves fjoman iiifiiinri:[C\\nlo\v^^ \(hii/h lias so loni; /msxf/ upon this stal-e, and vndrr vihifh she can wver ofqiiirc her trii-c dcvalion in the Ihiiov, 1 have no hesitation in sa)'ing, I would oppose his a])pointnient." Colonel Duane, ever free and fearless, denounced Van Buren and his new allies for their persecution of Clinton. In the Aurora of October, IS-Jl. I find these remarks: '• But why caknnniate Mr. Clinton ^ Because ihe eminence oi his qualifications, and the place which he holds, in the esteem of all iiUelligenl ami liberal minds, renders him an object of apprehension tu tliose ^ho are in jMiwer. and who look to him as a fearuil rival, from the disparity between their faculties, and the place he holds in tJie eyes and hearts of the people. For this calumny of Mr. C. the publication of the laws, the patronage of the post-office, and all the miseralile crumbs of a corrupt .system are distributed, showing the melajicholy fact thai the press may be jiurchased for a pitiful annual stipend — and perverted into an engine of national degradation.'' William L. Stone, in the N. Y. Commercial of 0naking power is vested by the constitution in t)ie President and rvvo-thirds of the Senate. Two-thirds of tne Senate represent two-thirds of the state.-- — that is, at present, si.xteen out of twenty-fou/. Si.\-teen states can be selected, whose joint population does not exceed 3,400,000. h is p:)ssib'c, therefore, that n-eaties may be mads in opposition to the wishes of two-thirds of the American people." Ur;der the last Congressional apportionment, a presidential election, if carried into the Hou.se of Representatives, might be decided against a candidate supported by more Uian two-thirds of the population, property, and representation in that House, of the whole Union, and in favor 'if a candidate not voie'l for by even one-third of tliese. The slave representation makes this uiie of iliiiigv still worse. Jackson, in iSS.'j, had but three votes out of seventy-three, in New Vu.k ami .\ew Bnglard ; but Van Buren united interests with him in 1828, and, witJi the help of the contractors, ofllce-eeekers, laTi/-":rs, and editors, converted many, myself among the number. * On the 3d of August, ^t a special session in Senate, Mr. Ogden moved a resolution " that it is expedient to pass a law "AtJupretent meeting oj the Icgidaiurt, giring to the p«ople 9t FLAGg's show. WRIGHT AND THE IMMORTAL SEVENTEEN. 57 In 1824, Colonel Young was the candidate of the bucktail caucus, composed chiefly of members of the legislature friendly to Crawford, for governor. On the 2d of April, this caucus, 106 in number, met ; and on the first ballot. Young had t)0 votes, and Joseph C. Yates 45 ; Erastus Root had 75 for lieutenant governor, and Burt 21. Root was for Crawford, Young for Clay, and both were defeated by Clinton and Tallmadge, who had their nominations from a state convention. Young was avowedly friendly, throughout, to the election of electors of President and Vice President by the people, and opposed to Van Buren's bargaining scheme of 1824, by v.'hich he and the Albany Regency sold, as it were, the votes of a hireling majority of bankjobbino- lawgivers, to a particular set of minority congressional caucusing profligates, and endeavored to pledge the votes of the state in opposition to the known wishes of a majority of the people. In one state, only, is the election of electors confided to the legislature now, and that is South Carolina. Young's steady opposition to Crawford ensured his defeat in the legislature, and caused Adams to be returned in his stead, as the this State the choice of electors of President and Vice President." Tlie noes Avere Silas Wrighi, Walter Bowne, John Sudain, F. S/ranahan. E. P. Livingston, Jumper Ward, Jas. Aialfory, .Tonas Earll, Charles E. Dudley, Perlcy Keyes, Green, Greenly, Bronson, Lofferls, Thorn, Wheeler, Wooster, IM'Call and "Heman, J. Redlield. . Among the «?/« were Archi- bald M'Imire, John Cramer, Haight, Burt, Lynde, and Burrows. Flagg and liis friends pre- temied that a special session was illegal, but were overruled. On the 5tb, the resolve, to give the people, and take from the Legislature the choice of electors, was carried in the asseml;iy, 75' to -ii; Croliu.s, Furm.in, AlcClurc, Riggs, Tall- madge. Wheaton, and Wilkin among the yeas. Flagg snid that " as the !:/inw vvas nov\- over and the names of ihe gentlemen spread on the record, he hoped they were ready to adjourn." Cole- man, the torv editor of the Post, called this voting a ridiculous larce — he was with Van Biuen, Fla^'g and Wright, for Crawford — and he weiU with Van Buren, too, lor King as senator in IMl^rand dead against tlie war and Clay and Madison, in 1H12. The senate would not act. But though Van Bm-en, Wriglit, Flagg, Keyes, Marcy, Knower and their artiul confederates, influenced the legislature to defy public opinion for two sessions, and to oust Clinton from the canal Board, they had their reward. Crawford failed to get the vote of N. Y. — he failed to get to be president — Clinton was elected as Governor by 17,000 majority, and Tallmadge Lieutenant Governor by 33,000, over Van Buren'.s nominees. Wright voted on the lOth of March to give the choice of electors to the people, by general ticket — he then proposed a com- plicated and prepo-sterous scheme which only got four supporters. " The fact was" (says Ham • mond), " Mr. Wright, previous to his election, had given the people to understand that he woulcCif elected, support a bill giving to the people'the right to choose presidential electors. All this manoeuvring was for the purpose of exhibiting an appearance of redeeming that pledge. We shall shortlv find him voting lor an indefinite postponement of the bill." And it is a man who could thus descend to the meanness of tricking the men he pretended to repre- sent, who is at this day governor of New York. The timber out of whieli good governors are made must be scarce'" in these parts. The bill got the go-by same day (10 Marc4i), E. P. Livingston ha\ini,' moved to stop all consideration of the bill to give the people the choice of a president till November, when it would be useless for another four years. Him-self and Bowman, Bon-ne, Bronson, Dudley, (Hovt's correspondent,) Earll (canal Com'r), Greenly, Keyes (Silas Wright's mentor), Lefterts, Mallory, M'Call, Redfield, Stranahan, Sudam, Ward (jAsPKii), Wooster, and Governor Wright— the immortal 17 pretenders to a democracy they only practised, when, as Wright says in his letter (p. 203), they had to do journey work, being- unable to seize thk spoils. Col. Young, like his iriend Cramer, and General Root, was op- posed to Van Buren in this matter. Wright, then in his 30th year, voted to ronove Clinton from the canal board. It is enough to shake a man's faith in popular institutions when he sees such mcnas Van Buren and Wright succeed a Clinton as governorsof thisgreat state. Gene- ral Root preferred in 1824, and Van Buren in 1828, an election of electors by separate districts, because the various districts have a variety of interests, and each section of country should have a voice in the choice of chief magistrate. The arguments used in favor of a general ticket lor electors of president v.'ould justify to a far greater extent, the election of members of con- gress by general ticket, for the electors perl'orm but one act wliile the congressmen perform many. Young and Van Buren, however, are now .strongly in favor of election by general ticket, and South Carolina chooses her electors by the Legislature, after every other state has made a choice by the people. Only one of the above seventeen ventured to re-appear as a can- tlidatCj and he was swept away by the overwhelming majority given to his opponent. 68 TIIK TEKM FEDEKALIbT AS A KEPROACH. BUKK FOR JACKSON. second candidate, instead of being behind Crawford and Clay, and not a candidate at all. Thus it was through New York that Adams became President. Adams had 84 votes, including 32 from this state, obtained through a union of the friends of Clay and Adams in the legislature. Crawford had 41, but would have had 73 had he got the 32 from N. Y., and Adams but .o2. Instead of applying to parties the names which would most clearly indicate their principles, the usage is, to apply to an opponent any term which popular leaders and presses have rendered odious to the more ignorant. Young de- nounced, not long since, the supporters of .John Q. Adams an federalists. When it was shown that he had aided Adams' election in 1824, he said that at that lime Adams was a good democrat. If so, why abuse Clay for preferring one democrat to another 1 The truth is, that Biair, Croswell, and many other unprincipled hirelings use the term federalist as a reproach, and their impudence in so doing is unmatched, for Taney, McLane, Bryant, Buchanan, Ingersol, Bleecker, (Jakley, Powers, Beekman, Vand(>rpool, and very many others of the party calling itself democratic, were formerly members of the great federal party, which numbers thousands of the greatest, wisest, and best names known to American history. It is now no more ; it had its faults, its merits, its un- worthy members — but it was honored in not having reared and educated a Burr and a Van Buren. Col. Young, in Senate, Feb. 4, 184G [Argus report] does not hesitate severely to censure Van Buren for the Crawford caucus of 1824 ;. he denounces it as " made by a minority of the democratic members of congress ; and that very act broke down that machinery, for never since have members of congress nominated a piesident. It was regarded as so great an outrage on the former practice — for never before had a minority undertaken to nominate — that the whole sy.stem broke down." CHAPTER XVI. Andrett) Jackson nominated for President, in l&ir), hij Col. Burr. -The Texas Movement. — Polk and Slavery.— SwarticmtOs Proceedinija. — Channing's Views.— .Tadcson^s position in ISOG.— //e acts as Burr's Agent.— Burr's attempt to Dis.solve the Union.— McDvffie's Effort.— The True Policy of this Jlepublic. — Jackson and Van Buren Buying Texas.— Hamilton on Burr. — Burr kills him.— Enters into Arrangemhits with Pitt.— Burr's Family.— Judge Marshall on Blennerhassett. — Wilkinson'' s Testimoiiy.—Vavezac's Ar- rest. The Day tons of New Jersey. — Fraiik Ogden. — Sedgivick on Texas. — Texas, how Settled. — Its Convention. — (Planning on Slavery — Van B men's Instructions to the Mexican Minister, in lS29.—Be7ievolence and Disinterest- edness of the E. S. Government. — A Curious Argument. — Gaines Invades Mexico. — Senator Houston. — Calhoun's Opinions on Slavery.— His Letters to King and Wilson Shannon.— Canada, a Refuge for the Oppressed Slave. -- Southern Policy Disclosed by a Candid Minister to Mexico.— On Extending the Area of Oppression.— I'Jou^ to Raise the Price of Virginia Negroes.— Murphy's Hint to Play the Hi/pocrite.— Our Treaty with the Mexicans.— The Destiny of the Americans.— Public Life.— Notional Purity. Andrew Jackson was first nominated as President of the United States, by Aaron Burr. Col. Burr's letter, with his reasons for preferring Jackson, was addressed to Governor Alston, as early as 1815, and will be found among the correspondence. I have seen it stated, but not on any specific authority, that POLK'S INAUGURAL. MEXICO, SLAVERY AND TEXAS. 59 Burr's arguments in favor of Jackson had great influence over Van Buren^ mind when he became his adherent. Unquestionably, the popularitv of Gen. Jackson was the leading inducement. We shall find that Burr and Jackson's vfewsfo conquering Mexico from Spain, in 1S05, have been since earned ou 'n part, by r Texas movement of Polk,* Van Buren, Jaclcson, Calhoun, and Trhe violent dismemberment of Mexico by citizens of the United States, with a view to the rS awSmentof slavery m Texas ; and the very rp^f'^kablecxrcumstances attending iU ecent annexation to this Union, in violation of good taith to a friendly republic ; ^v'lth the ISteotfeelS to which these events, and their expected results, have giveii rise form some SdooVfoi brief notices of the various parts plaved in the exciting drama, by Messrs. Polk, ?an BTirei Ben on, flouston, Jackson, Burr, Swartwout, and their Iriends or contederates James I&ox Polk took the oath of office at the Capitol, as President, on Tuesday, Match 4th, ^'S'm: SulS^^Ki'i^Sis-d a deep regret that " misguided persons" hadindul^d in schemes and agitations " whose object is the destruction ot domestic institution., existing n cenaS Sates or sections' '-and thought that all must see that ii these pei-sons could succeed " the (Ussoiution of the Union" must speedilv follow. " To increase the atfach^memol our people tol? Union (said he) OUR LaVs SHOULD BE JUST. A^^ ^MATT TEND TO FAVOR MONOPOLIES, OR THE PECULIAR IN 1 ti-±ii^& i » OP SECTIONS OR CLASSES, must operate to the prejudice of the interests ot their tellow- citizens and SHOULD BE AVOIDED." It would be his aim "to observe a careful re.pect for the ri-hts of oYher nations," and "none could fail to see the danger to our safety and future neace f Texas i-emains an independent state." " Our title ro the country of the Oregon is K AND UNGLUESTIONABLE." The President - fervemly invoked tlie aid ot the A!- mi^htv Ruler olX Universe, to guard this heaven-favored land against the mischiefs wnich I'lK^Sfliom an unwise' public policv." "With a firm reliance upon the wisdom ot SISnipotence to sustain and direct him in the path of duty which he had been appomted to pursue," he stood there to take the oath, &e. O '. what is worth made for, if 'tis not the same, Thro' joy and thro' torment— thro' glory and shame. Mr Polk thought that the laws should be just and free from monopoly, and that there was noSin- wrong in one man with a white skin, possessing a life lease of the labor of many families of his fellow creatures whose skins were more or less tinged witn black— no harm m huvin-"them-selling them-separating the husband from the wife, the sister from the brother, thiparem from the child-keeping them in poverty', misery, and brutal ignorance aii^se.-erely nunishin- him or her who would ve-ture to teach them to read and write— tlxie was no Lnopolv in all that, nothing unjust- o, nor in annexing Texas ^^^ P^^f J^i^-^jTfg^'^ renublic" simply because that repui.hc was weaker— and he invoked the aid oi Almighty Lxoa to enable him to preserve the Union, through the continuance of this descrmionot aemocratic iu^tice- and had a firm reliance upon the wisdom of Omnipotence to aid Mm in having every free black driven out of the new addition of the "heaven-favored land called Texas and slavery and a monopoly of the slave-trade upheld there, which he consi'dered very essential '-to our safety and future peace." Had the Baltunore Convention nominated Benjamin Franklin Butler ^^^en they pitched upon a pious Tennessee lawyer, he c.^kl not have performed his pan more in character. When defending his friend Jacob Barker, in an indictment for fraud, Benjamin told the comt and jury that the Lord, in his go^d P^^^^f f ^. J^f^^^^^'^.^Jf X'." Jacob's trade and blessed it; Jacob's occuaption, thus especially sanctified, bemg tha.of a Wall Street stockjobber ! I should not feel at all surprised, if i^' were to turn out that Benjamin, who 5^ometimes penned protests and messages for Jackson ^nd Van Buren, should prove to have been the author of this unique inaugural of James Knox Polk. It denounces defaulters, and E deputed compiler has siiie proved his sincerity m the cause of regular accountants by em- ploying in the highest pecuniary trusts the very punctual R. J. "Walker, our defaulting bank president C. W. La^vrence, with the aforesai.^ Benjamm and such like. It is to be doubted whether he had "the wisdom of Omnipotence to sustain and direct him" in these and some Jt er acts of his, done after the fashion of Charles I., delender of the faith, &c., &?• When Geie III. seized the Danish fleet, and Kvmbarded Copenhagen, the capital of his fai hfu a ly, i^ 1807 his excuse for the robbery wa., that the fleet, if he did not seize i, might f«'l /^ito the hands of France. President Polk fiids an argument for the annexation ol Texas, in tins, that if the slave States did not seize upon it to be used as a negi-o pen, England might influence the Texans todoas Mexico had done, crush slave-dri^^ng and slave-work-mg there altoge her ! Being myself a native of Scotland, and Robert Dale Owen the annexationist, an Enghshman, I beg th'at my humble strictures upon President Polk's piety and politics may be taken as a sort ol set off against the powerful harangues and steady votes ot the Indiana philosopher, Ui fa\ or of BURR, BLENNEilHASSETr, JaCKSON AND THE DONS. Houston. By reference to the annexed correspondence, it will be seen that Samuel Swartwout, who was an active canvasser for Jackson, in New Jersey, as early as 1823, expended large sums in Texan lands, sent settlers there, kept up a correspondence with Houston and the Texan malcontents, and with Major Neville, an old associate of Burr's, interested himself deeply in the Texan trade, and was looked up to by young Blennerhassett as a friend, and the friend of his father. Swartwout's connection with Burr, Blennerhassett, and the attempt on Mexico, in 1805-fi, is matter of history. As an illus- tration of the life and times of Van Buren, and showing what his course has been, 1 have appended as a note,* a brief sketch of the origin and progress of increasing the domain of human bondage and suffering in the South, as a means of decreasing it in the North— and who consoles " his excellency" by the assurance that " Slaver}', like Monarchy, is a temporary evil, which will disappear when it becomes commercially unprofi- table !" or in other words, that Mr. Polk will discontinue selling his Tennessee negroes when he can find no one to buy them from him ! ! The President's well-written message to Con- gress, when they met last, would be amusing, were it not a burlesque upon the great principles of the Declaration ot Independence, and a practical defiance of the cardinal doctrines of that glorious manifesto, yet to be honored in more auspicious times. Am I too sanguine ] I hear from youth, ' Man's prospects daily brighten : Each files his fetters surely, silently ; The Press illumines, and the gas enlightens ; The glorious steamboat speeds across the sea : Another twenty years, and then — and then — A sunbeam shall the lovely germ imfold.' Oh ! I have waited thirty years in vain — Enough, enough — the world is all too old ! Bbrangek, * ya a Wtter to Grovemor Claiborne, of Louisiana, dated Nov. 12, 1806, General Jackson eays :— " Be on the alert, keep a watchful eye upon our General [Wilkinson], and beware of an attack [on New Orleans], as well from our own country as Spam. You have enemies within your own city that may try to separate it from the Union. You know I never hazard ideas withotji good ground. ... Be on the alert. Your government [Louisiana], I fear, is in danger. I fear there are plans afoot inimical to the Union. ... I love my country and government ■ I HATE THE DONS : I WOULD LIKE TO SEE MEXICO REDUCED : but 1 will die in the last ditch before I would yield a foot to the Dons, or see the Union reduced." Next Jan. 3, Jefferson, who had perfect confidence in Wilkinson, wrote to him, with instructions how to arrest Borr's movements, and added, " If everything from that place (Louisville) be successfully arrested, there is nothing Irom below that is to be feared. Be assured that Ten- nessee, and particularly General Jackson, are faithful." General Jackson adinits here his hatred of the Spanish in Mexico, and his earnest desire to see it reduced. He retained the friendship of Burr to the day of his deatli ; was his general agent in Tennessee in ISOC and 1807, and received large .sums of money from him for the use of that agency. Burr, whei. in Tennessee, was often at Jackson's, who introduced him for- mally at a ball in Nashville, \he night before he sailed with his recruits and boats from tlie mouth of the Cumberland River, when he took with him Stokely Hays, his (Jackson's) ne- phew. When, months after, the press and the government had noticed Bmrs course, then, but not sooner, did Jackson write to Claiborne, whose suspicions he directed asahist Wilkin- son, and not against Djirr. That he had no wish to dismember this Union, I believe ; but as to his being free from the knowledge of b-irr's plans for invading Mexico, 1 see no reason to think that he was so. His anxiety to brean up and dismember that Roman Catholic country, appears to have continued to the last houi of his life. It was Wilkinson's letter to Jef- ferson, Nov. 25th, that enabled him to comprehend Purr's designs, viz., the severance of tlie Uni'^n by the Alleghany Mountains, and the coinuest of Mexico. A committee in Tennes- see, jn which were W. E. Lewis, John Overton, R. C. Foster, John Shelby, Th. Claiborne, and k lers, met in 1828 to take evidence and report or. the natme of Jackson's connection with Biir> In General John Coffee's letter to them, August 28, he says, that Buit was in Tennes- see lu 1605 and in 180G — that he wrote aftei-wards that there would be war with Spain, in which case Jeflerson was to give him the command of at. expedition against Mexico— that Bu't j 'nt $3,500 to Jackson, which, with other S'500, were placed in his (Coffee's) hand«, to bui 1 i> id purchase six boats, and lay in provisions. That suspicions afterwards arose tJiat all vai a t right, and in December, 1806, the balance was handed to Burr, in Tennessee— that tJuTi WM coargeU by Jackson with improper views, which he denied, and that then Jackson MCDtFFIE ON DISSOLVING THE UNION. BURR AND JACKSON. 61 the dismemberment of a weak power, by the force and fraud of a strono- one. The truly great and good Dr. Channing, in his letter to Clay on Texas, appre- hended that its incorporation with the Union would prove a deep injury to these gave hiin a letter to Gov. Claiborne, and sent his nephew with him. Judge Williams stated to the committee, that in the spring or fall of 1806, Jackson spoke to him about a commission in Burr's army, adding, " When 1 recollect that the destruction of American institutions was the object ot the Burr conspiracy, and that General Jackson was in the possession of facts and circumstances which would have convicted tlie conspirators, and yet improijcrly with- held them when summoned to Richmond to give his testimony," &c. He also wrote to Tack'=on as to what he had written, that while Burr or Adair, or both, were at Jackson's house he fthe general) told him (Williams) and others—" Take notice, gentlemen, you will lind that a division of the United States has taken deep root ; you will j&nd that a number of tlie Senate and a number of the members of the House of Representatives, are deeply involved in the scheme." How often, in the history of this country, do we see anxious wishes expressed for a disso- lution ot the Union ! Burr tried to dissolve it— the men of the East, whom Adams could not be brought to act with, tried to dissolve it— the abolitionists of the East complain of it now —and how often have Governor McDuffie and others of South Carolina sio-hed after more southern territory, as a means of ruling the Union, or splitting it up ! in the South Caroli- nian of Feb. 8, 1844, I find McDuffic's speech in the Senate of the 19th of January, in whicTi he calculat&s the value of this great and glorious confederacy of states by dollars and cents thus :— " Sir, ever since the tariff of 1828, I have regarded the exporting, the slave states of this Union, as being practically reduced to a state of colonial vassalasre to the manufacturin'r states. It -IS a much more oppressive state oftrihdary dependence than thatwhichonce bound u^s to Great Britain. ... I can solemnly declare, as a citizen of South Carolina, that in nearly a quarter ot a century I have never felt this government [that of the U. S.l but \w its op- prc-'^sions." Governor McjDuffie, in 1844, h&sitated not to state, in Senate, a Droject to divide the United States into three confederations, and to calculate by dollars 'and'ccnts tlie advantages of his scheme. Like his friend Van Buren, he was a warm supporter of Polk for President ; and so were Jackson, Calhoun, and others, who, like McDuffie, considered the bondage of tlie kidnapped African the corner-stone of democratic institutions' In Gen. Jackson's letter to G. W. Campbell, Jan. 15, 1807, he states, that on Nov lOth 1806, Capt. called at his house, and told him that the adventurers intended to divide the Union, " by seizing New Orleans and the Bank, shutting the port, conquering Mexico and uniting the western parts of the Union to the conquered country"— that , of N y' had told him so— that knowing tliat Burr was well acquainted witli ■ — " it rushed into his mind like lightning that Burr was at the head"— that he wrote to Biut that he suspected him and then to Governor Claiborne, but without warning him of Burr— that Burr denied the charge of intending to .split up the Union, but not a word is said as to invadin'^ Mexico It was after this November conversation that Jackson was most intin?ate with Burr introduced hira at the ball, even after Jefferson's proclamation, and sent his nephew vnth him who left him, as he tells the committee, at the mouth of Bayou Pierre. Willis Alston stated' that Jef- ferson had told him that Jackson had written to him that he " had been tendered a hi-^-h com mand by BuiY," and had tendered his services " TO MAKE A DESCENT UPON MEXICO " Is it not remarkable that Jackson, though in attendance at Burr's trial before Judge Marshall was not examined 1 He promises Campbell, that " in a few weeks he would give the proof " When did he do it ? o i- • The true course for this republic, in its dealings with Mexico, would have been to be gen'^- rous and liberal to a people struggling for freedom, but without enough of intelligence to secure and maintain it in quietness. The independence of Mexico was acknowledged at Wasnmgton while she was in the midst of a revolution— and distracted with faction harassed by wars with Spain and France, troubled with domestic revolts, some of them caused by Americans, encouraged, as I .shall shov/, by official men here : who could expect that the U S commerce would not suffer injury % The Sabine river, fcc, formed the western boundary of the Union, as settled in 1819 with Spain, and in 1828 with Mexico— vet scarcelv was Jackson seated m the chair of Washington, than, in August, 1829, he offeredMexico five millions of dollars for Texas, and again, in 1835, he ordered the offer to be repeated. In 1837 Congress declared Texas independent, and in 1845, added that fine province of Mexico to the' Union as a new State, confirming and restoring perpetual slavery throughout a territory of 400 000 square miles, from which Catholic Mexico had banished it 21 years before ' ' .J^^- ^^^"^h i^ ?'^ ^P"^^*^^ '" Congxess, April 15, 1842, speaking of the Mexican treaty qC lt«8 said : I had myself, m the negotiation of our treaty with Spain, labored to get the Rio del Norte as our boundary ; and I adhered to the demand till Mr. Monroe and all his cabinet idirected me to forego it, and to assent to take the Sabine. Be/are the treaty icas signed, it was 62 AARON BURR. PLAN TO SEIZE NEW ORLEANS. SWARTWOUT. States It will not stand alone, he says,-it will involve us in European wars. "It will darken our future history. It will be linked by an iron necessity to lonl continued deeds of rapine and blood. Ages may not see the catas rophe of the tragedy, the fir-^t scene of which we are so ready to enact. Of all pre- ~^d by ^nc at the commoMd of Mr. Monroe, to General Jacicson, who, after cxa'mmmg it mth pohucs, because, ^uJV .m ' ,in n '^ 5^^ president, " would be restrained by no moral .scru- ""ll ■ S'Vw Bri i a d fa ed'n'^hfi plans, and removed for fom- yean .o Eru-ope Co!. Sf;?a.ti^"h\..n:d?e™'rdltL«J^;|L!.^rofeT\l>edeaa^ ■»T;v^rBSJ'^Si.1.S-^«erK.fa.her,^^^ Newark, IN. J., i?eli. b J iJO. ."-^^ "^'"'=' .. . xt„ marriod Mr^ Prevost, the widow ol a ;;;s„eX^ss£iS^3;a|.._ai^^ pany ma, e Inm ^^^^^^ ", Te c„ e""»" "< N' ^'- ^'»"= '° "'"'■■"'' "'f «»""'■»'■""■ aSbecanle Vi' e PrSeS. 01 .he Union, u-ith Jefferson. His appearance and manners are -g'"JTs;sri'^nr,:.;^ri-i.-™eS»d^ sv,r'irsS'ShaSi''pSZar;i;o.r^^^^^^^^ Cuslnn^ »'«:^,-',^' ,;,"':, ate « ih is momenl Lssoc'iawl liir purposes nuimeal c-.iri " Are vou read V— are. vour numerous a.ssociales umU} ! vvcaiui duu umi^ THK DAYTONS. sEDUWlCK. CHANNIJVG. TKXAN AVARICi'.. 03 cipitate and criminal deeds^ those perpetrated bv nations are the most fruitful of misery." " We are a restless people, [continues this eminent philosopher,] prone to encroachment, impatient of the ordinary laws of progress, less anxious to con- mission ; he is couraqrooas ; inimical to Eng-land ; true to Van Buren. He was an aid to Jarkson at New Orleans — his sister married Edwaid Livingston, of Louisiana, Jacksou's vrnnil Secretary oi' State. General Jonatlian Dayton, of New Jersey, was indicted ibr treason, and, .say.s the Baltimore American, •' The Attorney for the United States had no doubt that Dayton was leagued in the general conspiracy :" hui on the 1 jrli of Sejitember. 1HU7, Dayton was aischargcd. fis this the Dayton who, in 17H7, aided in iVaminir ihe U. S. constitution, and was Sj-eakcrof the H. of k. in t^onsress, for four years ]J On the 1st of September, lK-^l hioi to have beea 64 VAN BUREN AND JACKSON's MEXICAN POLICY. CALHOUn's PHILOSOPHY* solidate and perfect, than to extend our institutions, more ambitious of spreading ourselves over a wide space, than of diffusing beauty and fruitfulness over a narrow field. We boast of our I'apid growth, forgetting that, throughout nature, noble growths are slow. Our people throw themselves beyond the bounds of in other important acts of his life. On the 16th of October, 1829, when Secretary to Jackson, he addressed a long letter to Anthony Butler, the United States Charge in Mexico, containing the President's instructions to him as the successor of Poinsett. A^an Buren describes the con- duct of Mexico as unfriendly and undeserved, and hopes she will become sensible of the injus- tice she has done to this country, " her earliest and best friend." He says that Jackson thought that the true interests of this Union wouJd be better promoted by Mexican glory and pro.sperily, tlian by her depression and disgrace — that the bearing of Jackson's government had been " libe- ral Encl magnanimous" towards the Mexicans, "while many of their citizens, voluniary exiles in the cause of American libertv, fought by the side of their Mexican friends, TO EXPEL FROM THIS CONTINENT THE LAST REMNANTS OF COLONIAL OPPRES- SION— that every step taken since, by the United States, has been marked by " benevolence and disinterestedness"— but that the Mexican govermnent had been guilty of " political per- verseness and inattention," and of " persevering injustice." This benevolence of Jackson and Van Bm-en had been evidenced in Swartwout, Houston, Poinsett, and others, stirring up strife in Mexico ; and by asking Mexico to sell some 400,000 square miles of her territoiy for the use of the slave-holders, because she was poor— and this, too, for a pecuniaiy consideration ! Van Bui-en tells Mexico that she is " shut out from almost all commtmication with the sea- board," and then complains of the "abortive attempts to negotiate with" her — the main object of the negotiation being to deprive her of the very domain which communicates with the sea, by hectoring, bullying, and menacing her. Dr. Mayo's comments on Van Buren, in his " Eight Years in Wa.shington," touch this sore point skilfully. " The idea of military invasion of the Mexican territory has never entered infc the imagination of the United States, nor, is it believed, of any one of their citizens." Hovi' long after that was it to the time when J ackson and his party ordered Gen. Gaines to invade ::\lexico, in the midst of peace, and the General addressed the ex-m.inister, Poinsett : " If I am permitted to make an arrangement in accordance with the fore- going sug^e.stions, I feel confident that I can thereby obtain, and call to the frontier, READY FOR AN ACTIVE CAMPAIGN TO THE CITY OF MEXICO, from fifty to one hundred thousand first rate men, for the most part mounted, before the first day of October next, the time they should march westAvard from the Sabine"?" One would think that Van Bmen believed he "had in hand a second edition of the Peter Allen case, of I8l(j, in which his confede- rates in the legislature, voted in the appointing power of the state, by a false majority of one, knowing it to be so; and then, by the virtue ofllieir oaths, placed this majority of one into the hands of their def\-anded opponents. The hostile movements of savage tribes was given as one reason for the " benevolent and disinterested" invasion by Gaines. And who set on these tribes 1 What Governor of Teiinessee was it that left his wife and white family, to marry tlie daughter of an Indian Chief, discard the robes of civilisation, Im-n savage, and be ready, when the revolt was matured, to head the adventurers shipped from New-York and New-Orleans, and who composed the €lite of the army of Texas 1 I have been a warm admirer ol' Jolin C. Calhoun. His superior powers of intellect, great experience, and real liberality in many respects, gave ground for good hope that, as Secretary of State to John Tyler, he would prove that he had a noble soul by some honest and able stroke of statesmanship— add Texas to the Union, but not as a slave mart, nor by insulting Mexico— and exhibit a feeling in favor of the oppressed classes of society, whether white or black. Mr. Calhoun had but one end and aim in accepting a seat in the cabinet— the delence of the negro-driver's whip, and increasing to the greatest possible extent tlie market for those who raise slaves for sale, as we noitherners raise black cattle. Nullification in 1832 might plead as a defence an oppressive taxation or an unequal tarift', but Calhoun's statc-^manshi]), in 1844, exhibited a far worse sort of nullification, the might of the executive of the Union stretched to its vcrv tttmost to strengthen and consolidate the combined slave owners of the south as TI7K permanent and omnipotent element of strength, the great ruling power on ihis continent, with the breeding, trading and working of human beings, as if they were property, chattels, horses, aisses, mules or oxen, beasts of burthen. When 1 read Calhoun's letter to King at Paris, where he tells him that the British people had paid a hundred millions of dol- lars to compensate slave owners in the West Indies for freeiii^-- their slaves— paid other fitly millions extra for su?ar. the product of free labor— paid another hundred millions towards the suppression of the detestable system of kidnapping and selling heathen Africans to Christian receivers, and that their capital, vested in tropical possessions, was at the brink of ruin , thi'ough these stupendous exeitions towards bringing about that millenium of justice and miiversal kindness foretold in the Bible — when 1 saw him sit down to calculate the gains of his system of coercion, and try to excite ill feelings towards England in tjte minds of the French, to pro- WHEN SHALL THE FLAG OP THE FREE WAVE OVER TEXAS ? 65 civilisation, and expose themselves to relapses into a semi-barbarous state, under the impulse of wild imagination, and for the name of great possessions. Perhaps there is no people on earth, on whom the ties of local attachment sit so loosely. Even the wandering tribes of Scythia are bound to one spot, the phecy that itntbrgiving hate and deadly revenge would be the inevitable result of a system of ivindness and compassion towards those whom, during eighteen centuries, white men have treated cruelly, and talk of cheap staples gained by flogging work out of God's creatures, I reluc- tantly gave him up, as 1 had given up Van Buren, with whom he may yet again, as he has twice already, coalesce. In his letter to Wilson Shannon, his envoy-EXTRAORDlN ARY, as he sm-ely was, he iirst gives as a reason for annexing Texas, that Mexico was not trying to recover it — ancl next, that it would be altogether vial apropos, and quite oflensive to this Union, were Mexico to try to recover Texas while annexation was pending ! Callioun was the first who made me ashamed of the part I had taken in Canada. 1 had endeavored, as it seemed, to place Canada in the hands of ihe slaveholder, in order that no place of refuge might remain in the land of Jefferson and Franklin, for an oppressed race, on this side the grave — and this, too, while catholic MEXICO and protestant Britain — the methodist, baptist, episcopalian, quaker, Ro- man catholic, independent and presbyterian of England and Ireland were cheerfully submit- ting to enormous taxation and great privations to raise the African in the scale of civilisation ! The Ex-Governor of free Ohio, His Excellency Wilson Shannon, to wit, cut a most deplora- ble iigm-e in Mexico. Senor Rejon, the Mexican minister, told him, Oc":. 31, 1844, that "in the declaration and act of independence of Texas, those who figured as the leaders were almost all from the United States, as were also the general and others who composed the army that fought imder the standard of Texas in the battle of San Jacinto; and In many parts of the United States meetings were held publicly to provide, and they did actually pro- vide, men, arms, ammunition, and other warlike stores. It has since clearly appeared that the point aimed at was to separate that rich and extensive territory from the power of its legitimate sovereign in order to annex it to the United States; a measure of policy which, as it is ex- pressly said in the note of his Excellency Mr. Shannon, ' HAS BEEN LONG CHERISHED, AND BELIEVED INDISPENSABLE FOR THE SAFETY AND WELFARE OF THE UNITED STATES, AND WHICH, FOR THESE REASONS, HAS BEEN INVARIA- BLY PURSUED BY ALL PARTIES OP THAT REPUBLIC, AND BY ALL ADMINIS- TRATIONS FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS.' " Wnat a confession ! Does it not show, asked Rejon, " that the declaration of independence by Texas, and the demand of its annexation to the United States, are the work of the govern- ment of the citizens of the latter, being interested in making this acquisition, which thevhave considered, for the last twenty years, indispensable for the safety and welfare of their republic 1" " The citizens of the United States who proclaimed the annexation of Texas, with the excep- tion, perhaps, of the first colonists, went there, not to remain subject to the Mexican Republic, but to annex it to their country ; strengthening, by these means, the peculiar institittions of the southern states, and opening a new field for the execrable system of negro slavery." " If [tlie U. S.] aspires to find more land to stain with the slavery of an unlucky branch of the liuman family, [Mexico] strives, by preserving what is its own," to diminish the aliment which the former desires for so detestable a traffic." I am no abolitionist — that is, I would not compel, or attempt to coerce states or nations who encourage domestic slavery, to change their policy — though I might reason with them if per- mitted — but I cannot forego the pleasm-e ot condemning the avarice which seeks Texas as a monopoly market for the slaves her planters breed for traflie. Benjamin Lundy tells us, that '■ h\ tne Virginia Convention of 1829, Judge Upshur, of the Superior Court, observed, in a speech of considerable length, that if Texas should be obtained, which he strongly desired it would raise the price of slaves, and be a great advantage to the slaveholders in that state. Mr. Gholson also stated, in the Virginia Assembly, in the year 1832, that the price of slaves fell twenty-five per cent, within two hours after the news was received of the non-importation act which was passed by the legislatuie of Louisiana. Yet he believed the acquisition of Texas would raise their price fifty per cent, at lea.st." Calhoun is frank — he has nothing of tlie fox or weasel in him, as he said of Van Buren oaca, and migiit have added of Butler also. 1 like him for that. Instead of taking Murphy, oitr Texan diplomatist's hint, not to " offend our fanatical brethren of the north — talk about c'ivil. political, and religious liberty, say nothing about abolition — this will be found the safest issui^ iu g-o before the world with" — instead of cant and hypocrisy he plainly tells Pakcnham, the Er."-- lish envoy, in lais capacity of secretary for the republic, April 18, 1814, that "th.\t which °s CALLED SLAVERY IS LM REALITY A POLITICAL INSTITUTION ESSENTIAL TO TUE PEACE, SAFETY AKD PROSPERITY or THOSE STATES IN WHICH IT EXISTS." In Other words, Texas is annexed, in order that tlie bondage of the African race may be made perpetual. Can this be the language, this the policy, this the judgment of the first free government in the world] If not, wherein do H Airmrp BFSTINY OF SONS OF THE PILGRIMS. 66 LOVE ONE ANOTHER. NOULK DESTINV Ui- The known and famihar is °^^^7\^f ^^^''"^'^.^d desired because belonging to sometimes the untrodden.. sno^^ ^^^^^^^ ^,^^^ ^en, who left others. V\e owe this spirt in ^ measure , • j f^^, ^ wilderness, and the old world for the new the seals of ^"^^^f/^^^^'^J^^'t, ,f the soil. To this ^vho advanced by driving beiore ^^em 4he o d occup^^^^^^ ascendency, the r:r:^th- ^;;"ir::etS^^ ^hlch eon.muni.es grown grey in corruption might blush." CHAPTER X V 11 . Farewell to the land where in cliildhood I wandered, Tv, ^-aiii is she iniffhtv, in vain is she brave ; [T". 'S. Senate. • i r . C^o.axK0.s reader, had you ever a thorn m your ^1 J^r. in tlie fco. aftbrds an excellent ^'l-^-^^ • , ^K po ti^ n t^ /^ foreign substance may f ;;;;^^^;^^'^K'uP^n 2> enrol among its principles it the part ot ^-^-^^"^/"'^^^^"n^fj .^^/^/'l'^ , commercial country there always the political proscription ot loreigners . m - , , r. n „,.„ 9 '^ TlKM-e ^hall be a lirm, inviolable and Polk and Walker difil-r from ^?f "^f"^',^"^ between'the United States of Amencu universal P^^f'^^^'''^,'^"^ Teace S Mendship and sincerity are notnowsoved iJSoSri;r^SSc^"^^r'^^ '^^ asks Channm. or Cy. Whv cannot we rise to noble coiicepao.oou ly^^u^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^ .. Whv do we not feel that our ^^J^^^^^ ai Jl whv do we no. remember, thai to diffti.. nobler form ol human nature over this continent ^ni a m ^ j whatever deeply and ese be sings we must first cherish t'^-''^;" ''^r'^^Xie ^^ not a blessing. tothiMiew pSmanently^cormpts us will make ^^;;^^ ^f ;| f ^^b si' principles of human nature. U w..rld ? Public lite appeals to the n"blest. as ^ ei ^ j ^^^i, „ 1,0,,,.. By giynt; holds UP for pursuit enduring fame, as ^\ell -^^ f notoi.e^N^^ i ^ ,,^,j^ ^.^.^^^^^ ^ jg^p ^^t^Lie. Sf acting on the va^^ and S5S,r"Thl 'eU mU tai-h in human nature sense of respoasibilitv. and a geneious ^^''-'^\\' );, 7;,^,.;' ^ ^n anv class ..f men, especially on S;Sust tSe infl;^--;^f ^-i;"^!^S:!f ^f UgenSu? Sween vast pcuvers of thought men of commanding intelligence, i hue i a c ^ ■ „,emselves as those who hnu- and di-aitv of purpose. None are >,o ^^^^ '^J;, ^ ,,' „,.eaiest oflerines to humamty. With mit tS sacrifice, who, in f '^"ngj]'^"^^\^ f^" ^ictpa ed"^ ni^^ and scoffs of those, who will this conviction, I am not discourage b '1^^ ^nt'C'PJ.^, condition of freedom and greatness, I think that in insisting on national pin '^ .^^^ ^^^.^^^'^ ^^^ ,„ empty name, nor will a measm-. !-if:^!!:Sfl'^i;;:fS;ii.io^:m:Ui'-^ '^ ^™ anythmgbu,af..- Irauglu with lasting corruption lul calamity." ^ . , . , .. .,. „, , „^^-,iiej ;, ,„ Calhoun, in the sense that its excellent flow often have T read this lettei aiut api i et i ^^ clearness ot lus miel- au 1 or applied it to Clay ! .1 ^>» "^''^-'''^'i ;;7.\ ,e* , L 1^^^^ control the republ c now le.-,t, but 'the .-luiracter ol h>^"'''';\'';'. .,.':^'^^^^^^^^^^ bv Auglo-Sn.xon cupidity on 'ior ever,.through d^e voU;^^ At ^ati i nc^rm^^^^^^^^^^^ P ^^.^^^^^^.^^ ^. ,„, ,,,,,,, „ ,he nieycy o^ r o;,; ;? Congress-who would pVj^e tlJI^JlJ^S a .^ -', '-i^;, .vorse.) by progressive ;;;:.SJ^:^^-^rS^;;Sl ^rH^^ of his^ry . a wise state.man 1 ADOPTED CITIZENS. MARCY, POLK AND THE BAMBERS. KEMBLE. 67 will be vast numbers of foreigners, so also in a country where labor is high and land cheap. It is but as ii were yesterday since foreigners were among the bravest and truest in two wars ; here they are ; here they will be ; whether for streno^th or for weakness ; as a shield to protect or as a thorn to goad and inflame ; peaceful and contented as your brothers ; intelligent, discontented, maddened, as your gibeonites, helots, slaves. I have no desire to see the Flag of the Union torn in two, with the stars to natives born, and the stripes to the victim of per- secution who has fled to your classic shores, to take refuge near the field of Lexington or base of Bunker Hill. Such a policy would weaken us within and without; foreign nations would read our declaration in days of old when their aid was grateful, and despise the intolerance and hypocrisy, the greediness of place and power which had, in three score years, falsified the noble record. Hundreds of thousands of men, able to read, reason, and reflect, would not be anxious to fight for a land where insult was their only portion, where they had only the bondsman's place to .struggle for, and the exclusive privileges of a mas- ter class to secure to those who would fill every olTice, administer government for themselves, and treat us as Polk does his negroe.'j. Are tliese states not weak enough already, with three millions of enslaved men and women, having such infuriated feelings as Calhoun describes, the result of ages of oppression ? Would the wanton degradation of half a million or a million of men like me, could it be effected, strengthen those defences, to secure which some eighteen or twenty millions of dollars are yearly expended in time of peace 1 In order that we may the more clearly luiderstand the cliaracters of Van Buren, Marcy,* Flagg, Wright, Bowne, iSoah, Coleman, Earll, Keyes, Butler, * W. L. Marcy, in February, 1838, handed over the brotlier.s Bamljer, (aimers from ihe north ot' Ireland, and citizens, nine or ten years resident here, for trial on a political charge of murder, to Buchanan the English Consul. This he did in the teeth of llie law. .Uidge Brady, speaking of the Bambers, mentions that they were Presbyterians — old Mi'. H. a United Irisii- nian — and adds: " 1 waited on the Governor — produced papers which, if properly considered, should obliterate every feature of the offence for \\hicli they were doomed lo be sacrificed, ii' delivered to the ready executioners of a corrupt Governmerit. The Executive [Marcy], stern and inexorable, refu'^ed to grant their freedom.'' When the Senate of Hamburg, a corrupt and cringing body, gave up Blaclcwell and Tandy to the British, they excused themsehes to Napoleon as bieing weak. His reply was this — " Comage and virtue are the preservers of state.s — cowardice and crime are tlieii ruin. You have \iolated the laws of hospitality — a thing which never happened amonij the most savage hordes of the desert. Your fello« -citizens will for ever reproach you with it. The two unfortimate men die with glory — but their blood will bring more evil upon their persecutors than it would be in the power of an army to dc. if weak, liad yfiu not the resource of weak States 1 Cauld mu not have let them escape?''' Governor Marcy was formerly editor arid proprietor of the Troy Budget. It vvas aftervvard^ publislied for the party b>' Jcilm W. Kemtile, whom the leaders at Albany ordereil tc* he run for state senator, and afterwards u.sed liim as their tool. Kemble joineci Bi.shof>, another gambling senatoi", and Edmonds, the Van Buren leader in the senate, in ceitaiii stockjobbing transactions; and Kemble and Bishop uniteil with Bar.stort, a bank cashier, iii secretly using the funds of his batik '• to ripen a comliination" by which tlie .stocks of certain railroads would yield an unlawful profit. Their plot miscarried— Young moved to expel Bishop and Kemble from the Senate— Kemble resit^ned — and Charles L. Livingston, whose epistles to Ho3't speak for themselves in this volume, voted that Bishop was "guilty of moral and official iniseon- duct," but refused to send him back to hi^. constituents for their opinion on that conduct. Young and Van Si-haick then very properly resigned, and left the Senate. Kemble's language in the Troy Budget of 1834, siiou s that lie held the same opinions as Van Buren and Marcy. [Prom the Troy Budj^rt.] — '• To be frank, I sliall be heartily glatl when the election is over. To have the dirty whisky-swillfng Irish thru-sting themselves every hour between the 'wind and my nobility,' slobbering over me in every corner of our city, is more than I can endure, or niy stomach bear, without the aid of disinfecting agents. If oiii- case is to re.st upon these vermin lor success, much as I desire it, I shall rejoice to witness its overthrow."' When the people threw Marcy ori', Polk and Van Buren took him up. The former saved him from ruin in 1845, and the latter in 1839. Bancroft's dislike to the Catholics was one of hi^ chief recommendations to Polk's favor. 68 CRAWFORD, VAN BUREN's NATIVE CANDIDATE IN 1824. Jacob Barker, Croswell, Skinner, Cambreleng, and the leading supporters of Crawford and the U. S. Bank, in 1824, it will be necessary to look into the prin- ciples and general character of Crawford. The reader will find that he was avowedly ine champion of what is now called the native party, ever hostile to the claims of the persecuted from other lands who seek equal rights and equal laws in America. His hatred to persons of foreign birth, to whom Clinton was ever friendly, endeared him to Croswell, Van Buren, Wright, Butler and Skin- ner, insomuch that the Albany Argus* opposed Monroe, and was friendly to Crawford in 1316, while Clinton refused to be a candidate in opposition to Monroe, in whose favor his influence was exerted. Crawford, in 181C, all but defeated Monroe in the congressional caucus as a candidate for the Presidency ; but his nativeism, his hatred to foreign-born citizens turned the scale in favor of Monroe. In Nov., 1824, he came within two or three votes in the legislature, of getting the whole thirty-five presiden- tial votes of N. Y. ; but here again his intolerance turned the scale against him. Had he got the vote of N. Y., the name of J. Q. Adams could not have been sent to the House of Representatives, so that he could not have been President. Van Buren was served in Baltimore, in 1844, as Crawford had been twenty years before ; but in the 1844^ case, there was a secret understanding. Among other eminent citizens who felt insulted by Crawford's lU-timed sentimenis, the celebrated jurist, Judge Cooper, of S. C. (then of Pa.), addressed several letters to Mr. Madison, over the signature of Americus, through the Democratic Press, in April, 1S16, from which the following are extracts : '=Mr. Crawford, a schoolmaster in Albemarle coimty, Virginia, conceiving it more for his interest to choose some new profession, and some new theatre of action, removed to one of the boundary coimties of the state of Georgia, as a cornitj- court lawyer. In such a situation, a man oftolerable education, manners and conduct, finds it no difficult task to become conspicuous amon<^ frontier settlers. In due time he was sent to Congress, and then, by that kind ot dexte- rous management which men of moderate talents are not unfrequently well qualified to pursue, he acquired influence enough to be sent as ambassador to France.- 't * The Albany Area^. Sept., 1824, tells us that William H. Crawford was born in Virginia, 24th Feb. 1772- the sononTborerieVnt'ated^ at the age of 14-followed the plow 'i.>121--then turned .choolm^^ ter and finally set up business as a lawyer. At a meeting of the younK men of Augiista, ^a-. July 2, 1-98 «„ adVess was voicd tL President Adsms, expressing full confidence in his adm.mstrat.on. ;uid agreeing to sus- ta in U Crawlord was on the couinuttee who reported this address, Y/"';?^,,.**,^ Tw T'h lels in on" he voted again.-t increasing the navy, but the war dianged his v.eyvs. He ""-'V ,• -iia .1,1 nX of which he "hot Pcler L Van Alen, a native of N. Y., and Solicitor General of (,a dead, and in the other was wound" d by Cen^^^^^^ Jan., 1808, in the U. S. Senate, he opposed Jefferson's embargo b m!bm in 9 or 10 mon\hs changed his mind. It was to his credit that he rose ''O"' »he st^Uion of a labore .o that of concre-man— sat in the U. S Senate— became a minister ot state— was sent o it to trance as am^-issa Z--m\T^\hou,ln worthy of being a candidate for the chair of \Vashington-if his course was manlj and hbnorablc rh«'"' "Pl'f"''"'^," V''')„n'l','i^^^^^^ Colenau had beet, lie law partner of Kurr, but went round to Hamilton and the '^f fa^^!>^' ^ "^ i.,,^ i, . lai Mv; the fir^t editor of the N Y. Evening Post, in which situation he was conspicuous or his abuse of C li uSEmn t, wX^'ln, and the United Irish' In 1807 he thus speaks •.-" Intolerable .nsttU 1 mus he asserlors of America's rights be confounded will, the assassins ot \\'<^klow moun ,u..s7 mtM revolution bestow on every auarchiu and public disturber t».''"f '»« '"."^"V^i^ > fjh,^^^ the right to cbiim Auieiica for his lioi.ie and Americans for his kindred ? 1 he .ittennpt to =>""" ^^J, v''*^" 'V^ etween UniUd Irishmen and Americans is a« i.npu.lent and 'letestable as it is '■1^^'d'O"^; ,^ '^^^,'=^1^, New York irampled on the people's dearest rights in the hope of scctiiing to b'm the V'';^"l<;"< V , jr^^j„„. "t Jad.e Coopcr^lso ^t.l.B, that Cra« ford could not .peak a word o^i^^^^ KtlVr. 1 lil the ini'-tAkr was rectifi. d at Washington. Crawfoid was piqued ^> '.I'iput <:'>"^^ """, i,'"^" v„).v A" ^^ItViftlce'wiSauihority.to ihe an.io.vanc.'ond injury of the '"-^l-'^^/^P J^ "^^ g his cCruwlord't) return to W n-hm«lon. Monroe's enemiee, and the enemies °/ ' f""l '"'^^bc sw^^^^^^ of war, but EQTJAL RIGHTS AND LAWS, CIVIL AND REl-iGIOUS FREEDOM. 69' "Suppose [continues Cooper] Mr. Crawford were to say as General Dearborn once said to a citizen bom abroad, but who has established two of the largest and niost successful manufactories in our country, • But, sir (says the General), you are not an American born.' ' Well, sir (replied my friend), and what then 3 How came I here 7' ' At an age when 1 was able to choose my country, on mature consideration and reflection, I came here deliberately from choice. I became a citizen upon your own terms and proposals — according to your con- stitution and laws, which save nie equal rights with yourself. 1 brought wealth, knowledge, and industry with me. I have embarked all my tbrtune in your country ; I have deliberately risked my happiness, and that of my wife and children, upon the same chance with yourself I have renounced former coanections to become one of you. I have made sacrifices to con)e here. I ara rooted and Americanized here, and so is my family. We re- flected and consulted on the subject, and, renouncing every other, have chosen this as our coiiutry. Hov> came YOU here I Not by choice, but by chance ; without your own knowledge, exertion, or consent, you found yourself here, because your parents chose to place yoti here. Your tirstappearance in America was as a weak, helpless, squalling, puling, dirty, naked infant, requiring the assistance of others to keep you alive ; dependent upon the ciire of others for twenty years of your existence. You were bora and staying iu America, because you could not help it, you have remained here because you knew no better, withoiit choice, notion, or reflec- tion. And do YOU compare yourself as an American, to meV I would not like, as an American, to acknow- ledge the whole of this reasoning, but there is something in it. I would t:ike the liberty, sir, if I dared take a liberty with so great a man, of asking Mr. Crawford, whether General Montgomery, General Gales, General Lafayette, Baron Steuben, Baron De Kalb, General Koskiusko, General Pulaski, General Hamilton, General St. Clair, General Lee, and General Stewart were not foreigners I ^Vhether the officers and soldiers of the Penn- sylvania line were not foreigners 1 Whether our financiers, Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton, were not foreigners'? Had our country any need to repent receiving, with open arms, these fugitives of the old WORLD ■? Does it become a man of yesterday, a man whose most distinguished act h,is been the famous report now under consideration, who is hardly known, but by the bigotry of liis sentiments, and the imprudence of his conduct; does it become such a man, who amuses himself like an idiot boy in the woods, with pulling down a wasp's nest about his ears ; does it become such a man to stigmatize, indirectly, these warriors and sages of the revolution ? Is there one gleam of cmiimon sense in Mr. Crawford's wanton insxUt of his colleagues in office, J\Ir. Dallns and Mr. Gallatin ; and of you, sir, who appointed these wdl-inforiiud and able men 7 tjhow me the foreigner who ever came to America, who has been or could have been guilty of such a needless, wan- ton, mischievous, mischief-making sarcasm upon the whole American people, their ancestors, their constitu- tions, their laws and usages, such as is implied substantially in this bravura finale of Mr. Crawford's Indian repcrt ■!" 1 have experienced much kindness from the American people, and am satisfied that, but for the malevolence of some of their rascally politicians, aided by lazy preachers,* who have less of Christianity in them than of jealousy of other more showed his hand too early for a successful game. Van Buren and his confederates showed very little sagacity when they followed for eight long years the fortunes of Judge Crawford. " It is a dirty bird that befouls its own nest," says Cooper. Ai this time (1816) a majority of the whole people of the U. S. consistof natives of Great Britain and Ireland, or the descendants of such. Full 9-lOths of Ihe parents of the American people, in 1816, were natives of the British dominions. Did not Crawford calumniate mnii: than half the American jieople (of that day), and more than 9-lOihs of their imintdiate ancestors ■? Add also the German, Swedish, and French parts of the population. Did not England well receive and encourage Wi'st, Cop- ley, Count Rumford, Count Bowman, Dr. Solander, Mr. Planta, M. de Magellan and the Abbe Coroa? ILivc we five persons to the square mile 1 Has not England JOO 7 Dj we not want home maiiufaciui es ? wiiere can skill in the arts, sciences and manufactures and improvements, iu every profession, be found (out of America) more than in England, Prance and Germany ■?.. Do we not owe much to our immigratioi) laws, encouraging men of skill to come here 1 Crawford had advised Americans to marry Indian siivaies iii preference to the dau"hters of Scotsmen, Germans, English or Irishmen. He would have Yankee girls Cidled Mrs.Si:litlonously, Clarkson Croluis, ol N \ ., •-"'■"f' "^ . "';"'^.^\; ;' ^^°in^^nt^ full representHtion rather HUhougli the same party the Near betore had cho.en " '^ " ^^^'''^ nay I. IHKl, he was elected U. S. canvassine for King in IHI'.i, thus wrote t"?^ <';«"f • ,. ^, ^inc Wr are conunitted to his support. •' 1 should sorely regret to find any tinfipng "" ^^^ »"''^^,'-, ' y^/ ^"^,l^_ "wr. King's views towards i V''' '.■;'" ''^,^;'';.,.'^^^^^^ „ „ Jlh of July oration, deliv- „f his conr.derateH, .Ian.es Towers, ut (.atsk.ll, th.ts •'«''7'''; ' X'^,''' mi u^ n 'i%^fi^^^^^ and infamy, to corn- ered at Huds.-n:--'> What is the ev.l .l''"V '"i^/n J J M^e who kn w Hfcrcncc between a King and a K^oi!rJ!^;sra;;v;!<^=n^?w;:;;-a;e;^^ uJid who know of no other fear but thai which the ^.^Hows inspires." CRAWFORD'S ADVICE. MARRY SAVAGES RATHER THAN IRISH GIRLS. 71 It IS a curious coincidence, that while Crawford was thus undervaluing and despising tbreign mechanics, the English courts of law were busily employed, punishing them by line and imprisonment for endeavoring to emigrate to the LI. S. Albert Gallatin, always the advocate of a National Bank, was placed on the ticket with Crawford, as the candidate for Vice President, but his foreign birth seemed to have marred his fortune, insomuch that he had to leave the course before the race was over.* in March, 1816, at the close of that war, in which foreign born citizens — from Lawrence, who closed his eyes in death, exclaiming " Don't give up the ship!" to the gallant Capt. Blakely of the Wasp — and the sous of forei'J'ners, from Connnodore Charles Stewart to Commodore ]McDonough — distinguished thejiiselves among the bravest of the brave, and the truest of the true of Ame- rica's sons, William H. Crawlord, being at that time Secretary at War, to which station he was called, after his European tour as Ambassador to Napoleon, eave vent to his hatred of the men of Europe in the following report to President IMadison on Indian atiairs. From that day forward, Noah, Van Buren, Wright, Butler, Cand)releng, Barker, and the Native faction became his friends, and only deserted him when hope was lost. " To James Mad'mun^ President of the Unit<-:d Slalf:-i : * * * If the system already devised has not produced all the effects which were expected from it, iit'vv experiments ought to be made ; when every effort to introduce among them, [the Indian savages,] ideas of exclusive property- in things real as well as personal shall fail, let intermarriages between them and the whites be encouraged by the Government. This cannot fail to preserve (he race, with the modifications necessary to the enjoyment of civil liberty and social happiness. It is believed, that the principles of humanity in this instance, are in harmonious concert with the true interests of the nation. It will redound more to the national honor to incorporate, by a humane and benevolent policy, the natives of our forests in the great American family of freedom, THAN TO RECEIVE, WITH OPEN ARMS, THE FUGITIVES OF THE OLD WORLD, W^HETHER THEIR FLIGHT HAS BEEN THE EFFECT OF THEIR CRIMES OR THEIR VIRTUES. I have the honor to be, &c., WILLIAM H. CRAWFORD." \\ e have shown the impartial reader, on the clearest evidence, that Van Buren, Cambreleng, Noah, Butler, Croswell, Wright and their confederates, trampled on the constitution, and violated the right of instruction, to place in Monroe's seat, in 1824, a man of a narrow, contracted mind, because he was prejudiced against the equal rights of our citizens of foreign birth, and the * Blair. Dl'thfi VVashiugton ^e°" he did not see how he could avoid the appomtment."t CHAPTER XVIII. Two Pictures of a Politician.— Van Buren, Fhujg, Butler and Marcj friendhj to the U S Bank —They prove Us Charter Constitutional— Crawford and Gallatin's Crowninq Merit.— Monroe, Crauford, Madison, and Marshall on tfie Bank —The Albany Argus.— Thomas Ritchie and M. M. Noah on Jack- son.— Van Buren on a National Bank.— 7'he Albany Petition to Biddle for a Bank, and Who Signed it. In the New York American, of April, 1840, conducted by Charles King, the sou of that same Rufus King, whom Van Buren had aided in 1813 and sup- » ir Tj „ ,„■. . nnnniiitpd bv the le«islatuiP, n Senator of the United States for N. Y., in February, 1 S21 , ami » Van Bm-en w. s ^PP"'''^"^; ^'J 'J.!; f.f R^f"s Ki,* , bis coll.ague. at the openin? of the 17ih .on»rr.s, on ihc Uiokhisseatin ihe l^- '='• •f""''^' "\-''''-.' , '" q.„.,.„ ,iii r.I.-r'pfl "overior of N Y in IS-iS— and afterwards pre- 3d of D.xcnd.er that year. H«;™^'-f ,^„\^f |^^;!,f '^37 '"vu'rpSlu o/^ K.public. In 1.21, uL, ttS^:'^^^^^^^^^^'^^^^^^'^^'^"^^ W.asi,in.ton,he w.s chosen by O.ego county a in. ;,t for debt, a.;d gained pubhc apl.roo.Uuu l)y ^" "!';'' 'S-^°;;„;'^^^^^ Jesse iXoXe o.hc loUower. He n.,",t of Taney and others.d.d Utile good He \<';^l''J^}l^"^^.r^^^ isdic.^n aliocether from the court on t,. Circuits, while .nth. | ^^^^^ -jy-,^ , f ^^l^iiacS!! !u^^^^^ •' •>- -"--.. ,..r.. or au.;'„"„' i„urnal in.prove- wiih ti.e vi.nv. of ihe lau,:r as '""'■"■>" «'-2',^"^^ \moun\'nn C'riVlcDuti^ and other n.cn of th. den.o- mc ds by tiH.peneral g<>vernmeMl--Clay, Adams, < a o n vnno^ ^ 'f ^ j,. • j rcs.dutions, dcclnrir.K '-tli.-U B,„.n «:,i ,i„c .nj. .!» UnM S.at=. ^"'l .^ J:".;:!? j^^V hi lit' m.MW 5m ',l!.. t«c ,..d l»'ir, .-i.d sf^rs.SJ-.i'::.';--™-"*"'™'^,;';^^^ -"• -» ""« pashaccs in this ■vVork : , ,. ■ ,i.„ r.,„.iiv ,.f rvn Tarkson •■■ou''ht refuce in lliis now happy '^ "D.i.cn frou. ill-fal-d Ireland «"''"'* "l'P''^«^''l"^' 'f/=''''y ™w "•'i'^" '"«>• "'^' cnntry, when-, after a brief sra.0,1 th.y were unha .p.ly f«";' ^J^,^'^^^ ,ef '. c 1 coinn..n.-emcnt of the wa, iu v.in l.opcd to escape. U w«s Go.n at.er ' l^A"- ''^' ' ^' /'l"' "^'^^^^ 1":). I lurc h.U and statesman was horn, which «re.v ouJ,nf, the "PPf''^^'^V,?'V'«!;mr': i, ^rv Z usi „m"to^^oH^xC a participator In ius Blru^gles, he at ^::;i;;;;^;^J!n.:^' m:;^U^^r^:5s'c^\vS in^ r.,b,^sworc etcmal entity to every kind of tyranny over the mind of man."' la not litis the very M.-ence of hypocrisy 1 CHARACTERS OF VAN BUREN BY HIS OLD FRIENDS. '* " 7^ ported in 1819, as U. S. Senator for New York, and who, like Solon.on South- w.ck, had had excellent means o ascertaining Van Buren's true character, the following article. The Albany Argus copied it on the 7th of that month, and replied by a torrent of abuse against King, for which Croswell was prosecuted 1 laid aside that number of the Argus, and resolved to judge of the char-es it contained, by reference to facts only. ' ^"a.^c.-^ u [From the N. Y. Americaii-coi.io,! i„to the Albany Argus, April 7th, 1840.] '^ Mr. Van Biireii is a party politician ni3raly. He lias nev-r be-n Tnvthfno- „i „ i , him, per.s,mal .sucees.s, an 1 lie success of his rartv arpthl fiL .. •?""i' ? ^'f ' ''^"'' '" 'hese happen to coincide with the puhlie^vi^ri"£ t^.S ^to^^^^l^L^'T''- t/' other hand, they should conllict, as too much they have done th^ bfc S^fw, ,V/" '^'' a.s.suredly be po.stponed or disregarded. Such has been Mr. Van BmS 5 past ca ee ' d t'hm t^'^^^^j;^.^^ ---^'y' ^" -^-- -^ expecffi^ntS^tr^i^Je AND SCHEMtiR, AND NOTHING MORE. POLITICAL CALCULATUll '■ It is, thcretljre, not unjust to him, ns we view his character tn in^;.f ti ^t •*• • • , ^ Britain shall hold out a probability of susta nino theSnn; ^ n.ist, tha il war with Great may be provoked." ^ '^ustaunn^ the present administration in power, war Mr. Van Buren HAS LITTLE MORAL FAITH OF ANY Kmn k , need no artificial excitation of bodv or mind TUi d^r^il Ai\ Y KIND ; barely enough to code of political practice, in which he rSvi" all ^cHIh'^^^ "!,"' ■.^"", '"^" «" ^^-''^^'i^l political actions^o co.nbinations of those inteiS UE%fwv^tl^^u^^^^^^^^^ — pS-^SStsmi^Sl^H i-epresentatives,'or otherwi Je con-^c^ s Si^^a iJ'oI^nSS T T"f ^''^^ '^>^ "'^ certain easy rules analoo-ous u, aiiliiion snl,.,--,, m. 7. 'i .^ ^ .^ V^ople, by mnans oi" He belongs wholly to thc^ est me AND ALV^RK in arithmelic, ™n,a that ,.. i. u,e aj&, u„p -^ci;;'.' Sit J^,a7o::^a,™''; J^SS"" li the reader will turn to page m. he will find by Van Buren's letter, of 74 VAN BUKEN AND CO. AS CHAMPIONS OF THE V. S. BANK. , . .u A. .A>.v Arg'ts which had been in the hands of his January 31, 1823, that the A^^^^^J^f^/bv ,nm as the stronghold ot his party, biother-in-law, Cantine, was .^«"'"^^^^^n' J^ uucal interest. " Without a and that he had in it a P^'c^^'^jy ^^ 7^;; . ^J^,, our harps on the ^v.llows. P.P.R THUS EDITED ^^^^^J, ^/r^Ho.SA.O SUCH CONVULSIONS," SayS VaU With it, the party can s^^^^^l*- .* ,^^^ ^^ instructed at the same time, Buren to his c«"f^f ''^♦'^'.SonV o the new editor to be sought after. Leake, with reference to the 'P'^''^^^^'"'"''^,' T „s u j,, feeble health, and of an ex- Cantine^s partner, was, as Hammond te^ us ^ ^^^^^ ,^„;, ^^ the pohti- tremely nervous temperament , so muh so as 1 ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ cal arena of Albany --but B^ J.J^;^;^^^^,',^^ to allow himself to be nomi- persiiaded Edwin t^i«^^«'^' '^^ ^ '^!,„tr a^^^ 1*^ P*^^^^ '^^ ''"^'^ UeA in the legislature as ^^^^^E^^'c'roswell and Leake to that lucrative assembly, March 31, ^^3' .•\PPf'^^„;"gat day to this, with the exception of a derstanding of his countrymen ^^ cautious, and calculating." Hammond truly describes ,<^^'^^;^^ '"..'^^^^^^h Hoyt, No. 129, page 195, how Peruse his instructions to Noah, ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ „,i„ority c^ongressional to help forward Crawford the .a^^.e^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^,^ Vhat could be ca»c«s candidate, the United ^^ates Bank cand ^^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^.^ ^r^;^s::l^rLI\^^s^^^^ ^^ the l. Uose. lno. 51, p. 'V. have seen that Butler and his P^^tne^ J^ Bun. .^^^am^^ ^^ .ell, Wright, Hoyt, ^:^^-i^:^X^^, Holmes ofV.no, ner, Knower, Eaton, Van Ne^ss, ^'^c^^.^ ^^^^ „f the supporters of W. H. and Cambreleng, were, in 1824, " the iro ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Crawford for President, m opposition to JacU^on ^^ Crawford, and before the general ^^^^tion, a ser es of sketc^^^^^^^^ ^^^y because, in 1811, advocating his superior ^^'^f /^f^^^^^.^he .^^^^^^ of a national bank, on the and at all other times, he had defended the pi j . ^^^ j^,f„„,y Argus. ground that it was both useful -;;^'T^''tStn.cnc.nn., and probably ^ It matters little who ^'l^'^'^^J^'^^^^^^^^ Denned by B. F. Butler, who helped t^rosweri » . j . importance arises S Flagged Dix have done in more -^^ ^^^^^ ^" en, \i mouth-piece from the fact.s, that they -Pf '^^J^ "\ J ,ST by ll editor, a's being the senti- and property, and were deliberately .ndosedb> ^^^ ^^^orsen-ent by the n.ents if Van Buren ^-^X^Nat^onal InteUigencer (always for the bank) ^d\t^ OctleT^g- If tl!Sr^tutncurrei!le :' and in those days announ^ ::S, th^'Sartin Van Buren was a '' veteran republican. rFro... the Albany ArRus, October, 1824.] r r Rppublicans to the sixth number of the Skdckcs, not because "Wca-'-kthe attention of Republicans to ^^^^^^ , . „. ,.f , n^morrncv is rotation in office, mid whrre a roan ''^=* J. "j ;", ,vithoiit hwidint thai I w""''! ""' '"T, ,^[ ', 1 i, „,: ;, p:.pr>r at CnlHk.ll, >! \Mtnouc a i>ational 'C^^^rz:::^"' 'Tf ;'^-" t i^V^^^^^^^^^ " Lt x^v^coTSn^r the war in 1815. A.^ to the constitutional objection, it formed no serious obstacle. In votin" against it in th« uartv triumoh 1 could not rimiht if «^ ,iLr,.;Vi .. . "'?^**^f ^ral party, and that Us passage was esteemed a In I83" "n a letter to Ch is InLr "'P?!,«''' '*'^' .^ l'«,y^>-.'gl'tlully the power 10 make a third bank." BankchaVirr in" ^'''"'' °* ^"•' ^'"^"^""' ^''^'''''' '*>"^ ^'^^'es his reasons for signing the U. S. e^.Irtctes^S'Ltrnm^n'^^^^ '" ''« P^-f ^'"°"^^ "^<' "^ Mnnual IcEislative reco!?nitinnik as csscnllaUy ncccsumj to the operations cj govcnnncnt. "The opposition to the rcnev.alof the bank grew out of variou. eons.derat.ons. Many were nnnosed to the bill rof 1811], I'ccansc ilky were of opbuo^i that Covgrcss out not possess thecovstL- n P^erZl U,. Lrs, because they thought it, for poHtical or other -sons .ne dTerTnd dangerous; and others, again, on both grounds. Many rcpuUuans .,>roUu, ,t[l.] tZl^Lj L.ei seek an institution essenMal to tl. interests of the country, and teeoneemence T^:L^ent ,. ... [2.] l.ee..se they had no douMs as to tU ^^^^^^^^^^ ^J^^^^^^ .J' f A^r.. nriP nftbc nmviber perhaps the most prominent of the class. LXPLRltlNCl!. ^.frROVED THrcORRECTNESS OF THE FIRST POSITION ^ A^V THE ^EOPlI If<^.™"'' ..er,e.e,.a.,v«, HAVE RESPONDED IN FAVOR OF THE °T^"^«v„„MiheK.cnc.,.iivicv>,lhcre»vc,TOlh0Bc.f asi^rial ..haractcr, »hich hod a J ' „?I «ui*°„ 1. v.rio,, pam of ,l>= Union, puhHc «n,in,™ ,v„ ,,ooi.l«lly in bearmg on *» «"f ■'", J.^^^^^ . u,is vas cpeciallv .l,e ease in ihc pallor Slate,, Nvho«; ftvor of Ae renewal of Ih *-« ^^ J ■ „^ „„,„^„,^,, „„„„,„, i„ „„ ,„«. r^Hr XSWp-^cfn sT„;t- f™. Geo;.,a, a,,,, ,..a„v of ,he repnHican ,.ep.- , S™ o her Wl State,., in both House.., voted for ti,e hill. And it has never been SS ;^Te v* «; m!-. Crav,« ,-as in strict aeeonlanee .ith the ophrion, and -vishes It IS weu Kno important questions ot public policy. Z^f^^^^^O^A^^^ BANK IS ImONG THE NUMBER; and, ^fa^r™n.a. have prevailed in IBIM -----' '^^^ ;';; r;,™™ Tr?OPainF°THE GOvIrnSn? InD TO HAVE ANTI- cSS m THIS risPECT, THE JUDGMENT OF THE NATION." TO *. defence t^ij^^ij^^^ '^i^i^'^'s^: i:^:^^';Ji^X ^s:ir^r::^ 1^ i^Ji^'ti^^^^.y, it . .ou.e ... i„tut%1i2:LtVUroba,rW,«,io„^ lion of Van Buren for the U. b. »-■'>;,''; '7' "™,„, i,^„k'is " essential to the "tTsL":/*:^':;^;/';^ '; r'lv™:.,.xroflt gover„,nent,. that .he interests ot the couiiuv • n conslitutional— that the exponcnce ot seen, " the necessity oi preserving thai ov^.m ol tin ^oxoiiuk , fio/^nr IS follows, (4 Whiii.tii, '.ill) . , ,,,.,.i.i,,.i „„inion of this courl tlmt the act to Jr 1 L to the meaning he ...i.y f«|.p.He .t l.. 5"^'e. ^v.th t r. m- i scruplc.i to aciuie.ro in dec- ^I.rw^ °Ha8 the wisest ..r.i i....fl .:...,.vJc th. ch.f ,«.icc o. ti.t court i VAN BUREN, CRAWFORD, GALLATIN, AND THE BANK. 77 lutd "anticipated the judgment of the nation." The Argus not only endorsed Crawford in the fall of 1824, but also the U. S. Bank charter of 1816, and the old U. S. Bank and its renewal in 181 1 — and Albert Gallatin was glorified for having, on the 3Jth of .January that year, responded to W. H. Crawford's note of the 2yth, that he desired to see the bank renewed — that the banking system was firmly fixed — that h ' had found banks necessary to the collection and safe-keeping of the re- venue — that it was self-evident that the public moneys were safer when deposited weekl}' in the banks, than when allowed (subtreasury fashion) to accumulate in the hands of collectors (as Hoyt and Swartwout have since demonstrated) — that state (d(!posit or pet) banks would have to be used, if the U. S. Bank was put down, but would be less safe and convenient — that the government could control the U. S. Bank, but not the state banks — and that a system which had been tried, proved, and found to work well and safely for the puDlic, should not be des- troyed, and an experiment evidently less advantageous, substituted — that as the stock of the bank was partly owned by foreigners, provisions might be made iu the new charter, giving that portion of the capital to new stockholders, and such other modifications as Congress might desire to make — that he believed the bank and its branches to be constitutional — and that as the merchants owed the bank fourteen millions, and ten or twelve more on bonds for duties to the United States, as trade had been unfavorable, and many losses met with abroad, as seven millions would be payable to foreign stockholders, if the bank stopped (whose cash would not lie idle whether it v/ere peace or war), and as the bank had thirteen millions of its pajier afloat, which would not be succeeded by a better currency in the notes of the state banks, he [Gallatin] thought the U. S. Bank by far the best of the only alternatives he knew or had heard of. All this Van Buren and his confederates believed in, in 1S24; and Crawford for President, Gallatin for \'ice President, and a national bank and branches, and down with Jackson ! was the party cry. How changed in 1828-9 ! and without even a shadow of reason ! !* * ViUi Biiren's oflici.il I U S.. CeMirrtl C.ew'A- CI lio^rn.ilier, Hcilbiiid, tells us thai on thp 20th of Pel.., ISII, the Vice President of the iitnn, seiilori tho fate of the nld V. S. Bank by (liviiis his tasting vote against Craw- liintN hill til r.'iicw its ch:irter— nnd tli;it this vntp "was warmly defended and justified by Mr. Van Buren." Cp. H.')). '■ Mr. Van Bnren ardently and vi^'iironsly sustained this hold art of patriotism." It is very prc.h ilile that Van Buren was opposed to the XL S. Bank in ]8! 1, lor he was at that time a respect- ful and a-piriTi!; I.illower or sup|i(irter of tlie Clinton family. He was just as Ktrons.ai;e of Dec 5, 18-11), \'an Hiiren reasons thus : " If a Xatlonal Bank was, AS IS U.\i)E.\!Al!I,E, KKl'UDIATED BY THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTI- TUTKI.N as incoiiip.atiIile with the ri!,'lits oi the .States and the lilierties of the people ; if, from the be-'innins It has been reiiarded by laiiie portions of our citizens as cominc in direct collision with that great and vital amemhiient ot the constituliyn, winch declares th.it all powers not conferred by that instrument on the Gene- ral Oovernmeiit are rr.served to the States and to the people ; if it has lieen viewed by them as the first great step III the march ot laliliKlinon-. construction, which, unchecked, woulil render that sacred instrument Sf as liltle vaiue as an unwniten ci.nsntution. de|>endent. as it would alone lie, tor its meaninc, on the interested iiuerprelati.iii ot a .lomiiiaiit ji.arty, and alfordim,' no security to the rishts of the minority]— if such is undeni- ably the case, what rational f;roMnds could have been conceived liir anticipating aught but determined opposi- tion to sucli .m institution at the jiresent day !" <• D to et~ •■ III his letter to Shernal Williams. Am,' 0,'l8:«i, he says : " The constitntioii dors not L'ive Coii-ress power to erect corporations within tlis states. This was the main point ..I 5 r. Jo lerson .s .olebrated ftpimon a-aiusl the e.itablislmieiit of the first National B^nk. It is an objoc- ion whnh noihint' short ,.l an amondincnt to the constitution can remove. We know it to be an historical hostility .•s.i.tin!.' acainst the principles and lorm of our constitution ;' and of tlie reasonableness of his appre- hension-:, that • pen. tra tins; by its branches every part of the Union, acting by coi.iiiiand, and in phalanx it misht, in a crilical miiment, U[)--etthe aoverntiient.' ' ' The deiiioiratie pi.riy lit.ld a state convention in Indiana, some lime during the winter of 1842-3, and pro- ,)oiiiided. anion!.' other iiiicstions, to presidential candidates, the query /Vre you for or apr " Var. Buren replied from Kinrlerhook, Feb. 11, 1S43, in this way: ' •■ ■< >= •• I'he question of a National Bank is still before the people, and will continue to be so, gainst a national bank ? so long as avarice anij 78 VAN BUREN AND CO. JUMP JIM CROW. ' DOWN WITH THE MONSTER !* In 1824, Crawford and a national bank were Thomas Ritchie's watchwords ; but the moment that he and Van Buren, and Fiagg, and Noah, and Croswell, and Marcy, pious Ben. Butler, Knower, and Wright, and their Swiss comrades, found that Jackson had the most votes, they prepared to worship the rising sun — and the mercenary presses which, in 1824, had assured us that Crawford, the champion of national banks, was the wisest man in the Union, turned round in 1828 to glorify Gen. Jackson, whose great achievement, if elected, would be to slay * THE MONSTER,' hand over the treasury to the Washington and Warren Safety Fund Bankers, and give us a bank bankruptcy, a specie circular, the public lands gutted by Van Buren, Wright, Butler & Co., as a land company, with a sub-treas*.ry, and Isaac Hill, Stephen Allen, Jesse Hoyt & Co., for our sub-treasurers !* amhitinn see in it the means of gratifying the love of money and the love of power. IT IS ONE OF THE GREAT LEADING MEASURES OF A PARTY WHICH WILL NEVER BE EXTINCT IN THIS COUN- TRY. It is essential to the acquisition, as well as to the preservation of its power, and will never be relin- quished while there exists a hope of its attainment. I am opposed to the establishment of a National Bank in any form, or under any disguise, both on constitutional grounds and grounds of e.xpediency. THE POWER TO CREATE SUCH AN INSTITUTION HAS NOT BEtiN GIVEN TO CONGRESS BY THE CONSTITU- TION, NEITHER IS IT NECESSARY TO THE EXERCISE OF ANY OF THE POWERS WHICH \RE GRANTED; and if exercised, would be, as it always has been, highly injurious to the public welfare. 1 am not one of those who believe that the long cherished project of re-establishing a National Bank is, or ever will be abandoned by that party which always has been, still is, and ever will be the advocate and support of such an institution. It may lie dormant for a season, from a conviction of its being inexpedient to revive it ; but he must be blind to all indications of the future, who, seeing that even at the very period when the old bank ■was infecting the very air wc breathed with its corruptions, and when public indignation was most heavily weighing on its long series of delinquencies — at that vertj moment, a successful effort was made in both houses of Congress to create a similar institution, should nevertheless lull his caution to sleep with the delusive idea that the project will ever be abandoned. Most assuredly nothing but the stern vigilance of the democracy will guArd it against an institution which may thus be prostituted to the ruin of individuals, the disgrace of the country, and which, whde so limited in its power to do good, is so potent for the perpetration of evil." In the above declared opinions. Van Buren tells the public, that it " is undeniable " that a national bank was '"repudiated by the fiamers of the constitution";— that " the constitution does not give congress the power to erect corporations within the states .... the convention refused to confer that power on congress"— that (as JelFerson said), '' this institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of onr constitution" — and " that the old bank was infecting the very air we breathed with its corruptions." In 1834 he sent, as a toast, to a 4th of July celebration at Frederlcksburgh, " Unqualified and uncompromising opj)osition to the Bank of the United States — the interest and honor of the people demand it." * I am no champion of national banks, composed of private stockliolJeiH. If we must have ]>3per, let it be the j.romises to pay of the nation, and let the nation liave tlte profit of the issues ; and if there is not national uprightness enough to manage an unifomi currency of na- tional paper, let us have specie. Clay and Web.ster asked Forsyth, Cambieleug, Wright, Van Buren, and 'their worthless allies, in 1834, to say what better s3'stem they were to build iip, if they pulled down the national bank and removed the deposits. The party answer, in Congress, in the Globe, in the Argus, every^vhere, wa-s — " We go for the pets, but no sub-trea- -sury." Thus far, Clay and Webster were right — the change was ruinous to commerce, to the public morals, to western settlers, to the widow and the orphan. Clay proposed the extraordi- nary, and, as I think, too sweeping measure of the Bankrupt Law of 1841 ; but it was the unprincipled profligacy of Van Buren, Wright, Butler, and their comrades, between 1828 and 1840, that .secmvd the passage and .sponging operation of that law. Hi.story tells us thai originally the rt'ij-iblicans stoutly resisted the introduction of paper monej^ by the federalists; but, under Van Buren and his Swiss allies, the democrats have far outstripped their old oppo- nents in spreading corporations over the land — corporations evidently too potent for evil,wnat- ever of good may proceed from them. Hearken to Van Buren, Flagg, Wright, and Croswell. This is their language to the de- mocrats of 1824 : (From the National Advocate, of May 15, 1824.] " The General [Jack.son] preferring Monroe to Madi-son, because the former could stand blood and carnage better ; his recommendation of military men generally to office ; his avowal that he would have bent the law.s to suit his purpo.ses, and hanged Cabot, Otis, and Lyman, of the Hartfijrd Convention, probably including their respectable secretary; all exhibiti; a FE- ROCIOUS dispoxitu))!,, trammelled hy no coji^litutlonal or legal barriers ; checked by no humane or just considerations. It is out of the question, out of all reason, to think of him even for a moment for president." — M. M. Noah. The editor of the Albany Argus, May 25th, 1824, thus spoke of General Jackson and his opinion.s : — " This most artful scheme for the destruction of the republican party [by the elec- tion of Jackson] — as secretly as it has been permitted to operate— as smoothly as it ha.sbeep ^ssed over — and in as fine phrases as it is now given to the world — is fully understood. Re- VAN BUREN, MARCY AND BUTLfiR BESEECHING NlC. BIDDLE. 7d It is a well known tact, that in 1826, M. Van Buren, VV. L. Marcy, B. F Butler, and Charles E. Dudley, all of them residing in Albany, signed a very polite and respectful memorial, (which has been often published to show how utterly unprincipled they are,) asking that a branch bank of the U. S. Bank, mio-ht be located in Albany ; Van Buren addressed a letter to Nicholas Biddle, warmly reconnnending the measure ; and the Albany Argus, then a national bank paper, urged the claims of the memorialists, and conceded the constitu- tionality of branch banks. General Jackson, with almost equal consistency, asked that a branch might be located in Florida, when governor there. It is impossible not to see that Van Buren and his cabal must feel the utmost con- tempt for the intelligence of their countrymen, when they thus mock them with a pretended atiection for a constitution which means anything, as by them ex- plained, and can be applied to any and every purpose, however contradictory.* pMicaiis in this state, whetlier the friends of Mr. Adams, of Mr. Clay, or of Mr. Crawford, discover tlie fall extent of it — tlie liopes it is intended to encourage, and the designs it is in- tended to accomplisli. T/teij will be the last to tind an apology for it, as they have been the tii'st to condemn it." Holland's Life, which I purchased in Steele's store, Albany, ten years ago, and foolishly credited lor trutli, tells u;;, page 319, that, " In the election ol General Jackson, Mr. Van Bu- ren plainly foresaw that he .-sliould witness the triumph of those principles for which he had struggled from his earlie^;t years." What a mocker and .^^cotfer at honesty, liberty, and the in- stitutions of his native land, this Van Buren must be! Had he chosen the stage, he could have played any part well, but that of an honest man. [From tlie Albany Argus, May 18, IS'24.1 " T/ie course adopted by Mr. Jacks.on ix food and raiment to the fkderalists a7t,d the nih ■party iiieii. It is pleasant to all who strive for the destruction of the democratic party. They will everywhere applaud it, as they have preached it; and will magnify the author of doc- trines which are .so well intended for tlwir .service." [Prom llie Alhaiiy Argus, 3l8t August, 1824.J " They [Jaclcson's supporters] profe.s.s to be republicans., and yet they support a man who is l{itoiun. to have beeti. ALW A\S A Fl^DERALIST — they profess to be the friends of the people, and yet, in Tennessee, as in New York, they have always resisted the equal and just rights of the people, and the extension of those privileges which are mo.st valuable to tiiem. It is the duty of every republican to expose these conffadictions and inconsistencies of conduct and profession ; and, as far as po.ssible, counteract the purposes they are intended to answer, namely, THE PROSTRATION (JF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, the sulrverSMn of the real inter- ests of the people, AND THE ELEVATION OF TEIE OLD ARISTOCRACY, and the dis- appointed, iLneasy 'nieii of all parties.'" * The following is a true copy of the petition of M. V. Buren ami others to Nicholas Biddle and hl» brother directors, for a slice from tlie unconstitutional loaf. " To the Directors of the Bank of the United States : The memorial of the subscribers, in behalf of them- selves and their lellow citizens of Altiany, respectfully showeth — That, since the completion of the Northern and AVestern Canals of this State, such facilities are given to transportation, that the quantities of country produce brought to this market from the interior of this State are increased to an immense amount, and when 10 this is added the produce which will he lirought to this market from the fertile regions of the northwestern parts of Pennsylvania, the State of Ohio, and the Territory of Michigan, some idea maybe formed of the amount of business which mi^lit be done in this place, was there a sufficient monied capital located here, to give coun- tenance and support to commprcial enterprise. The capital of the Banks located here, under state incorpora- tions, is entirely insuflicient to afford those facilities to comitiercial enterprise which the business of the place would warrant, and vvhicli the most caulious prudence would justify. The limited capital of our banks forbids the extension of our trade. Merchants of moderate fortune an- discouraged from taking up their abode amongst us, from a knowledge that die bankinfj capital of the place is inadequate to the demands which are made upon it (or the prosecuting of a sufficiently extensive busiiiess to render it profitable ; and instances are not wanting of active, intelligent and enterprisini; merchiuits removing from this place to the city of New York, to participate in the benefits of an increaseil banking; capiiil, ilio' their business has principally been continued with the interior of this State. The western worbl is pom inu it ; lre:isiiris into the market ol Albany, but its citizens are doomed, with tantalized feelings, to behoUl a rirh and prolitable trade float past them to the city of New York, solely for the want of a sufficient banking capital located amongst them. Ctiuld the produce brought to this place be purchased here, such portion as is not wanteil for home consumption might be exported directly from here to a foreign market, (as far as the navigation of the Hudson would permit,) and return cargoes, calculated iot the interior of the country, might be imported, without the expense of trans-shipment at New York, or the profiti of the importing merchant there. These cmibiderations have induced ilie citizens of Albany once more to ask for ihe establishment of a Hranch or office of discount and deposit of the Bank of the United States m this city. It id hoped this application will be favorably received, as the same causes which render it desirable to ihe citizens of Albany to have a Branch of the United iStates Bank established here, conclusively show that it would be a 80 fttCttARD D. DAVIS ON I^TARTIN VAN BUREN. So late as January 3, 1828, the Regency hatl not matured their grand safety- fund humbug. The Albany Argus of that date " commends to the perusal of all candid men," a letter to Mr, Walsh of the National Gazette, of Dec. 27, 1S27, disapproving of "the singular and impolitic proposition of Mr. Barbour to sell the shares owned by government in the U. S. Bank You will rejoice at the final vote on the motion of Mr. Barbour : . . . there was no ap- prehension here, at any moment, that the re.solution would be adopted ; but there was an apprehension that the mere proposition would have an injurious elfect upon the public pecuniary concerns of the nation ; and there was, there- fore, a determination to put the question at rest as soon as possible." C H A P 1 E R XIX. Richard T). Daris' on Van Burer\^ Policy. — His Jngratihtde towards General Pitcher.— Soiiihirick vp for Governor. — Van Biircn entraps Rochester, and the Argus goes for GUiy and Adams. — Van Biiren, King., and the Albany Post Office. — Kendall looking ahead. — The Jackson Gampaign. — Isaac Hill on .LQ. Jldams. Richard D. Davis, of Poughkeepsie, an anti-whig member of the last Con- gress for Dutchess county, was an early su[)porter cf Jackson and opponent of Crawford, Butler and ^'an Buren. He was next a warm admirer of Calhoun, and upheld the Telegrajjh. Calhoun's course on nullilication displeased him, and drove him round to Van Buren's camp. In 1S40 and 18-14, he gave Van Buren a powerful suj)port, for he is energetic and eloquent. 1 think he is not at present very partial, either to Polk, Texas, or the extension of the area of slavery. In Van Buren's letters to Hoyt, iSos. 16::$ and 165, page 207, he tells him that a certain zealous Jackson man could not then be removed without danger, and that \yestervelt had saved the Albany Regency at the nominating convention of 182S, by throwing Governor Pitcher overboard, and setting up Throop. A letter of R. D. Davis, addressed to General Jackson, from Pough- keepsie, April ir)th, 18.31, throws a very clear light on \'an Buren's policy. It was first published in the \'\'ashington Telegraph.. After telling General Jackson that Mr. Van Kleeck, P. M. at Poughkeepsie, was one of those " rascally post- masters" who were for him and Clinton, when Van Buren was the enemy of both, he adds that his removal was threatened because he had not been a Buck- tail. He then describes Van Buren's policy, in these words: " Th.Tt p ilicv nml that distiucliuii, was lo injiko a dilibreiic'^ Ix'tween tlioso of your friends who had l;i'cn i.'liiiloniaiis mid those who had been the toolsaiidadlicreiitsofMr. Van Buren — to perseenU", oppress. ;'jid insult tlic fori nt^r, and to ass^oimdi/e, pniinote, and favor the latter. As a meinondilo .xainplc of this, 1 need hut mention the pro.-oiptioii of General Pileher. Tlie Herlinier ( 'ouvention, whieh nominated Mr. Van Buren fur Governor, and of whieh 1 was^a iiieint)er as one of tiie DeU'i' bii>inOJ.- (loi.f, tlian .>t'V.'ral dl'llir IhmmcM'^ 1 riii.-.l la s<'a poll lowris. 'I'ln- local siiim. lion of Allian) ri-iidcis it an iMilr. p.u hitwi'ii tli.- I'.asliTii Siali s ai'dtlu- Wivlcni CoMaiu-; li'twceii the South anil llir Norlli. anil ioas.-ive ri',:ioas who.;e proihice would he hiou(!lit I., marlict. Iii.siiiiah, iherelore. .-is ilie e-^taMis^niii ni ofa liiaiieh he.e uoiihl iioi only he hiLlily advantapeoiis lo lids ciiy, hut a siiirie id piolil lo the pan lit iiisiilulion. we Jaiiie ihil th ■ iliier.oip ol' the t'luled .Staiei B ink will iiilaiilish uii otiice oI'dHcouiit und deposit ai tins plaie. (Signed) M. V UUUEN, B. r HI I'M'^R, W. I. .M AUt'V, and others. Albany; July 10, le'.T.." i VAN BUREN SAVED BY WESTERVELT. GENERAL N. PITCHER. 81 policy refused to nominate General Pitcher for tlie office of Lieut. Governor, wlien it viaa expected and wished by nine-tenths of vour friends that he should ha\'c been. Gen, i'ltcher had never been a Clintonian, but had been a uniform Bucktail ; and when, by the demise ot Mr. Clinton the i^overnment of the state devolved upon him, his administration was conducted m an eqiKil and impartial manner towards all your friends, ?nd distinguished by a firm and honorable opposition to the policy which it was Mr. Van Buron s intention to enforce Gen. Pitcher was proscribed and prostrated by the agency, management, and influence of Mr. Van Buren and his personal adherents, for the above reasons, and because it was well known that, in the event then contemplated, and now consummated, of Mr. Van Buren's being called into the cabinet Gen. Pitcher would have continued to act on the same liberal and honest princi- ples His'great zeal and valued services in your support, his popularity throughout the State, and the certain injury to vour cause by the absence of his name from our ticket, had indeed caused the faction of which I am complaining, to conceal their dark designs from the great body of the Republican partv until tlie moment of their execution ; but they afforded him no protection against the vengeance of those who hold subserviency to their vievre as the only merit, and the refusal of it as the only and the inexpiable oilence. No other single act was of such signal and lamentable injury to'our cause throughout the State as this ingratitude and in- justice to Gen. Pitcher. In all the ensuing measures of that election, and in every county of the State that I have heard of, the personal partisans of Mr. Van Buren pursued the same policy, and adhered to it with a pertinacity so preposterous, insolent, and oppressive, that nothing but your own personal popularity and the magnanimous devotion of your real friends saved us from an entire and universal overthrow. In many districts your earliest and constant friends, driven by their just indignation at such abuse, forsook your cause, because it had become identi- fied with that ot their inexorable and merciless persecutors. The result was, that from a party literally overwhelming at and immediately after Mr. Clinton's death, we were reduced to a mere majority, and Mr. Van Buren himself only escaped defeat by the accidental and collateral advantage which accrued to him from the anti-masonic excitement at the West ; nor, was he now to renew the contest unaided by the implication of your interests in his election, could he avoid being defeated by a large majority." ..." Van Buren and his adherents are now reaping the reward of all that Clinton did in your behalf; and he and they, who came in at the eleventh hour, and when no man else would employ them, are now lording it in this State over those who bore the heat and burden of the day— and lording it with such an extremity of inso- lence and oppression, as is only commensurate M'ith the power they have thus fortuitously obtained." ..." If the memory of Clinton and what he did, caiuiot preserve his friends from the remorseless and eternal hostility of Mr. Van Buren; if the patronage of the Generai Government, which we support, is to be used for our destruction and to fulhl the base purposes of Mr. Van Buren's personal and viperous malignity ; if these things are to be, tliey must be, but they shall not be in this county, without at least one man's humble ellbrts to prevent them." r have long been of opinion that Solomon Southwick was set up in 1828, as a candidate for governor, to make up for Van Buren's want of popularity and secure his election. The Albany Argus of March 8, 1828, says : " We publish, in another column, Mr. Southwick's acceptance of a nomination for governor, made by his friends, on the 26th ult. at Batavia. Notwith.standing this nomina- tion is sneered at by the Daily Advertiser, and some Avho are very willing to receive the aid of Mr. Southwick's exertions in their behalf, so long as they are performed in another capacity; yet we know of nothing that debars the friends of any individual from avowing their preference, even if such avowal chance to cross other and conflicting views." In Van Buren's letter to Hoyt, page 205, he rests partly for success on the faith he has that " Southwick's vote witl be large." When Southwick had the Albany post-office, Van Buren con- sidered it safe, but he raised an awful tempest at Albany and Washington, when Southwick's insolvency led to the nomination of Van Rensselaer.* * Solomon Southwick was successively in oifice as Clerk of the Legislature and State Printer, and was very popular. He got the Mechanics and Farmers' Bank under his control — acquired great wealth — tuok the federal and commercial side in the war, in 1812 — and although he had abused Colonel Monroe and his friends unmercifully through his press, was appointed Postmaster at Albanv, in which capacit ■/ I first saw him in February, 1821, Strange to tell, in .January, 182-3, he was a defaulter and a bankrupt, advertising for the benefit of the State insolvent act, as was, alxjat the .■;»-„ ^PP;';^;;^^,;,^?^ whom he could confol-and the result u. th.s ^'^^ t^"'- ^•j'JX"',';'''^^^^ Chenanoo, and elsewhere, .nanifest how well h.s measures ^^^ f^^' ^^J ^^^ Buren feared that Rochester's success would secure the ^ote ot thejt^je ^or Ad.ms.and hence even party ties appear to have been ^-^^^^ ^^^f ^^^^^^ I r. t t^ TL*. Npw York t^aqu rer, always on the aleit, (sa)sthe i\ai. luieu. o?F^b -3 1^2. ) as a leaSy nunun'ated the Hon. M. V. Buren for the vacant nflW ^f^mvrnor '' Noah was ready to do this while Clinton's reinams were oflice ot go . noi. ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^,, of his subservience, given m £ S;:i?or^tlce ':: ^l stron. enough to convu.ce everybody, more . yet ""'Thlf Van Buren was for Adams in 1825 is clear, even from //.. Albany Argm 1 Vnn thTl^th of Feb -lid • " In relation to the choice we have only to ::pe 't' h w: ha d^cd^^^^^ former occasions-that between the two promment clnd.dates, iMessrs. J.ckso. and Adams, a large major, y of the re- rbli^^s and of the Electors of this state, gave ^^^ ^o^ms the pre^renc.^ ' Adams was elected in Feb. lS-25-he was, as Noah ^^^^^/^^^^'V^ ^^'^^^^ Buren's second choice. While Jackson's talents were ^'^^^^ 7;^' J"^,^;^^^^^^^ about the time when Adams formed h.s cabinet (same month), thus addressed '''^'"^"ave heard withm the h.w last days various ^--1^^'7 .^ ^[^J^^ dL-tr b- n= t^ ^^:^SEB Ta^s of the Michio-an Territory, as Secretary at War. W ith a ^/Dma/o^ea FAIL ?olT^£ltT THE CONi^DEN CE OF THE COUNTRY.- ,. », .II,-- fy.a-nA^ wtfrp thiin (iBclarins their confidence in Adams and • At the very moment that Van Buren «"d h.. '^nemi' w^^^^^ would soon be in the ascend Clay, Clay's /,,/s. friend, KendaM, was berfmmug to pertene hu lac^MO p^j^„kf„rt, Ky. . ant. On Ihe 2nth of Feb., 182.% he thu. «^dres.ed Mr Cia>j.^W« ^^^,^,^ „,. j,^^ Presidential "Dear Sir-. Since the fnt'osed wiis wr.t en, we hdve r^^^^^^^^ nearly .o, approve the course election. It creates very lutle ^;e"«;.; '"".I'^^lf^-^,, '^^Vl mid n^ nnd several who were for you of our representat.on. Jackson s '^'^'"L, '/^nm-trv thf re will be a consider;ib\e stir ; but if the administration join them. I tho.lt in some se^^^^'iV , '^^nTirvonlv T ere is much inquiry whether you will be otTered isprudent, it will d.e away. J'P'^f."' ^^^Xm^crd vers.ty ot' om^^ ought to do if it U or will accept the Secretaryship of rotate ^""^ ;""\\';7^.;^^^^^^^^^ because it i-- impossible for us to know offered. It seems to "^^ 'hat n".mu here cari^^a^ ,^^ ^^^^^^^ „^, ,^^ p ,3 ,^, ^nd o. lour all the circumstances. Is "^"'^ "i'.^^ P'^""f^" "'>. "i.^„,.,„„,, with the expectation that he will succeed him in years 1 Will not Clinton unite his •"t^'^.^.tf " ''^ hpt„on"v.vel'u to withstand 7 Will not Adams, for his own the Presidency ; and will not such a '^'"''l"^ 'X, intTre"t ^ nci ow uothii.s! of these matters ; but on view- safety, retain Crawford, and th;>eby conc.l a ehi, m^^^^^^ '="< v j. ^ave flitted through my mind, ing at a distance the posture of men and paities, indicatea ny _^^^ ^^i^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ KENDALL." . „ ,:.„ T i».>rn thit Van Bureu's bargain with Jackson's frinnds— their IBU From a source I cannot as yet men ton ' 1^^,^" ."^^ ,,''Dec 1K6. lu that month ho e.xpected the friends of tual understanding, I m.ay as well call "• 'f^r= ''<"^,'" h^.^a Cambreleng are seen directins Hoyt to circulate Adam-! to attack him, and soon afterwards [t*^^- '«^;( /J® Carolina rSee N-s. 41, 4-2, 43, 43, 46, and 47], from can. Green's '^^^^^IJ^J^J^ Z.^ ce ves'.f lelr dLte'd "Charle'ston, s'. C, May 7, 18-27 ." and VIOLABLY TO SUBSERVE THE PhOl Lb or inc. ^^^^^ influential friend3,to re- C. Calhoun ha-, been prevailed upon, in conlormiti to '"y^'^"" "' j j^^^^e De VVitt Clinton to accept linquish his r:'-^'";VP;';,V^r„\.';i ^^tift^.*^ ervf: 'Ltf^U,;' of St "te tmd^ Gen. Jackson, and at the end of the Vice Presidency. Martin \ '^^ ^^^;f 'V^V j? p,-e-=idency with a perfect understanding that he will pur- ^"^' I'^l^ ii'nnTHFl'N POUCY -^"1 *"'<^""^' improvements If I am Z, much Sorm^d, a^abinet" "so arranj-ed as to commaitd the greatest possible extent Jl political influence." ,„t Caihnnn nn thnir tickets— Jackson served eight years. With the»» Clinton died-the rival '^f"'^'^^ «^ P" .^,^','Xe 1™^^ ie'27--and "a political Grimalkin- purrU.g 84 TIIK ALBANY REGENCY ON THE SAFETY FUND LAW. C H A P T K R XX. CrosxcU on the StiftJy Fund Law. — JJojiL-crnf/ Vesciibed by t/iosf u-ho iinJer- nloDdil. — Dcspcratt Ihmk Failiireti. — Ji'/tv SKlfi'icd bi/ fhviri. — Van Jiiiren''s Pruscr'iption in 1S29. — His Efforts to olttain Chailcrs in [S2S. — I'/ie Aryua and Butler Mnriuiir. — Mechanics and Fanmrs'' Juink, Al:)any. — The. Two- Third Rule at Fault. — CUnion'^s WarnnKin^ l.^lti and IS 16. — Hammond on N. Y. lianh'.mj. — Flaijq^ Wright and Earll cuininij Charters. ATiL EinviN Ci{(j.s',VHi,L of the Al'.uiny Argus, st-nl mc, in 183-1, a puniplilet ciititlfd " Orii.';iii, provisions and clll-ct of the Sallty Fund Law," with a request that 1 would notice it. For the first Lime, 1 have now given it a careful perusal. It professes to be a reply to Mr. U'alsh's Quarterly Review, the lleport of the Union Committee, and the strictures in Con2,ress on what is termed a dangerous political deception by Van Buren, under whose short government of ^aw York the fund and its commissioners were reconanended. The pam])hlet may be fairly assumed to be Van Euren's defence. It appeared, with high commenda- titMis in his press, the Argus, and was approvingly referred to by the presses controlled by bank democrats throughout the slate.* ill If^Ji). 'J'htit ycHi-, Aug. 8. he siiid in liis Patridt, " No iii;iii unites iiioie of tlie qnulitics of the hniiest, \\\i- rialit, Mild hIiIo st.itesiii:iii, than John Qiiinty Adams. iMr. Adams' taloiits ;iro lilted solely to ruin in a repuli- lic. litcaii^e riiiublicmi govermiient i;aii only lie sustained liy iiite^iily Hod plMJii dealintr." In 1&2\, Hill went for (Vnuford. his nanvi'hiy. 1 wish I conid sav the siinie nrtJiMK-ral .laiksori. ****** We ilti not like to lie liauKi'd uilliniit rhyme or reason." 'Bylr'J7'ciurs i^-dve " littk' or no further guaranty for lite faiiliftil execiaion of their triLst than the olilii^ation to pay their debts in sjiecie" — ^tliat in some ca.ses paymcnls on shar^ps liad been made in specie, the money witlidrawn a^'ain, and n.jtes of lir.ml substituted, with nu other security tlian the unpaid .shares held by the paity — tiie fraudulent banks had thu.s {^one inU) oj)cration, anil v.iien failure followed, the capital was found to consist of the Avorthle.ss notes of woitldess individuals — that tlie fViWi/s/tr lei^iskttive ) ov/cr u) tict as bankers, issue paper as nionev, c'ce., conferred In' law on such banlv.'^, had induced lioncst people to take their no'cs fir |a-()pcrly and hibor, and deposit mr.ney with their rascally manai^crs, wlio generally plac'.'J their jilunler, thus acquired, licyond the reach of the creditois of tlie instilnlions. If retl-renec be made to niy account "of the Hudson Bank, the t-ld Kuti'alo Rank, the Wash- in'^inn and Wai ren Danlc, the Bank at Pltittsbiirf^)), and similar institutions, in this volume; and to Prosper M. Wctinoiv and P. W. Spicfr's United States Lombard Co., the Mortis Canal BiMik, 'i'rade.-mcn's ]^>anlv, Fulton Bank, the Lifl- and Fire Co., ( "iu'mical Bank, and (rthcr kinirt'd euifcrn'--, notice 1 in my Lives of lioyl and Butler; as abn to iliereporied hank frauil trials of IH-lCi, of which Noah and Webb apjiear lo leuiin a recollection, when s]ieakin,i( of Presidrnt Polk's Navy Aj^ent, Prosper M. Welinotc lpnires^2-3l and '2-2'^]. the reader will .see ihat Ihc public had liccn so cheated liy Van Biircii and his adhcrcals. thcii' exclusive lefjfisla- lioii. !'i:ien charters, and dishonest bank aiifcnls, thai ihc iiy wa-- loud ami universal for an clii'icni check upon such accumulaled wron.^'s. So f.ir were V;in Burcii, Wrii^hi, Buder, Flaj^i;:, Cro.swell, and. the party in power, from desiriri'/ to clief two-ihirds of the mejiibers any lomicr lo counlctumce the oilioiis sysicni, \'an Biiicn came out ihrou.'/h his Aiea s, aiul vilihed liic luo-thirds clause in the consliliilion of IH'Jl. When it becam'" ap|)arent tluit some concession must be made to ])ublie sentiment, the inoclc-j^iiaranty of die Safety Fund Uiibhle was inlrodiiced by Van Buren, as a .-cheme invented by Joshua Foriian, an old li'lerali-l of ( )n(Mid;ii;a. It pretend.ed to make the banks enter ink) a sort of mutu.il av iiiaiicr the euninii-:ioner clause enabU'i! the executive to pry intft tlie concerns of TIIK SAFETY FUND A TRICK TO OBTAIN MORE BANKS. 85 When wt; look back upon the dishoii'.'st b;iuk legislation of V an iiuren, But- ler, Wright, Barker, Tiiroop, iNliircy, and their iViend^b, ]):evious to 1829, and compare it witii this parly account; and then look tbrvvard to i.s37, and so up to IS-II, at Van Burea, Cainbreleiig, Bowne, Butler i: Co , denounciu"- as vile and infamous the fabric artfully reared in 1829, we are compelled to aumil that the chief actors in tlie continued knavery of the last twenty years, must ieel a degree of contempt for the people they liave so successfully deceived, beyond anything to bj met with on the records of monarchy, from the days of John Law to those of Cornelius W. Lawrence, C. C. Camlireleiig, and Benjamin F. Butler. Tlie pamphlet, or rather Van Buren, Wright, Croswcil, ^:c., went on truly to state, that when a stockjobber (like Hoyt or Cambrelcng) had got hold of a ([uan- tity of shares of one of these moonshine banks, and aided in rilling it, he could " hypothecate " his shares, raise cash on them, join a couipany ot adventurers like himself, purchase as many of the shares of a sound, well managed bank as would secure the control of it, by the eleption of Bullerizing directors, and then push as many of the notes of the bank out among the people as possible, get as many deposits as they could, issue the post notes, or promises to pay at a distant time, of the bank, for money or property, sell out their shares at an any bank — and it lulled the people into a false security, out of w'.nch ihe .-tuckjobbLT aaJ [loli- tical sla;^-e manager reaped an abiuidant harvest of ill-goLteu wealth. It was becaase nut one cliarter could be got in 18-2(i, 18-27, and ]8'28, in cuusequence of tae two-thiid rule, that the sleek })arty leader opened his biid'^et in 182l>, with the panacea ot'a saL't;/ fiuid. In ld3t. Van Buren and his tbiluwers ))i'etended that the Saiei/ Fund Law ni" 1829 was in- tended as a ])roteetion to the pe )ple. Hel'ore believing- that. tale, be pleased to listen to iVlr. Martin Van Buren, -a t'other side of the question. 1 quote tlie Albany Art,Mis of April 8, 1828: •' We ltai.1 supposed that the question as to the expediency of a renewad of the .solvent e.\'ist- ing ehartei's was conceded. Whether this be so or nut, it appears to be uri^e-lionable as to their sulveiicy or the character they may su.stain '] To this qtie.stion there is an ea.sy answer; and the only dillerencc of opinio:) probably is as to the time and manner of t!ie renewal. As to the time, wnat period more tavjrable than the present 1 It will not betray a hazardous or unne- cessary haste, iv.'i.ils/, i/. ifitl ar.iii.i/ I.'l: cri/s iif If. iirar 'ippraa'-h to llic c.rixruJ'ihi of Ike c/uirlcrs. * * * * * So fully convinced was the legislature of MassachuseUsot tlie iui'iiortance to the pub- lic interests and the stability of the institutions, that /'/. voi.rN'TKKRKn t.i rkmow. /hk/ ,/iJ rmcu- Ih' rh'irkr.i „J the IJ^ui.'.s in. that .st,it; SIX Oil SEVEX YEARS tufarr the luiut ',>] nir„ri>i,ri,tion ha.t expired. Delay, indeed, may serve the int 'rests of the lobl)y, Ir.il can scarcely jao.note the interests of the community. ***** We have no interest in the renewal ol' any (diartcr, beyond what every citi/en has," &c. The Mechanics and Farmers' Banlc at Albany, to who.se manager, T. W. Olcott, Butler's letters and the Safety Fund give additional notoriety, \i'as incorporated in 181 1, the moineiit the old U. S. Bank charter was vetcK'd by the casting vote of Gov. Olinton. At thew times, bank dividends w..'re otten 'J to 18 per cent., and the premiums on ■privil<.!j:e(l stock 20 to :!3 per ceiii. This ixink was obtained on the j)lausible pretext of benefiting farmers and mechanics, and the president and a majority k)1 the tiirei;tors were requiretl to be meclianii-s. Solomon Soutlnvick was the lirst president, and Gorham A. Worth, the cashier. Wurilfs jMiclry is noticed liy Butler (page lOoJ), and Jacob Barker speaks of him as a friend (page r,)2). He is now, I believe, the cashier ot a bank in this city. In due time the M. and F. fell into ilegency hands, and Maicy's father-in-law, Benj. Knower, became its president. When KiH)wer stopped payment, in 18ol, Van Buren's succe.-;soi' in the U. S. Senate, 0. E. Dudley, sticceeded him. This Banlc litis been always identitiei.1 with Van Buren's interests, and his son John v as a director taid the btink attorney ti>r it in \\l^<-ijl^ ^ AbJ^ i TORS Zt public justice herself seemed to be almost set at defiance - This state of thingrwe are to^ld, induced Governor Van Buren when state physicmn in chief, to prescribe his grand nostrum of the Safety Fund Law. ,T^nXi<, nractices for covenous or oppressive purposes, and whether they had paid their bills in SLTy SSJS^to'Ihrcharters.o^^^ so. The report of the comauttee, and the ^^.ThTc'^rir^eS?^^^^^^^^^^^^ pHncipally consists of the nc.es of those baTkTwhose nominal capiuls are small, and composed pnncipally of the notes of he fndivTdual stockholders, called stock-notes : so that the security of the public consists of the rTrrvIte fo t™ ofrndi^idual stockholders, and those fortunes, m a great measure, consist of fhe stSk of "he bank. Their influence too frequeuUy, nay oft. n. already beguis i'\f^l^'l me siocK oi "'': „itr,apther alanmncr and unless some judicious remedy is provided by the E5XSr4T£lltjon feness attempts to cUtrol all selections to oihce in our Sties n^? the eections to this very legislature. Senators and viembers of assembly wdl be T^^h^lnnk^forthekseais in this caviM, and thus the wise ends of our civil m^itutums mil rious poSn has already take/deep root, and requires immediate legislative interterence with '^QeSRooflnd Messrs. Meigs, Edwards, and Sharpe, made able speeches for inquiiy, bn?Mr Oak?ev oppo ed it The resolve was adopted, 70 to 30, and sent to the Senate, ^.^ere ?hev^er?caSfur protecting the knavery of Washington and War^n, Buftalo, Hudson, SsTi^r-h InHher rotten banks of the Van Buren family Van Buren denounced m- nuirveffectuaUy crushed the Assembly's resolve and protected the banks in their villany, Seir insolvency and the breaking uown of many others of like character, closed the scene. For proofXSrinted journals of the Senate of aN. Y. Look also into the secret corres- nnnf^nce of Van Buren, Butler, Hoyt, Barker, &c. , , , e .\, u-n ^ '' D^?n° the November session [1824], a complaint was made that the passage of the bill for chartering [the Chemical bank of New York], had been procured by corrupt means. An nvestieation was ordered, and a committee appointed with power to send tor persons and mreSS evidence giVen before the committee afforded a most disgusting pictuie of the SeSity of the members of the legislature, and indeed, I might say, of the degradation of human nature itself The attempt to corrupt, and in fact, corruption itself, was not confined to Anyone party. It extended to individuals of all parties, and itisnot improbable that the m- lereS of members in these applications for moneyed incorporations had an eftect on the political action of some of them. Mr Caldwell, a mtness, testified that he heard a senator say, I am a Crawford man to^ay, but unless the Chemical Bank passes, I shall be a peoples man to- morrow.' In short, it was evident that the foul and sickening scenes ot 1812, had been re- enacted in 1824." — Hammond, vol. i., p. 178. , ,i, o . The old bank of Rochester, chartered 1824, was a regency favorite. It passed the Senate, Feb 16 1824 and among the yeas were our present Governor, Silas Wright, Jonas Earll, canal commissioner, John Cramer, Charles E. Dudley, Heman J. Redheld, and Jcjur Bow- man In the Assembly, 30th Jan., it was votai for by A. C. Flagg, our comptroller^ Mr. Flagg Sso voted for the Fulton Bank, N. Y., that year ; as in the Senate, April 1, 1824, did Sila^ Wright Ja-sper Ward, Jonas Earll, Jr., John Leffert-s, and Perley Keyes This histoij of that charter is before the world. On same dav, in Senate, the Long Island Bank pa.ssed by the votes of Silas Wright, Jasper Ward, C. E. Dudley, Jonas Earll, Jr Perley Keyes, and Farraiid Stranahau In the Assembly, A. C. Flagg, not having made up his mind, absented himself till the voting was over. Did vou ever see a cat watch a mouse, reader •? Just so will the little countiy bank duector, who has lent cash to a farmer on the mortgage of his place, watch hun. SLxty day renewals, mth fresh meals of interest, are an eating moth. The speculation fails— the note is now as big as half the value of the farm— the Daniel S. Dickensoa of the law tightens the screws— the fann is ihe banker's, and its owner on his way to Iowa. 88 VAN BUREN GOVERNOR. WHAT THEN HAPPENED. CHAPTER XXI. Governor Van Buren for more JJanks, and acja'wst them. — Judge Furmans report. — Dividhuj the spoih. — Blair gues for more Baidcs. — Webster on the Pets. — Ifiroop succeeds Ian Buren. — tlubbelCs Prophecies.— -Chandler Siarr on their Fulfillment. — The. Safeti/ Fund Scheme a Fraud on the Co.intnj. — General George P. Barker. — A'larcy on the Buffalo Bank. — .Bank officers tried for Felony. — How JJcquitted. At the opening of the legislatui-e of 1829, [Jan. 7] Governor Van Buren said a great deal about banks,* but very little about education. One paragraph of his message was in these words : g^ " To dispense with Banks altogether is an idea which seeins to have -^^^ gt^ no advocate; and to make ourselves wholly dependent on those =^ (J[^^ established by federal authority deserves none. ]f these are correct ^CjJ) ^i^* views, the only alternative would seem to be, between a renewal of the "^ ^f^ charters of the sound part of the existing Banks, or to anticipate the ^^ {jf^ winding up of these concerns by the incorporation of new institutions." '^:^ When a few steps higher up preferment's ladder, he wrote Sherrod Williams jn 1836, " I have always been opposed to the increase of Banks."! • On the lotli of .laimary, ISiD, Van Buren wrote .Tndsro rormnn, rit New Vork, fur a pnpular version of U'n plan, soni his rc(|ii(rst tliroiijsh Jesse Hoyt [sec No. 1G2,J and on lli(> -'7tli laid it l>y niMMa^re before tlie li'j.islaiurc. Ne.Tl &\y ll appi'iiri'd in the Ar^ns, and the impression Is irrcsi^iihle, ihat llie sclu'rne lor passing a hatch of new and old hanks, to suit favorite interests, was, like Throop's siuxi'ssiou, and VVestrrvelt's "};reiit salvation," li matter of har^ain and :;ood nnderstandin^ hetween Van Buren, "JIimiii. 'I'liroup, .\Iarcy, Mast;, and ciMlain of the pariy ltnder.s, at Herkimer, in Sopiemher, l&i^. Fornian puis forwani his plan as of " a cuinniuniiy soinetliin>; at'ter tlie manner of onr federal union— with a supervision over tlie whole, as perfect and more heneticial for llie public THAN Tii\T OKA OKNKRAL iiANK OVER ITS BRANcijKS." ilow Van Huren'sscliiiiie operated — how tliifchar- terM were got— the slock distributed — wlio the men wore who were most active in procuiui; charters — wlio and what the cuminissionors wen — wiiat proj)ortiond of stork went to le^'isiators tind pronfneni patriots, like Olcot , Miircy, Flaj.'^, Vanderpool. Dix, Wri}.'lit, Lawrence, Butler, Croswell, Torter, CornlM.', B'ekinaii, (JdiiIiI, Vimihl', and Faulkner, or to men of straw lor thi'ni— and wheiher tliose who pniiitiMl l)y ilie>e safety fund sjieculatious were not le.i;^iied to;;ei!ieras Rejency suppoiters, both before and after IS.?!) — lliesi; areqn siionsllril could best be answered by a special work on N. Y. r.-iiikinu, wiiicii would show in detail how the c''.arte;s were lo;;-rolle!, and for and l)y whum. Such a work would be the Black Book of the ]-^mpire Stale in niiht earnest. IJr. Max w> 11, a lejjisl.iior, addressed Zeno AIIi:n the postmaster of te comliules by saying — " So Ohio, Indiana, IIIIboIs, Mis.icts onr own currency, and extends over the pursuits of our citizens its powerful in- tiueui'e." On the 12th of March, Van Buren abdicated in favor of his lieutenant, Enos T. Throop, one of the most thoroughgoing U. 8. Bank men in the state. He had voted for the bank in Congress in 1816, and resolutely defended it every- where. " If ample talents,^^ said Van Buren, about Throop, " and a sound dis- ci iminat\n. I'hey assure the legisla- iine of their utter inability to prevent the plunder of banks by tlie negligence of directors and 1 ogueiy of cashiers, or the villainy of both combined. 1. Because it is difficult, and often impossible, by the exercise of tlie greatest vigilance, to compel a bank to suspend till it is hopelessly insolvent. 2. Until a bank has violated a ptisitive law, it is usually boycmd their powe's (if intorf.n-ence, through an application for a cliancery injunctinn. 3. 1'hough the management is very iniprovideni, the loans made in large sums to a few favorites, or badly secured and very doiihtfu! — though the olJicers may be the principal borrowers, and the mana- geis evidently hazarding the capital of a bank, yet the commissioners dare not interfere. 4 90 WHIG COMMISSIONERS AND VAN BUREN's SANDY HILL FUND. ing Post, reported from the Albany Argus. He was convinced that the bank fund would prove only a splendid premium orti^red to dishonesty and fraud — that many expedients would be resorted to by tlie managers of a corrupt insti- tution, in failing circumslances, to push as many of their bills into circulation as posjiible, the whole banking capital of the state being pledged for the redemp- tion. He wanted to guard the honest stockholder, infants, widows, aged per- sons retired from business who iuid their funds in the banks, but this scheme " It is true tliat an ifijunction will be gianled when the luin of the Lank has Leen con.sunimated by actual insolvenry, or in eases where half the eapital stuck has been lust." 5. But these facts must be sworn to, as facts actually known tu the cuiinuissiuaers, ur proved i>u oath by others. 6. Even if a well founded belief of insolvency is the result of an investigatiun by the comuii.vsioners, Chancellor Walworth carries the matter lu a future day, and this alibrds time to the bank olticers to give preferences to those they may desire to favor, and to substitute worthlei--s paper, or paper at long dates, for notes at short dates and well secured. The bank capital is oi'rm placed " in the liands of reckless and unprincipled managers, and unrestrained by either iiiviral or legal obligation." 7. Examinations of banks take place but once in four months — the commis.sioner has often little knowledge of the debtors or of the real value of the other funds—" he is precluded from disclosing the names of the debtors," and has to believe whatever the managers may tell him. Even if the information is sworn to, it is not worth much. 8. " The selection of President and capable Directors must, of necessity, constitute the ereat .safeguard of bank stockholders "—BUT THESE CONSIDERATIONS' SELDOM INFLUENCE THE STOCKHOLDERS IN THEIR CHOICE. 9. Officers and managers put in, arc fortilied by proxies, whicli keep them in. They liave lost much of late by specu- lating unwisel}'. "Wnat a commentary on that gram! humbug, the Safety Fmid Law, by which false swearing is declared to be perjury, and the exhibition of false books, or entries, to the commi.ssioners, a felony ! ! Justice to the guilty is a mockery, and even Benjamin Butler sneers at the idea of calling the laiaves to account. Is this, can it be, free, enlightened, democratic America *? The America of my eai ly dreams it surely is not. In 183G, George P. Barker was elected to the Assembly from Erie County, to electioneer for the charter of the City Bank of Buffalo. He did so, and obtained it, through the votes of Senators .T. and L. Beardsley, Armstrong, Gansevoort, Coe S. Downing, Griltin, Hubbard, J. Hunter, Geo. Hujitinglon, H. F. and J. P. Jones, Lacy, Lawyer, Livingston, Lounsberry, E. ('. Mack, tlie party printer, Maison, Segcr, the ex-clerk of assembly. Van Schaick, D. Wager, Steiling and Spiakt-r. Samuel Vuuiig, with Loomis, James Powers (see page 70), and one or two more, formed the oppusitiun. Prosper M. Wetmore was its supporter in tlic Assembly, and also the supporter of almost every other bank asked for. Polk sticks to him as Navy Agent here, like a brother. Van BureiVs followers had their share of the plunder, by agree- ment. One jnominent operator (Corning, I think), had ;8;:i(),0UU of tin- stock, and when the bank- failed, the Argus had the assurance to call the concern a "whig bank party" " machine." Fiom tirst to last. General George P. Barker, abolitionist, Canadian Patriot, stockjobber, and Van Buren's steady tool, was a director of the City Bank— he was also its attorney, transacting its law business. John B. Maty, another ex-Van Buien man, was the first presi- dent, and he and his partner, Isaac S. Suiith, the loco-foco candi, the Safety Fund Commissioners reported the bank to be sound and healthy, though it was even then utterly worthless— so loo, the state authorities had lent it more than ftl 00,000 of the public fund.s — a dead lo.ss. The bank had not only issued the extra allowance of its notes mentioned in the statutes, but also many thousands of dollais beyond the legal limit —and when Marcy was named as its receiver, he swore that not only wuukJ over $iiOO,000 of its notes be redeemable out of the state treasury, but that " it is supposed that a still larger amount of the frauclulcnt issues of that bank ihaii is already redeemed is lurking yd in recesses only known to its cor- rupt managers." Isaac S. Smith, in an olKcial letter to Filzwilliam Byrdsall, and others, dated Buffalo, Septem- ber Onth, l83tj, a month or two after the City Bank was sel atlost there, thus proclaimed the faith that was in him : " None of our institutions," said Isaac, " have so strong a tendency to create and perpetuate "the odious distinrlions between the rii;h and the poor, as the paper money banks. " Those incoiporalioiis, and others not more meritoritius, and yet equally monopolizing, have " been the greatest cause of truckling and corruption in legislation- The worst feature in the "proceedings of past legislators, has been the wasteful appropriation of large sums, o.stensibly dARKSR, LEE, EATON, AND THE BUFFALO BANKS. 91 left the confiding stockholder without remedy, when a failure took place. He had no faith in the commissioners, who would rely on the statements to be given by bank officers, and prove no check at all to mismanagement. The commis- sioners would have an unbounded and very dangerous influence, and form a connecting link between all the institutions, for political or any other combina- tions they might think necessary ; and the whole machinery prove an unsafe monopoly, nothing short of despotism. , , i -, ■ , I am very well satisfied, that an honest, efficient system could be devised without difficulty, by which this country would have a sound currency, portable, "for public improvements, but in reality for party purposes, and the granting of charters for " banks with which to strengthen the hands of party leaders. I would sanction nothing but "silver'and gold as a circulating medium." This fellow puts me in mind ot the sharper Jenkinson in the Vicar of Wakefield. He had silver on his tongue, but did not forget to abstract ^150 000 of the bank funds, with the aid of his more tolerant partner in leatlier, Macy. The bank, through a committee, gave up good securities to debtors and took the Tonawanda Bank in lieu of them capital $150,000, but not worth one cent. In Nov. 1839, the bank, by Lewis Eaton (Van Buren's ex-safety fund com'r) its president, General Barker, attorney and director L F Allen, no whig of '70, and the other directors, appointed three ot themselves a committee " to take collateral securities, or extinguish doubtful debts." Stephen White, L. b . AUen and Jed H Lathrop were chosen, and went to work and made a settlement ot ttie attains of the' bank concerning which Marcy swears " that the same was made with intent to detraud. I need not tell vou that as their brother in the aftair. Barker, was elected Attorney Greneral by those who had'got rich by such knavery, and their abettors and supporters, there were uu con- victions either at statute or common law. George P. Barker appears to have boriowed largely S13 000 with Vandervoort, $10,000 on his stock, known to him to be utterly worthless, $3 000 on Ohio citv &c Let honest republicans keep in mind, that atler Barker had brought forth and buried this infamous bank, Plagg, Marcy, O'Sullivan Dix, Corning, Faulkner, Davezac, M Hoffman Van Buren, and the party leaders selected him tor Attorney General of the State while the Syracuse Convention that named Van Buren for president on a second term, nut Attorney Barker and Col. Young on their ticket as state electors. „ . , . The Bank of Builalo another safety fund concern, of which Hiram Pratt was President and John R Lee cashier chose Orlandt) Allen as its President on the death of Pratt, whom a fear of premature discoveries of villainy hastened to his grave. It failed in 1840, and had issued many thousands of dollars of its paper, as money, beyond the limit allowed by aw, I's oflicers . Allen and Lee, solemnly swearing to the contrary before the commissioneis. A Buffalo grand iurv on what was believed to be unquestionable testimony, indicted Lee and Allen for the oer urv— they were arrested and held to bail, Allen, if memory serves me, being out ot the way and brouc'ht' back It is reported that the banks lent their notes {o the brokers at regulai interest with an understanding, &c., that the brokers shaved (exacted usury) as close as they could that the profits were divided between the brokers and the president and directors ot thf banks and that when discounts were applied fur, they would say " we can't do it— Lee, the broker can— away to Lee." Two per cent, a month, &c., followed, ot course. This may or may not be so— but as Lee is a fair spoken, plausible person, and as Allen quotes Barker s case and says they all do it, I wrote a friend in Buffalo to send me all the papers containing the trial or any part of the proceedings, as Barker was the prosecutor, and the case of unusual inLrest to the whole countr^. Here is the result. " Buffalo, Nov. 30, 1843. W. L. Macken- " zie Sir • General Barker has just concluded his speech in the trial ot John R. Lee, the "cashier for perjury in swearing to false returns. The evidence contains some strange " developments in banking. The judge proceeds with his charge— the verdict you will get " to morrow The trial excites much interest, and the newspapers containing the best report 1 " will send to you." Soon after, the N. Y. papers said he was acquitted, and my friend wrote aeain— " Every Buffalo paper is silent on the details of Lee's trial— he was acquitted, but there "was perjury or its equivalent somewhere, and enough of it too. Why the public journals, " which often copy very unimportant issues in the courts, should have all omitted this very " imnortant one you can guess as near the truth as, yours truly." The end of the Buffalo banks, 13 in all was hopeless insolvency, fraud in not a few, and the honest part of the community in Ohio New York Canada, Indiana, &c., were cheated, as before by Van Buren's first bank, and by similar characters, too. Had the evidence in Lee's case justified the verdict, or had the attorney general been any other than a character steeped in bank corruption ; had he been ardent to seaxcli for produce, and duly examine the witnesses that might have been forthcoming either would Lee's exculpatory testimony been heralded .o his credit, or the verdict proved lome atonement to a piUaged people. All may have been right— but I have witnessed trials in this state which were so managed as to make me more Uan suspicious. diS WEBSTER, JACKSON, LIVINGSTON; THE N. Y. CITY BANKS. suitable for cotniiierce, and yet not be exclusively iiu-tallic ; but it does not appear probable tliat Van liuien had any wish lor such a currency at this tiiuc. General Jackson saitl he i^new "' a very good plan ot" a LanU," bul w Iku 1 wrote some of his cabinet advistj.s, they liad never seen it. Webster's language, iu January, 1834, was very judicious. Wliilc he denounced the pets, he said to government, tell us of a better plan than the U. S. Bank, and we will adopt it. " For the convenience of the government and of the country," said he, " there must bt; some bank, and he should wish to hear the views of the adminislralion. He was not so wedded to ruis bank, as not to be willing to liear any other plan which human ingenuity might devise, if any other feasible scheme coukl be devised." The following extract from Jackson's Farewell Address of Ivlarcii, 1S37, appears to uie to exhibit other fi'elings and principles than those of lb29 and 1834. VVliy did he foster the state banks for eight years, and tlu'ii condemn them .'' " The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer, sU knovrlhat their .success depends upon their own indu.stry and economy, and that they must not expect to hccome suddenly rich l)y the I'rnits (if their toil. Yet these clas.ses of society form tlie ^real body of tlie j eujjle of the IJ. S.. they are the bone and sinew uf the country ; men wlio love liberty and desiie nothing but equal riijhts and equal laws, and A\ho moreover hold the si eat ma.^s of our national wealth, althouq:h it is distributed in moderate amounts among the millions of lieemen who jK).s'ihl.- Ic.r citli oiioiV nmiliic; and liiuiiiguiiMi: — ll.lH in •!() \ciii> • nlv tivf i h.irti i- d ( i y l.;itikK liiid liiil-d— tliiii u illn.ut a p;;iii ii|i i:;i|ul;.l a:;(l lair'il'iil and ( a|.aljl.- din (■:.»!-, \'an HwrnV plan xvcnld lie n . r.-iiirdv ai all. anil wiUi llicw. It waMint M'(iMir<-d— lliat ihc Uiri-i' t(miiiii!i:ii)n is wmild b<- a dt-ln-i, ii ..C II .■ iMihlic, and a f.ilsf. ill (.Tunidi'd m ciirilv , UciauH.: mi llir'C mm cii'-ld liiak- Ui<- i oin|ili-:i' iasp, cli- in tl:e Imhi; run— lliat III.- |io\vfr tivca Ki li.r Si-c r.';ii \ id' lln 'l'ivanii\ h> irH|<'rl ill.' i-iii.dm-l id' ll'c T . S. Hank liad pti'Vnl delii>i\e, thf va..t anmuiii of ilid.iliaiiMi iiavin^ n.aily iiiim'il ii lii-f.nc In' kmw Iliat anviliiij; wa«i wmiit!— thai no |>iovi iii had 1)1111 iiiadi' thai a rial nnd loinpi'trm (ajiilal sliould Ic iriiiiiicd when I'l u clianci^ \m iv ^'raiiird, no- llial Uirs'.iicU *li(iuM fu intii lln- hand- ■ f rial lama fnlt' Morkho.d.is, and imt inni III.- k.i'p ntr of spcculalom. V. Hun II iV Co. would h,iv lo^t. and tti.' p. ,,pln s:i\«d iiiillii)ii.- hy Much a'l li nir.-a pmvi- o : s liis. On thf 4ih of .\piil, Mr. T. L. Smith a^kl•d luavc lo wlllidiaw the nicinoniils iVoiii thr N V. liiy banks ; and Mr. C. L. Liviiig5iun,w hone (iee bank kltors appear ill tins voliinu', truly romaikid. that ihcir imuiniiers Iiiw WRIGHT, SMITH, EATOX, BENTON, ALLEN, STEBBINS. 93 >^ flv> tmnner of the times required such a proposition to be artfully his measure., the tunuiOtti.e I H ^ j^^ villainy, wholesale as it ""'r ''T had b n'l.llv a onpliXi and the people dul/plundered in that surely was, had bLtn tuny acco ', ^tended to be horror-struck at the ''^'"-;t:^tr^ s';: ui s^d' aSl-S the. repeal. Young said that roguery o. bank ana '^."^ " ', ^-a ^f ,[,„ injury which the monopoly ^^TChS';"o::;,S^l • tt^t^;!^, hk^ V^^ Buren^olu that he hacl upheld, systen hadaccom . , .^ .^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^, Tompkins and Chnton s solemn nursed, '^"^^^^ " ;;^^ j,,.,;i p undered one class by his sham satety tund ; he ''"'■"'"tvnrened to plunder another by his subtreasury. That scheme would '''? " n^'v^carce ind oblic^e the man who had mort-^aged h.s estate m tunes make monej scarce, ana ou . [ ^ ^,^^ ^-^^^^ ,„ tirnes of ^' ^'^^ : ffi^' t^r iE a^^ of ^;s ILL The banl^upt law of 1842 scarcity,) or toit.it lu, > ^ 1S32, the British Parhament had "" ;'" ' TcS "To currency befo^l'e^., and s'pecial comn.ittees called be- '1^-^ '""-^^td "fr ullv eianLd bankers, merchants, manufacturers, n.en o ''^^^^"^:^ ^ ^W^^^^ the whole' was taken down in shorthand and skdl f^'-^^^'lj^^^ ,t a future session. One of these reports and the prmted. Action no ^^ question is— What course will evidence form, a la gc l^e leaders otthe'party / Tedious, though invaluable i;::^ n:^:^rr:\:lde m'l:::!^^^ ..imons to the people, hut they would be too monarchical . Such is the which, Silas W 'oI>M-atlon of Van Buren's deceptive Safety Fund, concerr.UKr tr^;^^A^ -:r^e-f- ^n ^o:^:i^ngV^^??H^ Uef ittustN THr.'csT MANNER, consulted the greatest safety ot the banks. - nv.v.ul lr..ni "ffiro K. iirike w;iy for ^^.l"^";. ^n i.-rnks were cliart.T>il-iii 1830, only 8-18 in 18!1-^| 1„ 1,-i,., on V:.„ Bu, or.-, principle o .^.'^^^'Y <" ,-^ .'^' ;' '^7u,c ,ir.t <.l Jan.mry, 1837, th.ir namm.r riniiil was $32,5:11, ti.O-llieir ca.-ti .■i.),o52,3> /, <"'!,. """^ „",,,„. " r , vi ,v tlirv k o)t np.vm.^nt. The S.Tia'c J,mr,.,a of IS-XJ. .hows ilio workm.; .^ '''^ '''' ^^^^^ '^^^ rv of Staa-. w;,s .hen a S ni.tor. He voted w>th toe Ui-p'^ ;j Law.'lhat no dirrctoT. officer or «!;cat ot any ch.trter- ,,he,> Allen inove.l ar. «-^'^^»''"^ l-^'';^ ^'^^^^^^^^^^^ o( any hank note, h .n.l, or obli^ialion .-sue.l 1.1 b ,nk sh«ll P>irc h.ai^e or b;^. " ' ;;:\'^ ^"„ ''°,i'^ '^o.e;^^^^^^ &c., under a penalty. N. S. Benton jiave this hon- l,v anv hank for a less sum tl'an tl e ace "' ^| '^"°.«'j^^ „; Hay.ieM, Ha?er, Stehbin«, Wheeh'r, Wat-M,nan and lv:,.i;:Z^^';teaittvlr;' ■N^'raerth^^n.^e^l^.-aLanl^onnnis^ioner.ana president of the Cty Bank '" ':;:?icre,ary of State, N. S Benton, is a ^y -■tal^--::;^:^J|:;i,'^n;^:;;u;:i^^v^^^ ''^'^^''^ .hrS.nate.how tha, •'V\.';;V? r,'l^^ ho'c let"^ n,n n ^ K-i of Orre-l-oodence. The latter plicate of Dr. Suthe.lt - ol ' l'";'; -^ i? ';'• " ■ ^^ ' Th v 'a ly 1'<'1< I'e n.asses in couten.pr, an.l never hesUa.e .•,v.,we,l frankly wliat all l'-''^''^^, '':":; 1' ,%,,jV Vet tho.e n,en are successful while h.tle rei;a,d i. pa,, a. ,o n.ea.«, prov,dc.l hoy ... f ; . ' ^^'^^ i,^^^ have thou;:.., w,.u^.l by the p-ople t.. l.on.;st, capable. '''""''■ V/.^.^ r' 'or nd ve he has starcelv b.-n outof oliice ever .-nice 1 the prople I.L.e'clM.led hi.., thereat, ..r '-:>" M ' ^'^^'^ ; ,^i ,' ^ requests ho,h for l.in>s.,lf an,l fan.ily : I^h. ofPhirnhipl.iaand tlu,J..^S iime^^^^ ^^^ ,j,,,'l5.„l^ ,^1,, ^, „(■ „i,i times, the people love lo^;:'' chc^leHn,! hekp honors „u their ^''^yiX^'he ''enairlSei. Allen proposed to improve it by a pr..- While Van B.r^.>'^ • <=':e,;al n,e...ure was|,ef e^^^^ JJ.^^ ch .rter culd b. renrw ,1 vision, that .■a.Jj bank cei'L ly "' °; ' ;^.' .''j'^,, ^"^l 'one ,f th- capitd b. divi.le.l .except by virtue ot law, a.ul tha ,l,a, n.. dividen.ll.,' "•=''''''"' '\';i',''"? A Hn- n " a' -r^ in sp.'cnlatir,:; in the sto.-ks of o'.her c.nnpanles, :.o.l ^;:rk^:^''^c!:^^'^^^"^''^ ^™ ,!.' th:^:^;^^K Bank, Ba„k of Monroe, Far.n.r. and Mocn .• ics. Lockporl. Ithaca, Yat.s '^'^ '^^•,^;::;;;;:" f:::'i^;;,„„e„t of Van Curen, in these tin.c.. He took Lis ^eat Cliarles Sn-bbiMtJ, x.o. wa< a ^t-a.K-. v. .-nn- pi .":,"';.':',''',. ,,„. p„r.v chara^r..* in l^^.i3. an.l a.;-, n • a..- in the senate for the ."ith .h-n.-t .. ■;"";'■- " ;'; ;',„j\ „',; ,|,icr_pr..v,-;i him., 'if hi to bs a .^,-l,ei^^.• n lor i;^« EeS/^.d UtSk^^sllt a: ir^Ji^^ol".^^^, when Throo^ took Van Bur. n. pl.e-and when .... 94 A VIEW OF WRIGHT, BUTLER, AND VAN BUREN's SANDY HILL SAFES. Twelve years after, at Albany, as Governor, (Jan. '46,) Mr. Wright changed his tone, and sa.d that " That legislation which equalizes the benefits and bur- dens of government, and attempts to secure no special advantages to any will diffuse prosperity throughout a community .... attempts to confer favors bv law upon classes or localities, produce a competition de.«tructive to profitable industry ; a strife, not to earn but to gain the earnings of others The tendency of this false system is to separate capital from productive labor,' and carried out to its full extent, will produce the singular result, that he who labors least may accumulate the most, and he who works the hardest may know the most want. These latter views are borrowed from Burke— are correct— and .hebmtom.keit palatable to the milli,m, but never meant / be used ^r their b^^^^^^^ '" and declared m debate that he was'^t'he "ncompromiLferle ny of the Unfted^^ his hostility till it ceased to exist. Otcoit was dpliehted ami in VdHv>> nnvifwa. . i l' ^ nevercease Olcotfs intlaence, (or the N. Y. banks had the, , „^vo,e: ?n 8.31 we fi.^d the banks senHil'r.'"''''"""'''''""^*' to the loRislmnre, as its Speaker, 91 to 30, while Peter Rob "son of Breome, the 5^ against the whole scheme as injurious to his coui.trv, was ostracised ' ""P^^^^' "' '«23, who had voted Major Reese the Commissioner appointed by the western banks, was not, like Stebbing and navi= a f«ii«.., bank, or that at a low rate of interest, on which large profit.? were made bvtlie borrowers w^H^ de standing that cenaia men should have certain s/iinis lent them. The macSrwas made to ,^^^^^^ VV. "^..""v" 'l'""; '"'■!.' "•^••' '"'■"erf "ver to get more gain to the hw by dere " . c t^eir Mother me si-v^r^/r^^-khtii/'^ii^vr^r'--'--^^^^ re^?:^f::nd*^nS."irX^a;;S.'u^;!:m^:'vJ!:^^ the Bank of Buffalo, the ConimcrcialBaMk of Buffalo the WavL Co h,^^^^^ LAttorney General BarkerV.J cial Bank of Oswego, and the Clinton Co. Bank, each of ^'emfn^olv^ent sa^^^ inrtcertTn'ok '''.Vfrr "■• quiieiieilher bond nor. scciuily, either from their cashiers tellers rierkx orV..i,nr „*V . ' , ."^' '" '*' coiulurt, and protect the stockholders and the pi blic g.^n t erbez.z^em^mV 7anX^^^^ '"''' ^""^^"^ ers winked at all this, and thcjr whig successors were^not onrwhH more clelrsi.^ ted ThlT ,orS' Rr.^ tc.k an excellent security in the ,mideiit and pious T. W. Olcott, but the understam in" i,elwe!.. .h . ^h m"" and his receiver seems to be that the creditors of the bank do not need t ar mnnev r rir,H r" '^'•anc^-Ilor liie Receivers on th. Senate's journal, but enough "rmat^er'n which Sv^lnve.m^;^^^^^ . ' "i" '"^''^ "^ There Were $1,2-21,843 due to the Bank of Buffalo, when it fa led, Nov? J84P Wa wor.h anno n,er<^ 'v T'""' Murdnck, vW..,Huc.-.eeded 10. Oloolt, as cas r, wrote Cornpt oiler Fl.iggAprllaT I«4>> that tl e K^r "7' ^•, seiT,; .V„'tM'rr„''M' *;'"•««"-.•"■."- P'-'P'/of the Wat^rvllet, on wiiich':[ln:d^S^e/K^pa^i,ue eT The comn.isHioners, receivers, and chancery injunction, arc wor'.h to the plfblic a» a protccUon from fraud * ^ ^'"'""' FLAGG, HOYT, MARCY, AND THE FREE BANKS. 95 at variance with the governor's conduct as a politician, tor the last twenty-two ^^To t*hat valtmble class of citizens who have the time and opportunity to read, reason, and reHect, the letters of Flagg, Livingston and t uttuig, and the remarks of Marcv in pa-es 174 to 1S2 of this volume, must prove very in cresting When the piivUeied system had been pushed to its umost limit by the jaded hacks of party, alul no more money could be made on that tack, they wheel about for pelf and popularity, abuse their own handywork, and go for banks, with a circulation founded on Arkansas, llhno.s, M.ssiss.ppi, Michigan, Penn- svlvania, and other state debts, and with privileges, the character ot which the North American Trust Co., and kindred coalitions ot knavery too soon deye- innpd Marcv page 174, boldly denounces the system that had placed \'an Sen at Utei'ea'd of the 'nation: Flagg would blow " the lobby "sky high and look forward from Plattsburgh banks and regency banking with scenes of lo-rolling and corruption," to tmies to con>e, ur which a " decent regard to niSral and official purity" would be preserved by the party : Marcy (p. 17o) would borrow Hoyt\s experience to enable hmi o throw down V an buien s step-ladder, now no longer needed : Flagg would demolish the usury laws and allow the avaricious to exact cent per cent, if the necessities ot ihe.r debtors would compel such conditions (p. 176): Livingston would put a stop to all legislation in favor of " chartered nuisances :" \ oung was ready to draw his « drippings of unclean legislation " from the banks, and lend cash on mortgage at usurious rates, denounced from Genesis to Revelations, ,1 the u.ury law could be crot rid of (p. 177, &c.) : and lloyt and Butler would squeeze from the merchants their last dollar, through the Custom Hoiuse and Belts s Courts to speculate with it, through the free bank ot Beers, btilwell & Co. m V^ all street (p. 179). CHAPTER X X il I. " Vice is undone if she Ibrj^ets her birth, And stoops iVoin Angels to the dregs of earth ; But 'tis the tall degrades her to a whore ; Let greatness own her, and sho's mean no inor-'. Hcr'birth, her beauty, courts and crowds contest; Chaste Matrons praise her, and grave Bishops bless. Hear her black trumpet through the land proclaim That Jj' Not to bk Corrupted ! .^ is the shpjne. In soldier, churchman, patriot, man of power, 'Tis avarice all, ambition is no more." Jackson Eleclioneerinq.-Jaclcsonin the Saddk.-Kcep Congress pure -Steven, son's Gennine Golden Bmt.-Wirhliffe's Expcrirnre.—Duane s rhoughts^— Kinq Georqe\ Slave Market. -Who's the Story Teller.- Slcvenson jond of Wheelinq. -Blair and Ritchie, or a Pap behind the Screen.— t^u/s lazzlc and Wright's and Benton's Votes.— Stevensnn gets to London.— Polk and ^td.- dell —Rdrhie's Hupocris,j.-He .swalloics the Gilded Bait.— A Beep at II al~ ker -Ritchie 40 years ago.-The Washington ,Slave Mart.— Congress Sh^^^^^^ hfes.— Wilkins, Buchanan, Barbour, Old Gurroic, Camhreleng, Litis, McLane, Muhlenburg, iVc. After the election of John Quincy Adams by the House of Representativc-s, and when Gener&l J&ckson had been again announced as a candidate tor the 96 JACK.ON KLECTIOXEERIAG. CONGRESSMEN MUST NOT BE BRIBED. ot res,v„aci„n. The foliowing-i/an Sract: " F'^'plos ia ],is iHlcr u- clay/'* ' " '"""--''' ''' »*^ coiu'inccd that corruption will Mr. Adams had appointed Henrv ^l^v -^ Q. * l- r. The above was .n.ean/ a.s a rebuke o w'ms ^^f ^'^'•' ^V^'''"^^''^' "'' ^^"^^'• v.ew of injuring the popularity of Adan S CI .v"' ^^'^ r''^''' ^'"^ ^»'« next election. Like Folk'.s pli.Le fo st"nd b u"\\ T '"''^ ''^t^^^'^^'^ ^« ^'^'^ --1th degree a.ul n.turalizaticJn, if v L "4c Iv kif 11^ "IT'T ^"^"V""^ «" ^^c cerity and good faith. peilcctl;y fair if it had been done in .sin- J^'rD.t:Z li;:ldo;1r;S;:^t'^^^"^ 1 Flncipleasto atte.pt to of the Ru.s.ian e.nbassv. Vhi our ed" h "°"' ^^' '^'^'^S" l^im the rich bait -7— . •' ''^ ''""'"^^"**^^P"r«u^^v,th Andrew Stevenson n mSSgmmmmm -Til- I'ti..,., ..,■ I ....! t\ . ■ "|'3i"t'.K'idM;> wiih llm new 'lli'il ;iM ' iinnrop,-!- iiicjisiin e('l llie K MAJonlTV IN TJIK IKM SK O" . (., P-'iirs ih.-it II... Vi.prov wnul.!,,.., , l"Kly.^t.-.t,.,ltl,:it ■ l„. l,;i,l ,..i-,.ivi-.l ti -'I ^o int,.„, on (lis ol,„.c, ,l„l f^Zv u ut Un^l 'T "",""""^' ''*" ^•■"'• MMONS' lie l,,.„l ll„H inv,.|v,,l Ul^rny^ ;^rr-;^T',''''''V:''' '"'""^ * KiNo-s imtK. -.loN^ .., ..|.| .s " ' ;^^ "^"■'■'■■- "'"1 I'o "rc-r-l 1(1 K.r Midi .services men wcrf; to lie re . o ij.iir.i 1 ill>s 1(1 SiV ; / am directed by the I^resident to inform you, CONFI- DE N 2'IJI LLY, that as soon as advices shall be received that the British govern- ment consent to open negotialions loilh this, which are daily expected, it is his in- tention to offer you the place of Minister to the Court of St. James, and he requests that, should this aypoinimenl be agreeable to you, you uould hold yourself in readiness to embark in the course of the summer.'''' Another letter was from T. Ritchie to W. B. Lewis, objecting to fiUing up of Van Buren's London berth with a congressman, without letting the senate know about it. The President declared that he never knew that Stevenson had answered the letter of Living- ston. On June 24lh, the senate, 23 to 22, negatived .Stevenson's appointment, made under such suspicious circumstances. But among the Senators who ap- proved of Jackson's plan of ofiering an American Speaker a high otiice, " con- fidentially," lo months before he left the chair to accept it, and thus keeping the o-olden bait always before his eyes, although he and his fellow members mio-hi be called to take a bold stand against executive encroachments, were (^ Silas Wright, (^ T. H. Benton, {ct^ King of Ala. (now minister to France,) (cj^ Wilkins, (^ Polk's teacher, Grundy, ils^ Lsaac Hill, (^ Tall- madge, {ji^ Van Huren's Sec, Forsyth, (51^ and John T^ler ! Among the nays were Clay, Calhoun, Ewing, Clayton, Weljster, and Poindexier. But the Senate was defeated in the long run. In May, 1S35, Andrew Steven.son might have been seen presiding in that mockery of a people's convention for the nation which nominated Martin Van Buren for the next presidency — and in due time Jackson's pledge to his unworthy confederate was redeemed, and Stevenson sent ambassador to London. It was Stevenson that put Polk * at the head of * Since 1825, President Polk'* mentor and advocate, Ritchie, has so veered about from Jackson's principles to Jackson's practice as to consent that congressmen and editors may be rewai'dcd by the executive, as amlxissadors, judijes, and cabinet ministers [see Corresponfience, p. 214 to 2lG] — lie has even admitted that on a rare occasion, one of them, at least, may j.ccept ?i;40,000 a year (hin)self, ibr instance}, as printer to senate, house of representatives, and president. In accordance with this new dctinition of a boundary or lence against corruption, Piesident Polk gave James Buchanan the vast power and patronage of the secretary oi' state's otiice ; and per- haps that was settled, like the presidential candidate question, «fc2i« the ^'weol'the last Baltimore Convention. That Bitr-hanan knew the use of that power may be inferred from his speech in senate, 1838, where he said thr.t " When a man is once appointed to oihce, all the selfish pas- sions of his nature arc cnlist(}d for the purpose of retaining it. I'he othcc-holders are the enlisted soldiers of that administration by which they are sustained. Their comibrtable cxisi- ence olk-n depends upou the re-election of their patron." The Secretaryship of l)ie I'reasuiy, with its ten to twelve iulliions olt patronage, lie gave to Robert J. Walker. Thus did he enlist two v^ery conspicuous members of congress, and by so doing gave " strong grounds of apprehen- sion and jealousy on tlie part of the people," "thai corruption will be the order of the di.y' with him, however regular he may have been at college prayers in North Carolina, or his man Butler al " stated preachings'' at Sandy Hill. Secretary Walker is a native of Northumberland, Pn., in which state his father, .Tonathan Walker, was a county judge, and 1 believe a teacher of youth. The Secretary is a lawyer ; began his political career in his native state ; and, on his emigration to Mississippi, entered inln many speculations, partly in lands and contracts. H(; is said to have owned iii;40,000 worth of lands in Texas, and he certainly gave its annexation to the U. S., as a new held lor the cultiva- tion of sl.ivery, all the support that Polk or .Johnson could have desired. In the Senate, he wa-- friendly to the principle of the last bankrupt law — perha]is, for a like rca:-on with St i! well, tlw IT. S. Marshal here — ibr Horace Greeley, in the Tribune ot Dec. 8lh, says lie " hr.s been deep enough in credit, spcculaiion, and paper money — is now a bankrupt — and in 1834 wrote in favor of a national bank, and the restoratioa of the deposits" thereto. TJio Tribune publisjies a letter of his. dated Natchez, Marcii 1, 1831, as Ibllows : " Dear Sir : As I promi.sed at our pjarli.ig to give you my views on any suliject which miglit be interesting to our CDnimon constituents, 1 hasten to say that Mississippi will with griMit una- nimity sustain you on the Deposit Qluestion. In fact, tJie p'ublic voice demands a I'esioration of the Deposits, and the crc'iing a Bank to sujjjjly a general currency. A State Bank can no folk's secretary and printer, on buying congressmen. 99 the Ways and Means in 1834, It was Polk who, when John Slidell had beea elected to Congress from La., closed his trust with the ix;ople by sending him out to Mexico, without asking the senate's consent. How many salaries, out- fits, and Mexican and Russian ambassadors has th« Union paid since 1S2S, M. C's inclusive 1 more supply and govern the general cuiTcncy than a State Government can direct and control the affairs of the Nation. Go on ; your constituents are with you ; the country mu.st be relieved from the frightful scenes of distrcs.s which have visited us. Yoiu's truly, il. J. WALKER.' Walker's appointments in this State have been much influenced by his colleague, Marcy. In general, they could not well be worse than they are. Our custom-house, the headquarters of intrigue and corruption for the city, is under his especial supervision and care. The pious Polk invoices providence, omnipotence heaven, and all that is good and great, to ^uide him — and tlien pitches upon a secretary oi the treasmy I'rom the repudiating state of Mississippi — that secretary the prince of speculators — and whose moneyed transaciions were io situated' that he oould not pay Van Brnvn for his fmTiitare, and had judgments agi^inst him advertised for sale in the Nafchez Courier, by llie Union Banlc of Mississippi, for some twentv-five to My thousand dollars, which diat paragon of banks sadly needed to pay the galled and clieatcd pec^le. I say nothing of t/K hst iwte of hand. If the splidt of seventy-six is the spirit tlaat nov.' animates Ame- rican bjsoms, I shall be" justified in these sti'ictures, even upon those who sit highest in the confi- dence of the freemen of America. In John C. Spencer's edition of De Tocqueville, I find the remark, " I have heard of patri- O'y'ism in ths UaiteJ States, and it is a virtue which may be found among the j>eo"ji]e, but O'.iever among t.ie leaders of the people, in all governments, whatever ilieir nrture may |5*;)2, servility will cju'er to fo.o", ani adulation will ciing to powej-. It would hav« b.-eo f;;^anpo.ssib;e for the sycophants of Louis XiV. to flatter more dextrrously" than the coor- Uers of A nei'ica. Jeff'rsoa, writing to Thomia M'lican, F?b. 2, 18)1, telis him that 55"' Intejfji'ences at elections, whether of the stite or federal government, by oilicers of the |i;^taiter, shoad be d:euied cause of removal ; becaus-e the constitutional remely by the ektv l^-'tive principle b3CQ.n:;s nothing if it miy be smotJiexed by the enormous patronage of the O'g'^"-'"'!' gjvernaient." Now, It" inter. breaice with the frceiom of elections is bad, are ncft loiu^.tatioiis to the foectors, by the executive, to b tray those who elected tlaciii much worto 1 In a letter to Presiienl Miiison, whici: • iinl in the ilicujioND i:.Naf!Rf:R by T. Ritchie, dated June 29, I8ld, die appointment of Biickner Thurston aui Benjamin Hovs'ard,. bjih m.emb-;rs of Congt-e«s, the one to be a judge, ai^d the other the govej-nor of a tej-riiory (by the President), is sternly reprolviteJ, because that so long as they were •' invested with the legislative character, it is tiie duty of the President to leave it around tlicni." President xMadlsou is rem n lei tliat tlie pati-iot, Macoa, hid moved the following amend- raeat t^) the constitution a few months previous : " No senator or r:'presentativc, alter having taken his siit, shall, d.n"ing the ximi for which he was elc^el, be eligible to any civil a;'*- pointment under the auUiority o[ the United Stales, nor shall any person be eligible to any such appointment until tlie cjcpiration of the Presidential term, duiing wliich s-uch person shall have been a senator or repre-sentative." The editor of Thj Union, tliat now is — the man whose son is lessening the number of opp.->- siUon wnt-'rs, by violence, and who himseU' abused me, at the de.Hii-c oi President Polk, Tm: braving the danger of exposing state criminals high in power, through their' own confessions — ^promulgated Uie following pure doctj-ines in 1810 : " Sir, il ever the Executive branch, in this counli-y, acquircf^ an undue ascendancy over the legislature, it will not be, as it is now in France^ through the sword — but by cnrni'piioii, as it is in Great Britain. It is true, sir, that no p/tKcmnn m- pcmioncr ceax sit on Uie flooi" of Con- gress, as they do in Pailiamcnt — but places and appointments may now be scattered among tnose who sit on that floor. " Will you maa-k the danger of this distribution of offices 1 Will not the senator or rcnreseo- tativc, who wishes for an executive gift, alwa\-s take cfire to a^nsidt the exex:\ui\-e wishes, in his measures or vote^ 1 Instead of watching die misconduct of the Piv.sidcnt, will he not con- nive at it "? Will nt>t Cerberus sleep becau.se'he wishes for a sop 1 if the President should ha\-B evil designs to accomplish, here then are iu>tmment.-; disciplined to his hand-— a fair exchange is strudc between th >m. The one barters his cousciencic^ lor tlie oiiiee — just as much as il'he were to barter a piece of land lor a piece of gold. I know it is impossible to bribe botli houses of Congress by such temptations. I know that there are some of them who are too virtuous to catch the contagion, but it is certain that in proportion to the extent of thir. corruption, will be the ruin of public morals and of public spirit. Arc not offices of almost every acscri{>tioii within the Executive Patronage 1 Diudug the yeai- 1798, Mr. Gallatin estimated the amount within his gill at S2,00a,000. And where the mere lust of lucre coukl not sway the man, thera 100 VAN BUREN TAKING LESSONS AS A COURTIER, WHILE IN LONDON. C H A P T E R XXI V. I shall ever regaid 1113' situation in that cabinet as one of the mo^t ibrtunate events of my life, niacin;? me as it did in close and familiar relations Avith one who has been well described by Mr. Jciierson as possessing more of the Roman in his character than any man living, and whose administi'ation will be looked to, iw future times, as 11 golden, era in our histoiy. To have served under such a chief, at such a time, and to ha^T won his confidence and esteem is a suf- ficient glory. — Van Biircn'a letfrr to Waller Bmriie^ James Campbell, Preserved Fish, Wm. M. Price, Elisha Ttbbels, Gideon IjCe, C. W. Lovrenrr, ^-r., Lovdmi, Feb. 24, 183-2. «/ his position in Jaekfon's first rabivct. Van Bvren present tdhy Boitne with the Freedom of N^. Y. and a good Character — C. C. Cambrelenij. — JacliS07l''s First Cabinet. — Some facts about Leicis Cass. — His War F-rphnts, Politeness., Notions of Slavery., Friendship to the Indians, Vast Wealth, Indian Agencies, Loirs, Floquence in Senate, and Notions about Texas. — Calhoun\s Position. — The Seminole War. — Monroe^s Secret Letter.^ to JacLfon. — .Juhnny Kay. — Intrigues by Hamilton, Crattford, Forsyth and others, to injure Calhoun and benefit Van Buren. — .lackson Quarrels leith Cal- houn. — CJn the Publication of Political Secrets. — John Henry Batcn and Wife. — .Tackson Qtiarrels ivith three of his Cabinet about htr. — The Russian Mission. — Branch on Van Buren. — John Tyler and a Second Term. — Van Buren sent as Envoy to London, but Rejected by the Senate. — Opinions of Webster, Clay, Frelinohiiysen, Foot, &;c. — The Colonial Trade. — Van Buren elected Vice President. Having resigned his office as governor, on the 12th of Ivlarch, 1829, Van Buren left Albany, accompanied by his friend and confederate, B. F. Butler, on the forenoon of the 17th, to take upon himself the duties of Premier, Secretary are offices of distinction to invite and soothe his ambition. * * * In the making of Laws, it is for the members of Congress to have a simple eye to the interests of their country. It is for them to decide upon the merits of every question that comes Ix'fore them, without either hope or fear, without compulsion or reward. From the moment tliat they are led astray by such inducements, they are shorn ot their representative character — they cease to he the agents of the people, to become the tools of the Executive." Will it be believed that the man who could publish these truths in ISIO, is now groAvn so grey in sin that he has for sixteen years upheld the violators of right,. and at length accepted office from those who practi.se what is here so justly condemned ! Jackson, to get po))ularity for himself and his friends, recommended INTacon's measure of 1809, to proliiiut this buying and liribing of needy and greedy congressmen ; Imt it was a deception, for he practised continually the baiting system. Benton, too. when he and Van Buren were seeking power and popularity in IH'it), matle, with the help of Van Buren, a grand report against tho.se abuses which liave brought i'ree institutions into disgrace all over the world, but the report was never acted on, nor meant to be. It was an electioneering trap to catch voters. I have seen a list of congressmen whom Van Buren a;ul Jack.son tempted to leave the pec;- ple and take olhces of far more emolument under the executive, but I am not sure that it was correct. It contained seventy-five names, anil among these were, for the Russian mission sinecure, John Randolph, James Buciianan, W. Wilkins, ^;),000 a year, and ^rl'jOOO outfit, for a trip to the continent. Cambreleng and Wilkins's brother-in-law,' V. P. Dallas, had also the .if 18,1)00 godsend to Pelersbnrgh, but M-ere out of Congress before being rewarded. There is anotiier Ixussian minister since, antl doubtless we will .'««--'\c V-'fs ; «>i ' B Cr,c,v,.||,(>lc.nteC.... than his ..I.Msex,,.n.le.l. * » * * ,^^^"""1' '^^;"p "'/^ n' . '6 ^H ^ m but Mr Ci.ml.relpng .ouKt l.ave succ.M.,1rd in rni.i.iff the Mol.nwk a... .ir. If Cambreleng believed that the U. S. Bank could not establish a ^^^^ch in any state with- out a gross violation of the constitution, whv did he accept a fee ot ,5'1 000 from biaaie, lor locating H branch at B-ulTalo l He voted against Jackson for Pi-c^^Llenl, in lS2o, in Congress, and for Van Buren as governor at the Herkimer Convention ol 1S28. ♦ Lf.wis Cass was born at Exeter, N. H.-romovcd with his.fathcr and family to the .state of Delaware, in or about the year 1705 or 'G-icmained several years there, '1"^ ''''^'•^^.'^"VQ-^^f f^ west to Marietta, Ohio, in 1709-studied law there, and began to practise m 1802 In IWUt^J^e was elected to the Ohio legislature, antl on the 11th of December mtroduced a hill to suspena the writ of habeas corpus, on account of Burr's a>nsmracy. Next year he was appointea United States Marshal, which office he held till 1813. The 3d Ohio Volunteers elected hun CASS, AS GOVERNOR, SENATOR, AND MICHiaAN NABOB. 103 Branch and Berrien ; of whom the three last named were warm friends of CaU noun. 1 he President and Eaton were, at heart, opposed to Calhoun, and in the n!i'Jf^°H^',f'''''u''^^^' regiment lie joined General Hull and marched from Dayton to r?f P ;• ^"^^ '^'f ^""^ ^7°'-' ^^ Sandvv-ich, withi 280 men, and Lieut. Col. Miller to sS what ^Jhu^ ^^^ere about, and atterwards crossed to Canada himself, but being^dTnd the fiie o f youth all gone, If he ever bad any, he .soon retreated before a very iiiferioi^bice and .£Sn dered Detroit. Cass was sent to Washington, where he gave Dr. Eust s S SememS nn accomit the campaign My impression is, that he behaved well ; but^ mimia cJbTel with out a military education had not much chance to distinguish himself. It was <^?e? cruelTv ?o the country not to shoot Hull, as sentenced. The exam'ple was much wanS in'tho e d-n's^^nd It was the late he richly merited, by his bulMng proclamations and "e cmvardke Cass wa^ . appointed Governor oi Michigan by Madison,"in 1813. He held tha? office ef'hteenve^s^ and, being considered more suitable for the purposes and policy of Van BuTen and JacK' ?p L'^Ssl ?abS -j^^^l^am— eeded^oV war de?artn^ent immedi"tdy a?ter t'bK ri^, c PK-i ^^'^^'?^'- i" ^^•^^> Jackson sent him to represent his government at the court of Louis Philippe, where he remained till December, 1842, and has tince been elected^^ he Umted States Senate from Michigan. In 1811, he was named as a Sidate Sr the Prit feou? H'i^''no;'Vf rV"^"dly to hhn, and published in his Enquirer mnvlettSs in a lont skeich rfhF; ?r JsS m' ' ?k"'''' '" '^f ^T'' ^"' '^'''' °^'^^<^ ^^'^ville Union, copiS t,?\ ■ r^i° his [Lass s] hie, by request," as he took care to state Cass was and i- a favorite in Ohio, With what is called the conservative, "or pet banks for eC-ei-mrtv-and having made a few flojmshes while in France about the ty?a my of En-land and a l~h?t ?8.hT/SS"';8'loT,i,W "f 1^' '°^'^ '•! ^¥ "^^' '''''' '■" "^^'^'^^ very lavSble to inotiS afes or 66^;ears ot^i^ir il'l'Y^ ''''''"' ^e keeps up this ' free and indep/ndent' character, but ac 03 or Ob years ot age, it is to be presumed that his fighting days are all over H is nnnosirion he quintuple treaty against slavery, and affected or real hidign^ion a England's "Km? Srti > SSr"£-if tlfi'v" «''-PP--i"», ^h^«|-<^ ^-de, u^nti/^Very'ia- wa^ ext "a'd w!s qS ^ rel ; to bnrM- n' w -f ''^^ F'''''^' H'^',l'^-«.^« ^oW and calculating Van Buren, he was quit, read/ to bartei New Hampshire and Ohio fee ings for a phalanx o^ southern v< f -s SL'S'^h'- V^' P'-s^^'^^tial chair the revolting spectacle of a Cklin^ New E nindS' p aymg uia hireling, as the attorney of a set of men whase notions of liber rareb^terrSlS m 1 exas as it is, than as it ought to be. Ritchie and his clique would have preS ed SS Van Buren, bu Polk was still better. The yoke over tlii-ee "nillions of iXck^v ncc « in N?rth t^sS^^^^y^ ^"""Tf^ "^' \'^'''^ ^y '>'"' ^^^ho, with his ancestoi? h/d alwaVs bo^^^ tl^i hLpS ot How w'lf ri' ? ',T^ "'r 'Yl '^^"^^ "f '^'' '^^Shie^t ameliLSfS How nat Slv h« Sror L ;^n\:" r '^l ""'''' """"^ l^"- ""''''■ ^'' ''"'' "^^« '•'^a% admirable. SMrJm"?,m,-7„?,'l!': .¥!»",™^0" ". Vf Willi Ws liMJy feelii,i;s for the serfs. When ihe Pop elJeSSi'-^Ltj^S^^^^^^^^^^^^^ resides, sent three Van Lren men to the <^^'l^'.^l\ll'.X^Z^^^^^ 104 CASSj AS SECRETARY OF WAR, INDIAN AGENT, AND AMBASSADOR. interest of Van Buren. I do not at all doubt that Van Buren's letter to Hoyt, pao-e 216, truly describes his standing with General Jackson : " / have found stood, 29 for Van Bui-en, and but 22 for Cass, of which the city sent a majority opposed to him. if this is so, his popularity among those who had had most dealings with him, was not very strong. When he left Detroit for Washington, in June, 1831, he became, as Secretary of War, the official principal in .settling the accounts of his five Indian Agencies, and of immense disbiuse- ments made by hiin for the U. S. government. He settled his own accounts ; perhaps with the aid of some dependent auditor, and perhaps not. Witli Antkew Stevenson as Speaker, regu- lating the committees,' and the gilded bait of a London mission placed ever before his eyes, con- gressional inquiry was but an imaginary check. Yet all may have been perfectly correct. Who can know anything to the contrary'! As settled with, Cass was assuredly no defaulter. The Portland Advertiser remarks, that prior to the time of being Secretary of War, he was Governor of Micliigan— then a territory— and superintendent of Indian affaii's. Both offices were given by the general government, and both salary offices. The business of the Superin- tendent was with the Secretary of War. Coming from this office, theretbre, to the War department, Gfovernor Cass had the power to settle his oAvn accounts with his own hands, and almost upon his ovv-n terms. He had been a contractor, receiver and disburser, and became debtor and creditor and examiner of his own accounts." John Bell, Harrison's War Secretary, winds up his annual or other report with some very lefi-handed compliments to Indian Agents relative to their honestj-, but names nobody. He was soon ousted. In the matter of the U. S. Bank, Cass, in the cabinet, was assm-edly no Duane. The pre- sident had no need to ofier to componnd with his tender conscience by an offer of ' the Russian mission.' Long after the bank was delunct, society ascertained tlu-ough a letter to G. O. Whit- temore, that Lewis Cass " had never seen in the constitution of the U. S. a sufficient grant ot power" to establish a national bank. Of course he thought Madison very wrong indeed, M-hen he signed the national bank charter in 1816, and also Crawford, Monroe, Calhoun, Clay, Van Buren and the Supreme Court, in defending the act, but, being Governor of Michigan, by Madison's appointment, just then, he was far too polite and civil to say so. So he was, but he always thought so. So he did. In Sept. 1834, in the Telegraph, General Green described Cass, as " For a Bank— for iiUernal improvements— tai'iff so-so— a little anti-Supreme Comt— friend of the Indians, and no friend." General Cass's laws, when Governor of the territory of Michigan, were, some of them, as peculiar as ' the peculiar institution' of the south. The following enactment, if extended to jus- tices of the peace here, would much delight many honest men wlio may have been so unfortu- nate as to brealv the commancbuent numlier eight, as also their worships of the quorum, who would be sure of heavy fees, prompt pay, and no need to tax bills. Poor sinners, as usual, would be excluded from the benefits. No pay, no pardon ! " An Act for Pardoning Alexander Odion.— Be it enacted by the governor and judges of the territory of Michigan, that Alexander Odion, now imprisoned in the county gaol ot the county- of Wayne, upon a conviction for larceny, be pardoned and released from gaol upon condition that he pay to the Sherilfof the said county, the costs and expenses which have accrued from the time of his apprehension till his di.scliarge. The same being adopted from the laws ot one of the original states, to wit, the state of New York, as far as necessary and suitable to the circumstances of the territory of Michigan. Made, adopted and published at the city of Detroit, in the territory of Michigan, this 7th day of August in the year of our Lord, 1817. (Signed) Lewis Cass, Guvcniar of the territory of MiehigaJi.' A few months ])eforc General Harrison died, one would have thought that if the official newspaper of the Union at Washington was entitled to credit for veracity, lie must have bi^en one of the greatest of monsters, one of the worst of men. When he died, Cass, at Pans, delivered a very long oration to his memory, from which one would have judged that he mu.^t have been " one of the greatest and best" of men— all this, too, on personal knowledge. When dcf>>ated in what some suppose to have been the great object of Ins wishes, by the decision in favour of Polk, Ca.'^s wrote to E. AVorrell and others, that lie was delighted with the choice the Baltimore Convention had made of such "firm, consistent, able, and lione.st citizens as Messrs Polk and Dallas, both olwliom he knew intimately, and that " they would never disappoint the expectations of OUR party, nor of the country." Perhaps he really was delighted He had written from Paris, 10 Aug. 1841, " My conviction is, that tliere is nothing in mv nresent position, nothino in my past career, which should lead to my selection lor such a mark of confidence. My repugnance is great, ^T ALMOST invincible. ' How sorrv the friends of Peace must be ! That is, in case Polk should set the world m a blaze. Mr. Richard Rush wrote Aaron Hoban, of Boston, Jan. 4, 1844, that, aficr an acquaintance of more than thirty years, he wanted General Ca-ss to be electea, " Because to have a CASS ANGLING FOR THE AMERICAN DIADEM. 105 Aim," says he, " affcclionate, confidential, and kind to the last degree ; and am entirely satisfied that there is no degree of good feeling or confidence which he does not entertain for me.^^ The lirst measures of consequence in which Van Buren was engaged, appear to have been the preparation oi' suitable instructions relative to commerce, tariffs, navigation, and boundaries, and the adjustment of claims, for the guidance of the U. S. envoys and other agents in England, France, Mexico, Spain, &c. In the prosecution of the U.S. claims on France, he seems to have persuaded JacKson to assume a tone of menace and defiance, very unlike indeed to his honied accents when addressing imperial England. The aggrandizement of those banlwand mercantile concei'ns on which he placed dependence, as forming material for the construction of a step-ladder by which, in time, he might be elevated to the Presidency, was not forgotten ; nor did he hesitate to intrigue for the destruction of the LF. S. Bank, froai the moment in which he sav/ Jackson man like him President, would be the most likely means of keeping us OUT OP WAR, under menacing; questions that hang over us." Methinks friend Rush woukl have left this because oat of his catalogu?, had he heard ths gallant general's trumpet tongued notes in the capitol this session, all ending in 51'' 40', for which, however, some wicked wags affirm that he don't care a rush. Brougham said of Cass's efforts to please the cotton growing states by opposing the anti-slavery treaty, " And he has done all this for what '? For the sake of furthering his own electioneering interest in America, and helping himself to that seat the possession of which he envied Mr. Tyler — the seat of the first magistrate of that mighty republic. My lords (continued Brougham), I hope and trust, for the sake of America, of England, and ot humanity and mankind at large, that the prosperity and happiness of that great people will be perpetuated for ever." In his protest, Cass accused England of duplicity. Webster replied : " You will perceive that, in the opinion of this Government, cruising against slave dealers on the coast of Atrica is not all that is necessary to be done, in order to put an end to the traffic. There are markets for slaves, or the unhappy natives of Africa would not be seized, chained, and carried over the ocean into slavery. These markets ought to be .shut. And in the treaty, the high contracting parties have stipulated ' that they will unite in all becoming representations and remonstrances with any and all powers within whose dominions such markets are allowed to exist; and that they will m-ge the propriety and duty of closing such markets at once and for ever." Cass's efforts in France prevented the ratification, by that nation, of a mutual concession treaty, by representing England as insincere, and desirous to enforce her old designs of im- pressmeiit, searching for her seamen, &c. ' President Tyler approved highly of Cass's conduct. Webb, of the Com-ier and Enquirer, rarely mi-sses a defence of Cass or of Marcy. He evi- dently likes many of his brother editors of the Whig party much woi'se than he does the demo- cracy of Cass and Marcy. He and they ai'e thorough-going friends of negi-o-slavery in its very worst forms. , General Cass is the Secretary who issued orders to Gaines to invade Texas. Of course he approved of these orders. Had it not been .so, he could have resigned his place. He is by no means the equal in ability of Clay and Calhoun, nor does he possess the excellent heart, the kindly feelings of Col. Johnson. Van Buren has less mental power than either Clay, Calhoun or Cass ; yet, notwithstanding a life of intrigue and demagogueism, chance did the miost for him. Van Buren preferred Cass to Calhoun, and Calhoun preferred Polk to Cass. The new divisions of party are north and south, slave owner and freeman. Southern policy is to give to us north- erns a master, and to ensure om' bondage to the spread of their .system by dividing us, and engaging and bargaining with the Marcys, Walkers, and other cunning men v/ho have popu- larity without liberality. Calhoun was hot for Texas, but, as to Oregon, he urged us to be still. Polk does not differ from him. Had 1 voted in Nov. 1844, Polk would have had my suffrage, because he stood pledged to act with perfect equality to the foreign born and the native, while clay stood silent, with our native bigots, the foreigner's avowed enemies, in his front ranks. If there is to be a slave class, and a master class, I shall not willingly forge my o^vn fetters. Had I supported Polk, however, which I did not, I would have been,"as others are, his dupe. Those who are intimate with Gov. Cass, tell me, that his manners ai-e pleasing ; that he is courteous ; a good scholar ; an amiable man ; a good husband and father. He is a large sized, portly man, with a big head ; and carries his political principles, liivc a countrv^ doctor'.s wallet of medicines, in a convenient, portable form. He played his card well in the "game of presilent making, in 1841 — and, after Van Buren's election, there's no knowing what may iiappen two years hence. Cass is, by trade, a politician, and has mind and gi-eat experience. 106 JACKSON, CALHOUN, AND THE SEMINOLE WAR. in possession of substantial power. The President was speedily involved in a quarrel with the directors of the U. S. branch at Portsmouth, N. H., and the breach when made was easily widened. The influence of the cabinet ; its patronage ; the means its members had of giving a direction to public opinion on certain important subjects ; their views, connections, expectations, wishes ; the majority of them desirous to see Calhoun the next President ; Calhoun himself already at the head of the Senate as V'ice President ; with the Telegraph press and patronage of Congress in the hands of its indefatigable editor. General Duff Green, at his back ; presented a state of things which neither Jackson nor Van Buren liked, so they resolved upon a dis- solution of the cabinet, as the only plausible means of getting rid of Branch, Ingham, and Berrien. One pretext for a quarrel was found, in the fact that President Monroe, and his Secretary of War, Calhoun, had not been altogether satisfied with Jacxson's mode of conducting the Seminole war,* — and this was * What are the facts on the Seminole question'! They are these. Jackson was employed by Monroe, and his cabinet, which then consisted of Crawford, Adams, Calhoun, Wirt, and Crowninshield, to chastise certain Indian tribes or bands, whose home was in Florida, a possession of Spain. He disobeyed, or rather transcended his orders, and on the 19th of July, 1818, President Monroe wrote him privately, that when called into service against th3 Seminoles. " the views and intentions ot' the government were fully disclosed in respect to the operations in Florida. IN TRANSCENDING THii LIMIT PilESCRIBED BY THOSE ORDERS, you acted on your own responsibility." Mr. Monroe said, it was right to attack the Seminoles in Florida, for they had a sort of sovereignty there, " but an or lir b/ the governin^nt to attack a Spanish post would assume anoiner character. IT WOUilD AUrtlORIZE WAR. CONGRESS ALONE POSSESS THAT POWER." Jacksj.i hii siizji an 1 held tho posts or fjrts of Spain in tira3 oi'pjace. Hill had denjuuced him, so had Ritchie, and Noah. Coleman of the Post, Feb. 8, 1819, said, that " in spite of tha vat3s which one branch of the legislature have passed, we shall continue to think mat the cjaduci of General Jackson, in forcibly entering the Spanish territory, and seizing upon the civil authority; in decoying, by maans of false colors, two Indian chiefs on boaru of an A narican vessel, and than hanging them at the yardarm, one of whom, loo, had spared the li.e ol an American captive, at the intercession of his daughters; and in hurrying to a violent and ignominious death, two prisjners, after quarter had been granted, can never be juititiid by any authority to in found in any civil or religious code." In the British cabinet it was serijasly debated whether satisfaction or war ougnt not to b,' the alternative demanied for the hinging of Capt. Arbuthnot, who advised the English authorities that Jackson's war mission wjis occasioUs^d by persons who were grasping alter the lands of the Indians, and the southern planters desiring to seize and punish their blacli bondsmen for seeking that freedom in a Spanish colony which the land of liberty denied. Crawford, in one of his letters, mentioned that, about this time Jackson wrote to Monroe, and "gave it as his opinion that tlie Floridas ought to be takaa by the United States." He (Jackson) added, " it might be a delicate matter for th3 Executive to decide; but the President [Monroe] had only to give a hint to some coiifiknliul member of Congres.s, say Johnny Ray, and he would take it, and take the responsi- bility upon himself." Was Senator Houston, Jackson's Johnny Ray, in the Texas allUir 1 Was Senator Yulee, Polk's Johnny Ray, when he introduced a resolution recently to annex Cuba, after the highest officials inlllinois had met and advised that measure 1 "VVho are to be the Oregon and California Rays ? That President is not very particular in the matter of sincerity who pledges himself to all Oregon before an election, oliers to give up 15,000 square miles after it, declares to the American p_^ople that oin title is clear and unquestionable to M<» 40', and then offers a compromise for latitude 49°. To return to Monroe's letter to Jackson. He told him that his seizing the fortresses of Spain, might involve the Union in a war with that power, when British privateers would harass American commerce, and this country not have one Emopean power on its side — and' that such a stale of things ought not to be lightly hazarded. He advised Jackson to amend his reasons — and in another private letter, dated "Oct. -20, added, " I was sorrv to find that you understool vour instructions relative to operations in Florida DIFFERENTLY FROM WHAT WE INTENDED." Here he .speaks for himself and his cabinet, especially for Calhoun, who was then at the head of ihe department of war, and had issued these instruc- tions. Mr. Monroe bids the general write out his views, addine, " This will be answered, so as 10 explain ours, in a friendlv manner, bv Mr. Calhoun, WHO HAS VERY JUST AND LIBERAL SENTIMENTS ON THE SUBJECT. This will be necessary in the ca.se of a call for papers by Congress, or may be. Thus we shall aU stand on the groimd of honor, MONROE, ADAMS, CALHOUN, AND THE KINDERHOOK PLOT. 107 furnished by the confederates of Van Bui'en, and urged through Hamilton and Forsyth upon Jackson at the fitting moment, who feigned a feehng of indignation, evidently put on, and acted, to rouse Calhoun and bring on an angry dispute. I say feigned a feeling, for after Jackson had quarrelled with Calhoun on this matter, he remained upon the most cordial and kindly terms with many other leading politicians, who, as he well knew, had in ISIS and 1819, been among EACH DOING JUSTICE TO THE OTHER, which is the ground on which we wish to place each other." Adams's vindication of Jackson is on record — Monroe's manly conduct to-wards him in his public capacity, was only equalled by his kind and friendly consideration in private. Here we see that he frankly told Jackson, that Calhoun's sentiments in the whole matter were very just and very liberal, and that his (Jackson's) conduct was not approved, but that reasons were sought for its justification that the evils of an unnecessary war might be avoided. How could Jackson, when in possession of these secret letters for ten years, pretend, after his elec- tion had bean secured through the gigantic efforts of Vice President Calhoun and his friends, that he had always understood that Calhoun, as war secretary, had approved of the hangings and fortress seizures in a friendly country without war ! Jackson was enraged at Calhoun and Crawford in 1818, for not thinking as he did, but Calhoun gave him a party, and the quarrel was re\ived at the convenient interval of ten years, to serve Van Buren. As a proof that Messrs. Monroe and Calhoun continued to confide in Jackson, and that their ulterior views were believed to b2 his, they offered him, in 1823, the mission to Mexico, which he would have ace jpied, had not Burr and others more influential, induced him to set his cap for the Presidency of the Union. Crawfjrd. when he reported, as he had a perfect right to do, at a proper interval of time, the secret conversations in Monroe's cabinet, ought to tiave told the truth. Does not his own statement show that he did not do so '! and knowing that, how could Jackson or Van Buren pretend to depend more on his vindictive yet treacherous memory than on the confidential assurances of James Monroe 1 In 1828, we fin.l John Forsyth, Van Buren's confederate, \\Titing Major James A. Hamilton as follows: " MiUedgiviUe, Feb. 8th. Dear Sir: Our friend W. H.Crawford was in this " place a few hours yesterday. By his authority I state, in reply to your inquiry, that, at a " meeting of Mr. Monroe's c ibinet to discuss the course to be purr-ued' towards Spain, in con- '• sequence of General Jackson's proceedings in Florida, during the Seminole war, MR. "CALHOUN SUBMITTiiD TO AND URGED UPON THE PRESIDENT THE "PROPRIETY AND NECESSITY OF ARRESTING AND TRYING GENERAL "JACKSON. MR. MONROE WAS VERY MUCH ANNOYED BY IT." Hamilton had previously asked Calhoun the same question. In his letter to him of Feb. 25, 1828, he says — " In replv to mv inquirj' ' Whether at anv meeting of Mr. Monroe's cabi- net the propriety of ARR'iiSTlNG GENERAL JACKSON for anything done by him during toe Seminole war, had been at any time discus.se.l,' vou answered, ' SUCH A MEASURE WAS NOl' THOUGHT OF— much less discussed. The only paint bejare the cabinet W2S the aiU'ic:)' to be given to the Spanish government.^ " Hamilton was the dependant of Van Buren — he was fond of money — had been an anti-war federalist, and required Van Buren's aid, as Van Buren did his. At the proper moment, the information which he had secretly obtained from Crawford's friend, Forsyth, about IHE ARREST, was communicated to Jackson. The election was now sure — Branch, Ingham and Berrien were true to their principles and their friends — Duf!^ Green stood by Calhoun, who had no means of rewarding him, though by so doing he knew that Jackson's and Van Buren's indignation and the loss of office and its vast emoluments, would be the certain results. The apples of discord had now to be scattered — and Jackson, professing astonishment about the ARREST, and not contented with Calhoun's explicit disclaimer to Hamilton, applied to Crawford, the political enemy of Calhoun, and who had voted in the cabinet to puni-sh him by a disavowal of his Seminole proceedings ! Finding that matters were taking this new turn, Crawford wrote Forsyth from Woodlawn, 30 April, 1830, "I recollect distinctly what passed in the cabinet meeting referred to in }'our " letter to Mr. . Mr. Calhoun's proposition in the cabinet was that General Jackson " should be PUNISHED IN SOME FORM, OR REPRIMANDED IN SOME FORM. I "AM NOT POSITIVELY CERTAIN WHICH. AS MR. CALHOUN DID NOT " PROPOSE TO ARREST GENERAL JACKSON, I feel confident that I could not have " made use of that word in my relation to you," &c. Here's a disclaimer for you ! He had told Forsyth secretly that Calhoun did propose to arrest Jackson. Now he tells him he did not sav that. In one sentence of the above quoted letter, he says he recollects distinctly what passed, but in the next he says he does not recollect distinctly whether Calhoun spoke of reprimand or of punishment ! 108 Calhoun's retort, crawford on political secrets. the most hostile to hira in the matter of that same Florida campaign. Jackson was perfectly aware that Van Buren, with the presses under his control, and also some of his friends in the U. S. Senate, had really been his deadliest enemies in 1818, and long after it — yei, now that it suited his purpose, he could profess to forget all this, while Calhoun, who had acted most honorably toward him, was made to feel the effect of what assuredly was a rooted hatred. Jackson, urged on by Van Bui-en's creatures, goes to a man for facts, who is filled with envy and hatred of Calhoun ; and who cannot withhold the details of his o^ii petty griefs, even in an appeal to the public. Calhoun (says he) established the Washington ilepublican to slander and vilily me — he set on Ninian Edwards to break down my character, &.c. He goes on to say, that he was for Jackson as president if it wouldn't help Calhoim, and that Calhoim's family had called Jackson a " military chieftain,"' with more of such gossip and twaddle ; adding what had probably the greatest weight of any, " I know personally that Mr. Calhoun favored Mr. Adams's pretensions till Mr. Clay declared for him." In his letter to Balch, 14th Dec. 1827, Crawford also says, " My opinions upon the next presidential election are gene- rally known. When Mr. Van Biu-en and Mr. Cambreleng made me a visit last April, I authorized them upon every proper occasion to make those opinions known." On tiuning to page 200, letter 1-14, it will be seen that " my friend Col. Hayne" is the word with Van Biu-en. In 1832, we meet with the Colonel's vote to recall him from London. When the Van Buren part}' nominated Jackson, in this stale, in 1828, they omitted to name Calliomi for vice pi'esident — meantime the plot was ripening, and a very deep plot it was. How like to the persecution of Clinton in 1819 and 1820, by Van Buren, Butler and the "high minded;" a persecution, the principle involved in which, even Hammond could not see; for Clinton's measm-es, like those of Jackson's insulted secretaries, had given entire satisfaction. Calhomr's letter to Jackson, dated May 29, 1830, is a specimen of his manly straight-for- wardness, and consistency, which one would wish to see rewarded, even on earth. He goes fully into the merits of the Seminole case — is master of both facts and arguments — and alter having stated that he approved, that they all approved, of Monroe's private letter of July 19, 1818, I cannot perceive how, at an interval of twelve years, Jackson should have singled out him — the man to whom, when aspersed and slandered from Maine fo Missouri, he owed so much — as an enemy — mrless it was, that he (Calhoun) stood in the way of measures, public or personal, whichJackson and Van Buren had at heart; and must be injured, if that were possible. Calhoun's idea appears from his letters. He says to Jackson, " I should be blind not to see that this whole afi'air is a political manoeuvre, in which the design is that you should be the instrument and myself the victim, but in ^^■hich the real actors arc carefully concealed by an artful movement." In the hands of Clinton, Duane, Calhoun, and men of their honor- able dispositions, Jackson's administration might have become a blessing to society, and Van Buren been compelled to suspend his innigues. Soon after the dissolution, al a public dinner in Pendleton, S. C, one of the toasts was " Martin Van Buren. ' Ah ! tliat deceit should steal Kuch gentle shapes, and with a virtuous visor, hide deep vices.' " Calhoim never could find out the name of Jackson's fii'st informer — he avIio referred to Hamilton, who in his turn referred to Crawford. He was justified in holding Forsyth up in that detestable character, and did so — hut Van Buren remembered tlie service done him, and in course of time Forsyth became his Secretaiy of State. This was his reward. Because I gave to the public the secret correspondence of Van Buren and his confederates, instead of turning it into money, as some poor men like me would liave been tempted to do, Van Bm-en's friends have slandered and persecuted me. In a letter from his favorite candi- date, W. H. Crawford, dated Woodlawn, 2d Oct., 1830, and addressed to J. C. Calhoun, I find the following paragraph on political secrets : " I sliall first notice your observations upon the disclosure of tlio secrets of the cabinet, wliicli yoii say is tlic first wliicli lias occurred, at least in tins' country. Do you really believe this assi'ition, Mr. Ctilliouii 1 How did the wriiten ojiinioiis oi' Mcssrsf. JelTer.-on and Hamilton, on the lirst bntik bill, ever s^er, the r!;;lit 7 How were the facts and rircuinstancpn which preceded and accornpauied the removal of Edmond Randolph from (he State iJe- parinicnt by General WaFhinfjtoii, disclosed and made known to the public 1 If your assertion be true, those facts ;md circumstances would, at iliis moment, he buried in Egyptian darkness. Wliile a cabinet is in existence and its usefulness liable ii> bn impaired, reason and common sense point out the propriety of kccp'ng its proceed- incs secret. But after the caoinet no longer e.Tists, when it:3 iiscfulnes.s caiuiot be inipaircd by u disclosure of its proccediniis, neither reason, common sense, nor pntriotism, requires that these jiroceedings -should be sbroudi-d in impenetrHble darkness. The acts of such a cabinet become history, and the nation has the same right to a know- ledge of them, that it has to any other historical fact. Jt is presumed that all nations have entertained tljis opi- nion and havijucticl upon it. Hence the secret history of cabinets, the most despotic in Europe. Hcncr the history of the house of Stuart, by Charles James Fo.t, which discloses the most >ecret intercourse between Charles H., and the French Minister, by which it w;is proved tiiat ( harles was a pensioner of Louis XIV., King of France, and hud secretly engaged to re-establish I'opery in England. Yet in the lace of all these facts, you dare presume upon iIk; ignurance of the dislinguislicd person you were addressing, so far as to insinuate that such disclosurcB had never been made in any country, but certainly not in this republic," THE WIDOW TIMBERLAKE, OR A WOMAN IN THE PLOT. 109 The Seminole question was but the nominal one, on which they differed — a means taken to effect a much desired end. Another cause of strife was Mrs. Eaton. She had been the widow of Purser Timberlake, of the Constitution ; and was married to Mr. J. H. Eaton, Jack- son's biographer and war secretary, in 1S29. While Mrs. Timberlake, the ladies of character, in Washington, had refused to associate with her for several years, alleging that her conduct and reputation were too bad. General Robert Desha had warned Eaton of all this before their marriage — and, as Eaton was a favorite of Jackson's, and the families of Messrs. Calhoun, Branch, Berrien and Ingham neither visited his wife nor invited her to their parties, while Van Bu- ren, being a widower, with no daughters, Avas unremitting in his attentions to her, an effort was made to coerce Messrs. Branch, Ingham and Berrien into a different course, coupled with a threat of removal from office, in case Mrs. E. was not, by their families, placed on a more friendly footing.* In all this, the * Wn.\T iN-FLUE-vcE DID Mr. axd Mrs. Eaton exercfse OVER Jackson 1 I place much con- fidence in the statements of Messrs. Branch, Berrien, and In2;ham, because thev were democrats of high character, the choice of Jackson, in accordance witli public sentiment, and because they chose, like Diiane, to retu'e from the offices they held, and refuse other offices offered them as bribe.?, rather than become the base instruments of Van Buren, and tlu-ough his influence to enjoy a monopoly, as it were, of the power and patronage of this gi-eat republic. I place con- fidence in them i)ecause, like Calhoun, they M"ould descend to nothing mean — because thev spurned Jackson's offer, for such it was, on condition that their families would associate with Mrs. Eaton, the v/ife of Jackson's personal friend and war minister, a woman whom the citi- zens' wives would neither receive nor visit, on account of her mode of lite as they had witnessed it ; and I confide in them, because they were acknowledged to have been good and faithful stewards to the public, by Jackson, while not a whi.sper did even the breath of' slander utter to their prejudice. I wish we could say as much of thefr well known .succe.s.sors, Kendall Tanev Woodbury, Van Buren and Butler. John Hem-\' Eaton married the Widow Timberlake in Januar}-, 1829. I suppose he had been a long time a widower. Either General Macomb or John Van Buren introduced me that year, in the department of state, to Mr. Eaton's .sons, one at least of whom must have been 19 or 20 years old. William B. Lewis, of Tennessee, whom Polk dismissed li-om office a few months since, another personal friend of Jackson's, was Eaton's brother-in-law, and appears to have approved of this second marriage. When the cabinet broke up, Eaton wrote a letter to Blair, stating that soon after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun called and left their card, and that he and Mrs. Eaton returned the visit, and were, by Mrs. C, recei\red with much po- liteness. To this, a reply was made by Calhoun, that his wife had never called on Mrs. E. at any time, never left her card, nor authorized another to do so for her — that Mrs. C. conceived it to be the duty of Mrs. E., if innocent, to open her intercourse with the ladies M"ho resided in the place — that '■ it was not, in fact, a question of the exclusitm of one alread}' admitted into societ}', bttt the admission of one already excluded. Before the marriage, while she was Mrs. Timberlake, she had not been admitted into the society of Washington ; and tlie real question was, whether her marriage -with Major Eaton should open the door alread}"- closed on her • or in other words, whether otficial rank and patronage should, or should not, prove paramount to that censorship, which the sex exerci-ses over itself; and on which, all must acknowledge the purit)- and dignitv of the female character mainly depend." I have recently perused with as mitch attention as I coitld give to them, the correspondence and other newspaper statements concerning Jackson, his secretaries, and Mrs. Eaton and Van Bu- ren. They are full of gall and bitterness. The Secretary of War (Eaton) jnibliely addresses his late colleagues, the great exemplars of the new world, thus : " Tliese two iiien, Ing-ham and Berrien will stand together in alter time, and Avith honorable men, monuments of duplicity, ingratitude and baseness — traitors to their friends, and destroyers of themselves — a memorable illustration of the ■ melancholy truth, that a man may smile and smile, and be a villain!" Betwixt his angry wife and artful monitor, Van Buren, poor Eaton mu.st have been in a bad A\'aA'. To re- peat the charges of deceit, falsehood, hypocrisy, and other vices — the threats of assassination, vengeance, chastisement, &;c. — the challenges to fight duels or bear the brand of cowardice' would be tedious — but a few extracts from the nan-ative of Governor Branch of North Carolina' who had been Jackson's Secretar}' of the Navy, may help us to a right estimate of Van Bu- ren's agency in the affair. " Mr. Van Buren, it must be home in inind, [says Gov. Branch.] was n. widower without daughters ; and he adroitly availed himself of all his privileges as such. His attentions to Mrs. Eaton were of the most marked character. Polite and assiduous on all occasions, he was particularly .*o in tiie presence of Gen. Jackson or 110 A FOX CHASE, BY BRANCH, WEBB, AND SPEIGHT. point aimed at, both by Van Buren and Jackson, was to get rid of Calhoun's friends, and to fill their places with more pliable politicians. On the 7ih of April, ]b31, Eaton resigned the War Department. Van Ijuren gave up the Department of Slate on the 11th, and Jackson wrote him after this manner : — " "I'o say that I deeply regret to lose you is but feebly to express my feelings." Ingham was sent for next — the two resignations shown him by the President, and a wish expr.^ssed that he would go out. The Russian Mission was otfer- ed as usual, which he indignantly refused, but re.signed forthwith, giving, as his Maj. Eaton. His influence, in ever>' variety (if form, both official and unofficial, was exerted to malte it appa- rent to tliose L'enlli men tliiit he entered deeply into their feelings; not, in lUct, thit ho c.ired Hiiyihing ntidtit them; but lie Ibresaw the power to be acquired by pursuing; such a course, and hail no scruples toresinjin him. At length, Gen. Jackson, after the meeting ol Congress in December, 18iH, finding the Indies of VVnfhinglon to be impracticable, determined that the families of his Cabinet should submit to terms or be disniissed. * « * Congress was in session ; the ladies of the members from Tennessee, even, held no iiittrcourse with Mrs. Ea- lon; nor, in lact. llie President's own family. Tlie friends of the administration became alarmed, lest the ex- ercise of suchilespdiic power should overwlielm them all, and warded otl" the impending blow, 'i'be situation of Mrs. E;iton, h.i\sever, engros ed the ('resident's whole sinil, and he continued to be much occupied in col lecting cerllliciites, principally from olfice seekers, to sustain her. This book of cerliticates. lur a folio did it soon become, was that on which olfice seekers fir.-- liienced between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Calliouii, t-ikeii ill connection wiUi the time, is sufficient to con\ini-e any intelligent mind that it was in-tignied lo Van Buren. 1 exi-r ed everj nerve lo defeat his puii>ur))iss all beliel that the coul, dlion iie ai:d U, pr.ijciplen wire- Wi>rl»<;r in ibis plot .-Ikould, by sBch uieaus, render hiui.>elfaccep. able to a tree, generou.i, p.ilrii.t.c, and e..l.gUt- eoed people." Oue tiling must be siid here, In favor of Jackson, but it tells so much the woi-se for Van Buren. His ptrty \xLd basely shimiered Jviis. jjickson during the canvass of lS-24 ; JLckson was tenderly attiiclied to hjr ; she had gone to her gruve, just bcior-i he Idt Tennessee lo tssume tlie duties of President ; and there were those who wounded his ll-elings by telling him ihut Uie conduct pui-sued towards his Tennes.-ee friend's wiie, wls one way ol insulting iiansLlf. Jack- son had not forgotten the Benton pamphlets. On the 9th oi M^y, IfcSl, Jtst.t Lpeigl.t, M. C, •vrlio afterwards idiiered to Van tiuren, thus addrcs-sed Governor Lri.i.ch : ■ .-Ta.nti NBfP.R. May 9. 1P31. " .Mt dear friend : — Yours of the 4th Inst., has this moment come tihand. I am i.i.tinisi Ken n the opinion 1 had formed a.i to the c.ai-e nf the hlow out at Washington tas we call it here.) It is impossib.e tor uie to ex- press the deep and hearilelt mnrt.flcalion 1 have and continue to leel lor the honor of uiy ci.untry. I too, sir, Hm disjippoiiited Never did 1 believe that the high-minded chiv.-Hln.us Independence ol Ai-drew J,ick>on ci uld be made to bnw at the shrine of stlfi^h ambition. Ah ! and so a- to lorsike old bmc tried Iiiends at the polls, nnd moved liv the deceitful i.rtifici s ofstnh men as Martin Van Buren, and seduced by the in>iipation ol Mrs. Baton. Sol'.rra.s I have understood, the feehngs of your tVienits are with you. * ♦ » Q,,d bless you. '•J. Bi LIOHT." Col. James Watson Webb was, as the reader will perceive by reference to his letter and card, pages 231 and 2:^:2, so friendly to Van Buren, tliat he was ready to fight any number of duels to Lis honor and giorv. Having since, like me, cooled do^\'n a little, he tells iiis rei.dcrs, through the Courier & iiiiquirer of July 7, 1837, that Van Buren became Jackson's favorite '• by his base sycophancy and unscrupulous truckling lo the mandates of his mastci'' — that, to worm him- self into Jack-soa's favor, lie gave a grand entertainment, to which all tlie families ol distinction were invited — that " at the appointed time, the doors of the supper-room were thrown open, the music struclc up, and Maniii Van Buren led to the head of his table, and seated upon Ids right hand, the latly whom General Jackson had conuuanded lo be received," but Mhoni tlie rest of the cabinet objected lo countenance. A.^ early as Xov. 2-1, 1S28, the ^'ational Advocate, N. Y., notices the singular fact, lliat " im- raediately rd'ter the combined powers have etleclcd the .security of Jaek>ons election, the forces of Van Buren and Calhoun .should assume a Ito.slile anitude towards each oilier." ^'an Buren and his Ibllowfus, well knowing Jack.son's pledge not to be re-elected, were the first lo nominate hiin {or a second term— thev saw lie wished it and that it would throw him more and more into Van Buivn's power. How few Kings, Popes, and Presidents Me fmd who M-ilUngly lay JACKSON — TYLER— VAN BUREn's REJECTION, 1832, 111 reason, Jackson's wishes that he should do so. Jackson replied to his note, bore testimony to his " integrity and zeal," and declared that he had been "fully sa- lisfied" with his conduct. This was not the truth. If the ofiicer was true and faithful, did he merit, as a I'eward, to be turned rudely out of place, or what was thereto equivalent .-' If he had said to the three cabinet nii.nisters, whom he asked to go away, " You are taithful, capable and zealous in the public ser- vice, but you are also fond of Calhoun, whom Van Buren has made me believe not to be my friend ; this is your oflence, and it is unpardonable ;" he would have told more of the truth in that matter. How could he deeply regret to part with Van Buren as an officer, when he had already resolved to send him to London, and give McLane Ingham's place"? Congress broke up on the 3d of March, and by the 7th of next month, the actors in the cabinet plot had their parts perfectly prepared. That same year, Louis McLane took charge of the Treasury, and Van Buren left for England as the new envoy. His letter to Hoyt, page 229, shows that he liked the British capital, all but the expense of living in it. His nomina- tion as minister was sent to the Senate in December ; and, on the 25th of Jan- uary, 1832, by a vote of 23 against 23, and the casting voice of *Calhoun, down power ! I think John Tvler was honest and meant to do right, and I am glad he did not give us a national bank, for I think we may do better — but he ought lo have declined a re-elec- tion, and positively declared that he would not be a candidate. Why did he ad\"ocate the one term principle, and afterwai'ds, like Jackson, decline to lay down the cup till he had drank to the very dregs ? I am not sure that his conduct in asking his cabinet officers, whether he ought to be a candidate for a second term, was the surest e\idence of a great soul or a lofty spirit. He must have known, when he asked his cabinet, What shall I do 1 that the answer would be. Hold the reins as long as possible. One good to him result^^d trom the course he took. He learnt what a hollow, deceitful tribe, courtiers are. There are, in reality, but two parties in this republic ; and it would have been glorious, indeed, if the people had shaken olT tha harness of demagogues, and constituted a party for the countr}' and for libert}-. I once thought that it was Mr. Tyler's ambition to rise upon the ruins of prostrate selfishness. Per- haps I was mistaken. When he left Washington, his successor seemed wanting in respect to the office he had held. No matter. It taught him a lesson. I honor him lor signing the cheap postage bill, malgie all southern opposition. * Whv was Van Bl're.v rejected by the Sexate 1 When the Van Buren party at Albany heard of his rejeclion as minister to London, where, as Dr Holland tells ns, on the best authority, " he arrived in Sept-?mb:r, 1831, and was received, with distinguishea favor, bv the Court of St. James," the legislators friendly to him met atA.bany, in the Assembly Cham- b.u-, where Senator Kemble, whose subsequent adventurci; wiil b3 found in mr Livens" of Hoyt and Butler, came forward with a scries of resolutions for a national convention at Baltimore, a stat3 convention at Alban}-, &c., and the meeting also appointed Levi Beardsley, John W. Ednunds, N. P. Talmadge, C. L. Livingston, W. H. Angel, and others, a connnittee to address General Jackson ; v.'iio, in his reply, took occasion to say to them that Van Buren, on the question of trade, respecting which he had been blamed, had acted under his directions, and that his conduct had his approbation — that he held him in high esteem as a man of ability and int:^grity — that, as far as he (Jackson) knew, he had taken no part in the difficul- ties between him (Jackson) and Calhoun, nor advised the dusolutiou of his first cabinet, but been the friend of harmony — and that, when asked to go to London, he "yielde.1 a reluctant con.sent." In t'enate, Mr. Webster thought Van Buren's instructions to McLane, of 29th of July, 182y, derogatory lo the national character, and.showed a disposition in the writer to persuade Lord Aberdeen that the English government had an interest in maintaining in the U. S. the ascend- ency of the party to which he (V. B.) belonged ; thus establishing abroad a distinction between his country and his party. Mr. Frclinghuysen took a similar view. Van Buren's instruc- tions commissioned McLane to apprise the British Coiut of who triumphed last election, and who were defeated — to put his party in the right and his country in the wrong — to seek as a favor, as a privilege to the party "now dominant, Avhat had been refused as a right in Mr Adams' time — and to separate the administration of ihe country Irom the country, for, said be, Mr. Van Buren argues that " to set up the acts of the i.ate administratio.v, as the cause of the FORFEITURE OF puiviLEGEs which would othcrvrise be extended to the people of the U. S., would be unjust," because we, the new men in office, took sides with England, and opposed that administration. This is very humiliating indeed. On the matter of colonial trade, Adams and Clay, when in power, had agitated in every 112 VAN BURENj THE TARIFF, AND PROSCRIPTION IN POLITICS. " ISew York's favorite son" was permilted to exchange the classic banks of the Thames, and the smiles of royally in tiie old world, for iiis rural residence at possible way the question of tl;e free navigation of the great St. Lawrence. They asserted that iingland, bj- her colonial trade act, wanted to nionopoiize the whole carrying trade lor Ame- rican produce, which is very bulk}', to the Biiti.sli '\Ve.'>t Indies, and reasoned with her on the unfairness of high discrinunating or protecting duties. Jackson and Van Buren abandoned the free use of the St. Lav/rencc and ilie carrying trade, and obtained a reduction of duties on articles sent tlu-ough Canada — they declaring that if the farmer found a new or ii.iprovcd market at his own door, it mattered little to him where his produce went to. 1 must own that Van Buren's conduct in this trade question does not appear to me to be deserving of censure 'ill ttsclj- — and as the instructions were by the Presiuent, and had been belbre Congress foi many months — as the terms agreed to by Lord Aberdeen and Louis McLane, in 16'z'J, 1 think, had been accepted b_v this country, and the trade opened umiei- a legislative enactment, it seems to me that it was too late to censure, in Ib32, language which had been passed over without remark lb months before. The cringing, apologetic tone of the instructions tells who the real author was; and contrasts strangely witn the bold and haughty dehance given to an- cient, tricndly, warm-hearted France, on another memorable occasion, Ifom the same quarter — batl do 11) ink the arrangement made was advan.ageous to the U. S. Soon after this, I moved in the Canada Assembly for the appointment of a Committee on Trade : and, alter some six weeks of inquiries, 1 drew up the report, which the legislature printed in the lorm of a pamphlet of a hundred pages. Here is an extract : " Lnglana e.aims an exclusive monopoly in our markets; she allows us none in hers. Oiu' beef and pork are prohibited in her home dominions, and our pot and pearl-ashes subjected to the same rates of fluty at Liverpool as the pot and peuii-ashes of the southern shores of Ontario and Erie. The shipping of Britain at Uuebec give no preference to tiinber, live stocK, Hour, beel, ..nd pork, brougnt from Upper Canada, over similar articles brought Irom the United btates. TliC monopoly is all in lavor of England and the United States, the Congress of which latter country, by an act passed in July, 1832, subjects our wheat, wiieat lloiu-, beef and pork, ashes, and other staples, to an im- post lax of £15 on every £100 value." In all this there was not much of reciprocity — but I do not see how complaint could be made at Washington of an arrangement wnich excluded Canada from the ports of the United States, and opened those of Canada and the West Indies to the farmers oi this Union. In everi conversation I had, when in England, with Lord Goderich, who introduced the corn bill into parliament, and with Lord Sydenliam, V. P. of the Board of Trailc, in lb33-33, 1 complained grievously of the liberality .shown to the U. S. lor the benefit of EnglLsh shipping, while no care had been taken to obtain the like favors for Canada here. The late drawback act is an amendment, however, and there are many im- pro\x'ments on both sides — but i have proposed to myself to avoid saying much on tariff ques- tions. There is not room here. A charge made against Van Buren, that he was the parent of the proscriptivc system, which Clay and Adams had disdained to resort to, would have been ably sustained, had the Senators who made it had, in addition to the facts in their possession, the Custom House rubbish left on deposit, or to be .swept out, when Jesse Hoyt ceased to be first lord of the Van Buren treasuiy here. Senator Fo'Jl, of Connecticut, said, "I sincerely believe that Gen. Jackson came to this place fully determined to remove no man from office, but for good cause of removal. 1 am fully convinced the whole ' ^y^tcnt of ■pruscnpl.tuii' owes its existence to Martin Van Buren ! That the dissolution of the Cabinet \vas eflected by his management and lor his benefit ! and that the handof tlie late Secretary of Stale maybe traced distinctly in another afl'air, which has produced an alienation between the first and .second Officers of the Government ; and ako in relation to the present ' improved condition of the public press,' and the great abuse of the patronage of the Government!" On 'luesday, Jan. 31, I'ammany Hall met to sustain Van Buren, and the committee of resolves consisted of W. Bowne, James Campbell [see pages 1113, '2U3, ^Vc.J, Saul AUej', C. W. Lawrence, W. P. Hallett, Preserved Fisli, Wm. M. Price, F. B. Cutting [.see pages 177, 180, 182], Gideon Lee, Llisha TibbetLs, &c. They glorified Jackson and Van buren, censured the Senate as intriguers, and read John C. Calhoun out of the democratic party by due process of political excommunication. .Vinong the 23 rejecting votes in the Senate, I notice Holmes of Maine, Clay, Webster, Sey- mour of Vt., iVeliiigluiy.sen, Clayton, R. Y. Hayne, Gabriel Moore, I'homas Ewing, and B. Ruggles. j^iuong the 23 affirming votes were Isaac Hill, Felix Grundy, Dudlc}' and Marey, G. M. Dallas and W. Wilkin.s, his brother-in-law, Benton, Tyler, Powiiattan Ellis, and King, now at Paris. 1 have seen a table showing tiial Ihe States voting in favor of Van Buren had a puj)ulatioii of (i,(JJj,57I, and those opjiosi-d only 3,500,000, yet ilie majority was one against. iSullilieatioii came next, then the pet hanks, the sub-treasury Ibllowed. On New Year's day, IHIU, Clay and Calhoun attended I'rcsidcni Van Buren's levee ; and in November next, SoUiii Carolina, with consent of Calhoun, McDutiie, Pickens and Riieti, honored with her vote, for a second term, the rejected minister of 1832. VAN BUREN AS VICE PRESIDENT. HIS CAREER* 113 Kinderhook, in the lovely valley of the Hudson, near the base of the Catskill ; and relieved, for a brief season, from the cares of public life. He left England for France in March, made a hasty tour over the continent, and embarked, on the lOih of May, at Havre, for New York. Early in 1833, he came ao;ain into possession of power as Vice President of the Unioo ; as President of the Senate, which had refused to place confidence in him a twelvemonth before ; and as the successor of Calhoun, whose casting voice had ensured his rejection. Had Van Buren been a truly great and good man, his triumphs would have been a pleasant theme for the historian to dwell upon ; but, as they were obtained, like Butler's, by deceit and hypocrisy, by seeming to be the man he was not, and by the "judicious puffs" of artful fol- lowers, interested in his fortunes by personal ties, they are a source of regret. Blair's press, a donation from Van Buren's financial confederates in New York, did him good service — as did the trusty types of his ancient advocate, the editor of the Argus. Jealousies, bickerings, and some lack of tact among his oppo- nents, the cry of persecution, and the fact, well known to "waiters on Provi- dence," that Jackson's popularity was at his back, did the rest. That the agi- tation of the colonial trade question at the time of his rejection, and the speeches of General Samuel Smith on that home topic, did him no injury, 1 am well per- suaded. He took his seat at the head of the Senate, for the first time, on thf 16th of December, 1833. CHAPTER XXV " Gold, still gold — it flew like dust ! it tipp'd the post-boy, and paid the trust ; In each open palm it was freely tlirust ; there was nothing but giving and taking ! And if gold could insure the future hour, what hopes attended that Bride to her bower ; But alas ! even hearts with a four-horse power of opulence, end in breaking." t Removal of the Deposits in 1833. — Bank of the Metropolis. — Root^ Jackson^ aid Van Buren, on the Pets. — iV. Riddle, — Ingersoll on Charters and Slavery.— Col. Duane. — W. J. Daane. — Polk and Lawrence. — Kendall in Kentucky. — His treatment of II. Clay. — Kendall and the Bank, Tariff, Mackenzie, 6^-c. — Duane opposes the Pet Bank Conspiracy. — His reasons. — Louis J\IcLar,e''s views. — Sila» Wright and the Bank. — Calhoun'' s Prophetic Address in 1834. — La7ul Speculations. — The Globe. — Jackson, Duane, and the Mission to Si- beria. — Chief .Iiistice Taney. — Wonderful effects of Flattery. — Bennett upon Kendall. I HAVE shown, that, in 1824, Van Buren, his presses, and his partisans, were among the most thoroughgoing advocates of the United States Bank, and of the Presidential candidate who had been its most consistent, zealous, and uniform advocate — that, in 1826, Van Buren, Marcy, and Butler, admitted that it had a right to establish branches in the states, and that they petitioned Nicholas Bid- die and his brother directors for a branch at Albany — that Van Buren was friendly to Adams and Clay's administration in the first instance, and that the presses in his interest had abused Jackson in harsher terms than even Ritchie used — that he was connected with the most corrupt and infamous banks and bankers in the State of New York, the opponent of inquiry into their miscon- duct, and the advocate of new charters without check or responsibility — that the Albany Argus was his official organ — and that when the swindling establish- ments of previous years had pillaged the people of millions, and no two-thirds majority could be found to recharter the Mechanics and Farmers', and other 114 VAN BUREN, WRIGHT, AND THE BANKRUPT PETS. favorite banks of his, in 1826, '27, and '28, he put forward his Safety Fund nostrum, apd went for banks by the score, in January, 1829. I have also shown what that fund was and how it operated. The authentic secret correspondence, which providence has thrown in my way, will help the historian not a httle in his efforts to discover the motives which influenced Van Buren* and his confederates to tamper with the currency, as they did, from 1829 to 1841. The letters of C. W. Lawrence, C. C. Cam- breleng, S. Wright, B. F. Butler, R. H. Nevins, John Van Buren, Joseph Ker- nochan, W. L. Marcy, E. and C. L. Livingston, F. B. Cutting, S. Swartwout, E. Croswell, A. C. Flagg, Thad. Phelps, Stephen Allen, and T. VV. Olcott, when compared with certain facts and circumstances previously made public, too clearly prove that the war against the U. S. Bank, the detestable scheme of the pet banks, with the bribery, fraud, bankruptcy, and other accumulated miseries inflicted on the public through the derangement of business, had their origin at Albany. Jackson, though cunning himself, was but the ready instru- ment of still more artful men. Lady Hester Stanhope tells, that when Pitt was premier, large sums, hundreds of thousands of pounds, were offered to him in presents, by men deeply engaged in commerce, speculation, banking, &c., doubtless with the hope that he would favor their interests. In the absence of proof to the contrary, we may venture to assume that bucktail virtue, like English pride, would have spurned all such Potosian temptations. The United- States Bank had paid $1,500,000 for the use of the public money, during the continuance of its charter ;■{■ the Supreme Court of the Union * In Van Buren's message to Congress, Dee. 5, 1840, he says : " When I entered upon the discharjie of my official duties in March, 1837, the act for the distribution of the SHtpliis revenue was in a course of rapid execution. Nearly twenty-ei^lii millions of dollars of the public moneys were, in pnrsimnce ' his lilieral supervisory powers. He in«y in his discretion direct, as liefore remarked, an increase of th' Ir specie, when it appear* by the returns which they are oliliged to iii^ike to him at short interx als, that their Ji-siie> are large and riisproi'.ortiiiniite to their specie on hand ; and a ronsUint and great check is exercised over them by the acln-d pulil'c knowledce of their condition obtained through their reports, and the regular publi- cation otthein."— riin Buren's JMter to S/ierrod IVUUams. ^flugu-tlS, 183G. In his message of 1333. Jackson told Congress, that " the -^tate Banks selected are all Institutions of high chHracteraiid iindonbied strength, and are under the mmigement and contra! »/ rrfn of uvgucslional probity and iKtclligcnce." In his uiessage of 1837, h- said that "a nuniljer of the Deposit Banks have, with a com- mendable zeal to iiiil in the improvement of the currency, imported from abroad at their own expense, large smii's nf the precious mi'tals for coinage and circulation." The explosion and Innkruptcy of l.-^'J? followed, and Wrielit &. <'o. were ready with their new nostrum, the sub treasury. Hitchie, of ilie Uiiicm, like Tall- madpe, kicked a Utile, being up t« the chin in speculation. Ilis press designated the honest locos who met in the r«rk. N. v.. " Ihe r.iblilc rout." In a letter to S. D. Hastings, dated Forest Ilill, i^ept. Ofi, 1840, Charles J. Inger.soll. Chairman of the Com. on Foreign Aliliirs, H. of U., says that "the charlered power given bv our laws to mnke jiiiper money by banks of disconiiu 'I OLER ATliD IN ALL THEIR VIOLA I'lONS OF EVEUV PRINCII'LE t)F RIGHT. ■!■! at this moment ilemoraliiini; Pennsylvania, and particularly Philadelphia, by more folly, ignorance, breach offiith nnd bold their puity however THE DUANES, ROOT, AND JACKSON, ON THE BANKS. 115 had unanimously decided that that charter was constitutional ; a committee of Congress, and finally the House of Representatives, had declared, after inquiry, that the national treasure was safe in its vaults; the high tariff of 182S, sup- ported by Wright and Van Buren with the view of obtaining a surplus of many millions of revenue for political distribution and personal aggrandizement, had done its work ; Jackson had been elected a second time to the Presidency ; and now was the time to go into "the general scramble for plunder," as Svvartwout calls it, in right earnest. The first step of the conspirators was to advise the appointment of William J. Duane to the office of Secretary of the Treasury. The offer was made, and it was accepted. Mr. Duane was the son of one of the most upright, energetic, zealous and consistent democrats ever known to this Union. He had sown the good seed of manly, truthful principles in India, England, Ireland, and America — had suffered persecution for the love he bore to freedom — had upheld the good, and been a terror to the evil doer in high station, during half a century — was vigilant for his country as a trusted military officer in wai" — and the foe of United States Banks and other monopolies at variance with his ideas of equal rights and laws. In Poland, he would have followed Kosciusko ; in France, been ready to tear down the Bastile, or participate in the glorious days of 1830. What he thought of last and least was the acquisition of wealth; and he died in old age, very poor, with a heart warmed by love and kindness toward his fellow-men. Cobbett, who disliked his antipathy to the English system of war, taxation, finance, conquests and ill treatment of Ireland, frankly acknowledged that Willian^ Duane was the most efficient and sleepless opponent England had on this coi>tinent. I have read the files of the Aurora, no matter how old, with real delight, for it was impossible not to see great sincerity united with true patriotism, and an informed and reflecting mind, in the remarks of its conductor who, with " Montague on Republics," believed that " There cannot be a more certain symptom of the approaching ruin of a state, than when a firm adherence to party is fixed upon as the only test of merit, and when all the qualifications, requisite to the discharge of every employment, are reduced to thatsin'j'le stan- dard." ° His son,* William John Duane, whom Jackson called to his cabinet, in May, wrons General Root, in N Y. Senile, Feb. 7, ISU, said thit "the deposit banks were ex[>ected to support the Government even in the IdchI elections— in short, to do all its dirty work. The customers of the^e B inks were required to support tho A.du.inistr;ttion, otherwiie they could'get no aceommod ition. The New York merchmis sell their good's to the country nierctiants on cre:tnk<. The Bitnk< will not discount to those who are opposed to the Government. The consequence w:h,s. th it the nier- chinls were coinpelled to support the Adiuini-itration. Thirty or forty Pet Binks Wi^ra Hpp.)inted tor the ex- press purpose of doing the work of the Aduiinislriition. There was no need of proof of this — it w.ts open, pil- pible, visilile brihery—obviom to every mm, womin and child in the country. Was there ever such an attempt to overwhelm the whole l.ind in a sea of corruption 7" Wherein did this system, which miy hive made fortunes for Polk, Butler, Van Buren, Lawrence. Cim- brelens, M ircy. White &, Co., its creators, differ from that in operation now, as presided over by Walker Bdii- crofl, Mircy and Piilk? ' Who was Nicholas Biddle, whom Blair, Croswell, Green, and Bennett, so systematically abused at the word of cimm ind from Van Buren, Polk & Co.? The favorite of Monroe, of Ad im<, of Jick^on. a democratla. con- pressm in. affluent before he entered the b ink, and nominated by Andrew Jackson and confirmed by the Sen- ate, in 1830, in 1831, and a third tune, in [P.-jiJ, as a government director of the B ink as he h id been for seven year< before by M «nroe and Adim>. The moment Mr. Ahib V*n Buren coveted Mr. N iboth Bidille's vineyard he raised such a du^t about his ears, through the collar presses, that many persons, myself among the number believed him to be as great a monster as his bank was said to be. ' * As S3cretiry, Diane gives evidance of a .soand juJgmsnt, first rate basiiiess talent, and great mrightiie^s. Oi his title to .sapsrior ability as a .statesman, when compared to Jaek.son, Polk, Van Bmen, Lawrence, Wright, Butler, Taney, Cambreleng, and the rest of the pet bank junto, let his conduct, and his reasons for it, be compared with the result of THE EXPERI- MENT, and the tardy cDnfessions of the men who made it. In a letter to Moses Dawson, dated in 1837, General Jackson, after saying that he had con- fidence ixi the honesty of state banks at the time he placed in their vaults the deposits, adds: 116 GIRARD, SMITHSONT, LAWRENCE, POLK, AND FAVORITISM- 1833, was a lawyer of eminence in Philadelphia, one of the executors of the generous French banker, Girard, who, as if to shame the intolerant native party of our day, left millions of dollars, to educate American children, while Smith- son, an Englishman, sent $500,000 across the ocean for a like generous pur- pose. Duane wrote Girard's will, was long his adviser, was opposed to the United States Bank, in 1811 and 1S16, ahvays and on principle; and, with his father, threw their great popularity in Pennsylvania into the Jackson scale, in 1824, when Van Buren, Ritchie, and the selfish politicians, into whose hands he fell in 1S33, were slandering his name, and ridiculing his pretensions. Mr. Duane had repr^'sented the Philadelphia democrats in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, had written much that was useful, was married to a grand-daughter of that eminent American, Benjamin Franklin ;* and, with his father, had given the war of IS 12, an early, efficient, and continued support. He was opposed to congressional caucuses, and had no need to turn to the winning side, when Jackson was victorious, in 1828. For twelve years has this great and good man been allowed to remain in private life, traduced and slandered by the Globe, Argus, and kindred presses in the pay of Van Burenism, while his great experience, true patriotism, and sterling honesty v/ould have been of vast im- portance in the Congress of the Union. No doubt. Van Buren, Kendall, and their confederates deceived themselves " But v/as this confidence well founded, and whose fault is it that it was not 1 Let their treachery to the government and the people answer. Every day that the directors of these banks met at their boards, they knew their liabilities, and their assets to meet them. The)'- were repeatedly and earnestly cautioned by the treasury department not to over-issue — their charters prohibited it — their solemn obligations to the government and the people, and every principle of moral honesty, forbade it. Still, in open violation of all obligations, they sus- pended specie payments in a time of profound peace, robbed the treasury of many millions of dollars, and cried out, at the same time, that the treasury was bankrupt. " The history of the world never has recorded such base treachery and perfid}', as has been committed by the deposit banks against the government, and purely with the view of grati- fying Biddle and the Barings, and by the suspension of specie payments, embarrass, and ruin, if Ihei/ could, their /non counlrij, for the selfish views of making large profits by throwing out millions of depreciated paper upon the people — selling their specie at large premiums, and buying up their own paper at discounts of from 25 to 50 per cent., and now looking forward to be indulged in these speculations for years to comi-, before they resume specie payments." Cornelius W. Lawrence, the apocryphal President of perhaps the most corrupt of these banks, thus denounced by Jackson, is selected by Polk in 1845, as Collector of the Port of N. Y., and confirmed in 184G by the Senate ! His letters to Hoyt and others show that he acted contrary to his oath (which was, to vote according to his best judgment^, in supporting the .spoliation of the U. S. Bank. A two million charier was handed to hun, from Albany, in 1836, as some pecuniary recompense lor tear and wear of conscience — some two millions of the plunder of the national bank were placetl in the custody of the new concern — Lawrence became its president, as a matter of course — and, with over iiii4,000,000 of a paid up capital and United States deposits, its doois were shut upon the people and iheir government, while the ink with which its charter had been written was yet scarcely dry. When Lawrence became Collector, through the friendship of President Polk, his brother .roseph slipped into office as bank president: and their defaultin:^ j)aper factory, though denounced by Jackson, is once more a pet of Polk and Walker, with the use of millions of the public treasure to its mana- gers, without bonus or interest ! Who can tloubt the result! Not the authorities at Wash- ington. * Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Franklin, married Richard Bache, editor of the Aurora, Philadelphia. Colonel William Duane, a native of the Province of N. Y., succeeded i\lr. Bache in the management of that popular journal, and was appointed by Madison, in 1813, a brigadier-general in the armies of the Union. His son, the fearless secretary of the treasury, married a daughter of Mr. Bache, and her mother, Mrs. Sarah Bache. died in Oct., 1808, aged 61 years. I have long and an.xiously wi.shed that some able, well-informed friend of the family, who has access to the necessary materials, would compile and publisli the Life and Times of William Duane, To the Union, to Britain, and to Ireland, the land of his fore- fathers, the lessons that that work would teach would be invaluable. AMOS KENDALL, OR ADVENTURES IN KENTUCKY. 117 into a belief, that Duane's known dislike to the principle on which the U. S. Bank was chartered, would enable them to make of him a powerful and popu- lar instrument, for the achievement of their grand scheme of bank plunder, al- ready resolved upon. But they had mistaken their man.* Previous to the loss of liberty in Greece, as Thucydides tells us, " while each party endeavored, by every possible method, to get the better of its anta- gonist, the most flagrant acts of injustice were perpetrated on both sides. Mo- * Amos Ke.vdall. — I have, in former chapters, and in a separate work, endeavored to ana- lyze the pietism of Benjamin F. Butler. It nov/ becomes necessary that I should formally introduce his twin brother in politics, piety, and principle, Amos Kendall, Postmaster General to iMartin Van Buren, Director of the Commonwealth Bank, Kentucky, Fourth Auditor of the U. S. Treasury, an editor of the Globe, the Expositor, and the Kentucky Argus, and special agent for Jackson's advisers in bargaining with the Pet Banks for the use of the public reve- nue, 1833-34. If it be true, as we are told in Gil Bias, that " there are few breasts capacious enough to afford house room for two such opposite inmates as political ambition and grati- tude," some excuse may be found for the conduct of Amos Kendall towards his early bene- factor, Henry Clay. In Kendall's own account of his life and adventures, which shows that he was born on that day in the year in which Hull surrendered his army, he makes strong professions of meek- ness, humility, and Christian forbearance — '• Deacon Zebedee Kendall, of Dunstable," his honored sire, is introduced singing David's psalms, saying grace before meat and grace after meat, and offering up to heaven prayer and praise — pious appeals are made to the Lord, to conscience, and to the world — and the Democratic P..eview for March, 1838, paints Amos as "EXTREMELY SIMPLE in character — plain, mild, and unassuming in manners — estimable and amiable." O'SuUivan elevates Kendall into a very Father Mathew of temperance while he M-as at college, but we are reminded of Butler's famous patroon scene at the Sandy Hill bank, where Kendall himself, in his journal, pictures the Yankee lawyers \\-ho had gone to Kentucky to mend their fortimes. " We again returned to the tavern where were three or four Yankee emigrant lawyers, and we madk ouhselves merry with brandy." Amos landed in Kentucky in 1814, a lean, gaunt, hungry ad\'enturer, and, as the event proved, an unprincipled and ungrateful one — he was received into the family of Henry Cla}^ ^vhen absent in Em-ope, as the instructor of his children — treated by Mrs. Clay ■with great kindness both in health and sickness — assisted by Mr. Clay, on his return, to get forward in the world, accommodated by him with a loan of $1,500, introduced to his political friends, patronized as an editor, aided in obtaining the public printing in Kentucky, and when, in 1825, Clay became Secretary of State, ofi'ered a situation in the state department. "Why did he not accept it ? His letter'to Mr. Clay, in 1828, will explain. " You afterwards ofiered me (says he) a clerkship with a salary of "$1000, which I declined, expressing a willingne.ss to accept one of $1500." Amos was ready to join the democratic administration of Clay and Adams, at $1500, but couldn't take $1000. Jackson's friends, through Green, had outbid that. They hastened to buy Amos up — and enabled him to tm-n his marketable talents with effect against the character and standing of his early friend. Trading politicians may applaud his worldly prudence — the parasite of power will award him a vulgar sympathy — but from pure- minded Americans, such conduct as 1 am about to describe will ever meet with unqualified reprobation and deserved contempt. Kendall denies that he was once for a Bank of the United States and a protective tariff, or that he owes a debt of gratitude to Henry Clay. He assures the readers of the Expositor that his '• opposition to Mr. Clay was forced on by the heartlessness and ingratitude of Mr. Clay him.self." A letter of Kendall's to John C. Knowlton, of Lowell, dated Washington, July 11th, 18'29, appeared in the New York Evening Post. Here is an exti'act : >. -this iVHing iirrdisposed me to tliink well of Mr. Clay, and READILY FALL INTO THE SUPPORT " OF HIS POLITICAL VIEWS). .Vccordingly, when he btcaine a candidate for liie presidency, I ESPOUSED "HIS CAUSE with alacriiy and zeal. ^ My tiinf, my labour, and my money were all lavislied withmit "expectation nf rewardlO ADVANCE JMR. CL.AY. If 1 owed him or his family any obligations they were •• richly repiiid in tliat contest. A.MOS KENUAl^L." Mr. Clay was then, as he*is now, the champion of one regulatiiig bank — the United States Bank — in preference to one thousand of them — favored, as now, a protective tariff, and internal improvements by vote of Congress — and had disapproved of General Jackson's conduct in Florida, and pronounced it tyrannical and unjust. Kendall tells us that he preferred Clay to Jackson, for President — "readily fell into the support of his POLITICAL views," and •• espoused his cause with alacrity and zeal." Why then deny that he was " once for the bank 1" 118 KENDALL UP AT AUCTION. A CASH TRANSACTION. derate men, Mho refused to join with either, were alike the objects of their re- sentment, and equally proscribed by either faction." Where is the difference here, in Duane's case ? He was induced to support Jackson, through a belief that he would act up to the manly principles laid do\\Ti in his letters to Mon- roe. Did he try to do it 1 Duane took olfice in June, 1S33, and was afterwards informed that it was the wish of the President that he should remove the national treasure from the Kendall addressed a long letter to Clay, through the Frankfort Argus, which was copied into the Evening Post of Nov. 1827, in which he assures him that he pieferred hirn as Secretary, ■witJi Adams as President, to the election of Jackson, and that he and Blair, since of the Globe, wrote in 18'25 to the members of Congress, from Kentucky, urging them to vote ai:ai?ist Jack- .WTi. and in favor of Adams, icith this vieir. Kendall also wrote to Cla)' before the presi- dential election was decided, that he preferred Jackson to Adams, all things being equal — bvit, said he, " if OUR INTEPcESTS can be promoted by any other arrangement, I shall be con- tent." " Our interests" are uppermost still. In Kendall's evidence before tlie Kentucky Legislatui-e, he sa3's that Mr. Clay intended to give him a situation at "Washington, in 1825, and that he (Kendall) stood ready to defend v.'ith his pen the political character of his early friend. In a letter to David White, who had voted in Congress for Mr. Adams as President, dated March 8th, 1828, he says, " We knew that Mr. Clay was to be Secretary of State, and FOR THAT REASON promoted Mr. Adams's election," and prevented, of course, that of Andrew Jackson. He asserts that he supported Adams because Clay was to be Secretary, and yet he told the Kentucky Legislatiu-e on oath, that he believed the charge by Jackson against Clay, of having bargained with Adams, was A BASE SLANDER, and that he had applied to Clay for a situation in Washington, where he would have defended him through the press against that slander ! In a letter addressed to Clay, and dated Frankfort, Oct. 11, 1826, Kendall says, "Whatever course 1 may feel con- slraiued to take in relation to the administration generally, I trust I shall not be the means or the occasion of casting any imputation upon your integrity and honor." Kendall swears that it is his solemn belief there was no bargain at all. But ttrm to his fetter to Mr. Knowlton already quoted. He there has quite a dilicrent stoiy to tell. He says : " In reviewin;; my course, I Iijivh but one thing to regret. It is, that I did not, resardle*=s of all impiilationB, "take a decisive stand ac;.inst the Union ofMesi^rs Adams and Clay in !^-5. 1 knew lh;it Mr. Clay vicilaltd llie "wish of bis Slate; I KNEW THAT THE UiNlON WAS LN'TERESTKD AND SKLFISH. Insiead ol being " SILENT, I iiufiht boldly to have denounced it. I ou^'ht to have been iW sensible as I am now l!i:it no common " iibli^'ation of private I'riend^iliip, and no fear of imputed ingriiiitude can justify a public man in WINKING at a " vSoIation of the fundaui'-nlal principles of ourfiet institutions. On iJiis p lintl am guiuy. — .VMOS KE.ND.^LL." There's a confession for you ! " Give me a SI ,500 place," says the pious politician, " and I'll call ye white as driven snow — though I know that your conduct was interested and selfish. Buy me at ray price — I'm in the market, and if you don't your opponents will. Hire me, and ni go with you for the tarilf, the bank, internal improvement, Adams, an}-thing — neglect me, and I will be found among your most bitter enemies. You wanned me into life, as the coun- tryman did the snake — if you don't wish to be stung, give me my price." Such, tliough not Kendall's words, is the subsiance of his offer. Clay spurned it, Kendall became his enemy, and used the influence Clay iiad obtained Ibr him to secure the vote of Kentucky for Jackson and Van Buren, next Presidential election. General Duff Green, the Jackson and Calhoun editor, before Blair, "once lor the bank," supplanted him, says, — " It will be ^een tliat at ilie very moment that he Mas negotiating with Mr. Clay for a salary of SI, 500, as the trice of his removal to Washington, lor the purpo.-e of vintiicating Mr. Clay against these ' SLANDERS which were afloat against hirn,' he was negotiating with me, for a stipulated sum, which I paid him to remain in Franklbrt to assail Mr. Clay." Whether Green proved that it was " at the very moment," I do not now remember, but if it was not, it was very soon after. "I winked at guilt till hired to assail it," is the substance of Kendall's pretended conlcssion to Knowlton. General Green was .supplied by his party with funds — Kendall got money — j aid his debt to Mr. Clay, and became the ready instrument oi' his enemies. General Green de- scribes him as " ambitious, ungrateful, mercenary, and corrupt." In his Idler to Knowlton, Kendall says, — "They (MieaiiinK tlie friends of Clay :ind .\(lanis) combncd to wilhdrnw fioiti me .nil public and frjvnte " PATR<)NA<;E, to destroy niv ih;ir:icier, :iiid reduce luy fumily to degr.ida.ion and be^-gary. 1 felt that Mr. "Clay was uuKrateful.-A.MUS KI'.NUALL." • I select the following passage from page 374 of the Expositor, for 1843, by Amos Kendall, Washington : "ImrunicNCK— The Latest SpECiMtN.— Mackenzie, ia his New York E.iamincr, says we were 'oTite /or a bank !' II:!4 laiigiiace Is ihis : " Week alier week, uioniU after uiontli, iho Globe takctf pleasure in dcnouitciog Mx. Tyler because be would MARTIN VAN BUREn's POSTMASTER GENERAL. 119 United States Bank, and place it in other banks. He refused to do this unless ordered by Congress, or unless reasons should be assigned to justify his doing so. Thomas Ritcliie, of the Z7nio», approved of his course in thus refusing. He asked the opinion of Col. Duane, his father, who also told him that he had acted right, though he thought the bank charter unconstitutional, and disapprov- ed of its management. The speculating banks and politicians, of whom Van Buren was the ready not make cnmmnn cnuse with the Van Biiren clique I have described; and Kendall, once for the bank, joins Croswell and lollows suit.' There IS nothing ion barefaced for depravity to invent and malice to assert; but the serpsnt who makes a charge like this, slinL'S ■>nl\ his own body. From 1818, the Bank Moiisier never ceased to receive our blows when we could strike witli the least effect ; and in 1833, in tue removal of tlie deposits, v.hich Mackenzie condemns, we cut the club with which our Hercu- iissluwit. But far I hat measure, it would have lived uufd it pi-rislied in its own corruptions, involving llie Government in the ruin whicli overlook the tno confiding stDckholders. Th re is one conso ation in such attacks : They destroy the confidence of the people in all the libels which flow from the same souice upon more important personages." Did not Kendall do his very best to secure the election o-f Adams over Jackson in 1825, when he found that Clay could not be elected by the House of Representatives — and was not Adams then, as now, the advocate of a national bank in preference to a thou.sand unchecked state banks ? Kendall's Expositor contained endless harangues against bank and tariff, their uncon.stitutioaality, but did he not support the advocates of both, and also of internal improvements, till he got his i^rice ? Yes, and in 1817-18, he and his friends, and partisans caused charters to be granted to more than forty spurious banks, thereby llooding the state of Kentucky with worthless paper. From the Kentucky Argus, by Kendall, (copied into the National Intelligencer, Sept. 15, 1824.) '■Jackson will get Teimesaee and Clay will aet Kentucky as certainly as they remain candidates, and Indiana has but to select liiin whose policy Is most favourable to h r interests, and wiiose talents are most competent to promote them. Tiiat tilis is H' nry Clay, the powerful ADVOCiTEOF internal i.mi'kovi;me.\ts and ijomestic MANUFACTURES, no Unprejudiced man can doubt." In 1816, Mr. Clay voted for the late U. S. Bank, and has ever since continually avowed that he thinks such an institution necessary and constitutional. Will Kendall assert that he tried, first to elect Clay in 1824, and then Adams in 1825, be- ca,use they were for fhe bank, and to keep out Jackson because he was opposed to it ? He had better adiiait that he was a mean, sordid, mercenary adventurer, ready to go for any principles or any men that paid be.st. Indeed he has admitted as much in his letter to Knowlton. Mr. Clay, previous to Kendall's desertion to the Jackson camp, had supported a bill to pledge thebank bonus as an internal improvement fund — had declared that Congress might appropriate the revenue to construct canals and post roads — had advocated in the spring ot 1830 a high protective tariff— had voted to censure General Jackson for his conduct in Florida —and had made Aiams President of the United States. All this Kendall endor.sed as demo- cratic, till he refused hiin a $1,530 office, while Jacksonisni held out the prospect of an auditor- ship at $3,000. The Arnold, the Dumouriez of politics, in 1823, joined Blair whom, as an eniorser for $20,000, the bank of the United States had forgiven, and hired himself out to tra- duce the man who^e kind family and hospitable mansion had afforded him a shelter when he was a hungry, friendless stranger, a briefless barrister travelling in search of strife. Yes, it is true, Kendall deeply injured the personal and political friend who had given him consideration in Kentucky, arid whose i'amily had tended him in sickness. This was done for money, gain — there was no principle involved. My impression, until I saw Clay's statement on page 69 of vol. i. of Minor's Public Docu- ment for 1831, was, that he owned 'mach stock in the U. S. Bank, and was deeply indebted to it. He stated, however, in Senate, Dec. li), 1833, that he Tiad not been counsel for the bank since 1825, had not held a share for many yfears, did not owe the bank a cent, had voted for it in 1816, but subscribed for none of its stock, and on the failure of a friend twelve or fifteen years before, had as his endorser, become responsible to the bank for a large amount which ne had paid, owing the institution no favor. Letter, Amos Kendal! to Henry Clay, at Washington, dated Frankfort, Ky., Jan. 21, 1825. '•Dear Sir : — Our leaislature is gone, but have left us no repose. We have a prospectof a contest more embittered than ever. I regret itj and wnuld gladly escap' fioui it ; but the fates seem to order it otiitrwise. I may mis- ta'ie, tint I ihmk ihe legi>l iturc will be sustained. The excitement is among those opiiosed lo riiiio\iiin tlie judges by any means. As I inlorined you, the ri;soluiiiins requesting ynu to vote I'.r Jackson passeil, and you h tv-e iloub less nceived them. Jacksun is viy second choice. M circumstances being equal between liim and AdauK. But if oar interest in the west can. be promoted by any other arrangement, J shall be content. .,1t any rate. I'i its have a President. I woild sooner vote for atiy of the three than have a Viceuereut ibr four years. Do wh:d ynu. think best -the ^/Jr^us will not complain, because it has faith that you will An no'liiiig to compro- mii the intsrebts of the western couuiry, or the nation. Sincerely your friend, AJMOsi KENDAI.L." 120 duank's reasons right. Wright's votes wrong. agent, were eager to grasp the many millions of money, the proceeds of heavy taxation, which the tarilF of 1828 had imposed. Duane's reasons for refus- ing to gratify them, as stated to General Jackson, were very powerful. He reminded the General that the law made him responsible to Congress if he removed the depositcs — that the proposed pet banks were far .less sale than the bank of the U. S. — that Congress had pronounced the public money safe — that no thorough investigalion had been made into the affairs of the bank — that no real, adequate security would be offered by the local banks, and that he could not judge of their litncss or solvency by hearsay — that he had not been confirmed in his office by the Senate — that the U.S. Bank had received and paid 400 millions of dollars for government, without the loss of a cent, but that it was a well-known fact that millions had been already lost to the country, by trusting the public money with the managers of local banks, the misconduct of which had caused much uncertainty as to the value and amount of the paper currency — that if the U. S. Bank was selfish, as had been said, surely the local banks would not prove less so — that they would trade upon the public money to be entrusted to them, and be unable to refund it M'hen required to do so — that perhaps it would be better for the government to do without any banks at all — that now was the time to make a full inquiry as to that — that it would be very unwise to enter into entangling alliances with institutions which derange, depreciate, and banish gold and silver, the only constitutional currency — that a thorough inquiry into the con- dition of the currency was much required, but that we need not look for the neces- sary information from interested bank agents — that it would be well to resist a combination of powerful monied monopolies before the only means of resistance would be through a public convulsion — that both the local and United States Banks were monopolies, alike at variance with the sovereignty of the United States and the general good of the people — that a removal of the deposites would bring on a struggle for power between the national and state banks, by means of which thousands of innocent persons would be ruined — and that if there must be banks for social or fiscal uses, surely one bank* for the whole * Louis McLane, Secretary of the Treasiny liefoie Duane, opposed the removal of the deposits, and so did Cass, though the latter was pliant and ready to go either Avay. Van Bu- ren, in private, professed to MeLane, lor some time after Toland's Report, and the vote in the H. of R. fa\'orable to the banlc, that he tno va< apposed to the rcmorul ! ! Oi' course, it was Van Buren, and his Safety Fund Banks, that controlled the v(jle of this state in Congress, and it was that vote that controlled the deposit question. [The language of the Globe, Post, and Argus, and of Cambreleng, Beardsley, Vanderpoel, Wright, and I'allmadge — Lawrence and Butler's Letters— Wright's orders to the legislature of N.' Y., through Hovt (p. 'i-K!, No. 256), and the 118 votes in the Assembly — also the great meeting at Tammany Hall, and John Van Buren's correspondence, aflbid ample proof that Van Buren and his confederates decided the removal of the public money. Colonel Young had a deep interest in the Safety Fund Banks, and we find him declaring tliat black lines ought to be drawn across the faces of the Senators who had censured Jackson for removing the deposits. In IKII, Silas Wright " would merely pronounce his opinion that the country would sustain the Executive arm of the government in the experiment now malcing to substitute the State In.stilutions for the Bank of the United States. He had most cnlire conlidence in the full and complete success of the experiment. It was his firm opinion that the steps that had been taken would redound to the honor and best interests of the country." When the b;inks broke, Wright talked in this fashion : " Under this law, all the existing deposit banks accepted their high trust to the government nnd people of the country, and received some forty millions of the public treasure, and yet, siranc'c to tell, before a single twelvemonth had pasNcd a^way, they all refuse to pay gold and silver for their notes. Nay more, and worse, they even reluse to pay to the government anything but their own irredeemable bank notes — those notes which the law prohibits the officers of the government from either receiving or paying out, for the millions entrusted to their safe keeping. Thi^ drafts ot the Treasurer of the U. S., drawn upon a depo- sit bank for a mere trust fund, belonging to individual citizens, which fund was by the govern- ment imported from abroad in gold and silver, and in gold and silver placed in that bank for safe keeping, have been dishonored and returned without payment, because the holder ol' the DUANE AND CALHOUN ON THE CURRENCY, IN 1834. 121 country ,under the control of Congress, was better than a thousand banks altogether irresponsible — that one effect of taking the public treasure from the V. S. Bank (in which the public had invested seven millions of dollars), and placing it iu the keeping of a host of local banks, with their gambling, stock-jobbing, land speculating managers, might be to drive the people to adopt a third U. S. Bank, as a refuge from their irredeemable trash (which but for Harrison's sudden death and Tyler's unexpected vetoes, would have been the case in 1841). He did not propose the Sub Treasury scheme, but expressed the most decided opposition to the U. S. Bank — he would institute a thorough inquiry, but not be rashly guilty of a breach of the obligation of contracts toward the bank. If the bank had done wrong the judiciary were able to punish. He thought it danger- ous to place in the hands of a secretary of the treasury, dependent for his oiKce on the will of the President, a power to favor or punish local banks, and conse- quently to make them political machinery (like Van Buren's Safety Fund Union.) He knew that the efforts made to hasten the removal of the deposites did not originate with patriots or statesmen, but in schemes to promote factious drafts would not receive the irredeemable bills of that bank in satisfaction." Duane had showTi it would be so before " the experiment" was made, and that it had always been so. Wright knev/ that just as well in 183-1 as iu 1838. Matthew L. Davis wiites Webb, Feb. 8, 1834, that at a meeting of the Senators for N. Y. and the committee of merchants of N. Y., favorable to a U. S. Bank, Wright said, " Gentlemen, I am opposed to any U. S. Bank, but if we must have a bank, 1 do not want a commercial but a political bank." In his speech of March 20, 1834, he calls the pet banks " perfectly safe agents, fully competent to discharge all the duties required in the collection and disbursement of the public revenue." " When I bow down myself in the House of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing," said Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, to Elisha the Hebrew prophet of God. In like manner, John C. Calhoun's clear intellect can discern and acknowledge evil wherever it exists, unless it be in the enslavement of the sons of Africa ; and he was now' ready to warn the Senate of the manifold miseries which Van Buren's extension of the N. Y. Safety Fund system would bring upon his country. In his speech, January 13, 1834, he foresha- dowed, in the clearest manner, the landjobbing of the Butlers, Wrights, Van Burens, and their associates — Judge Woodbury pulling the wires for the rise and fall of stocks — Hoyt lending Beers the pu'olic funds — John Van Buren speculating in 1834, and draM'ing cash from the public in 183G — Swartvvout keeping the bonds Or as he kept them — and the Man- hattan and its confederate banks lending the public treasure to their corrupt managers, while the government bade them, as if in derision, to help the merchants. They did help them, at the usury of cent per cent. Mr. Calhoun's really prophetic remarks Avere as follow ; " Let us not deceive ourselves — this leajiue — this association of banks — created by the Executive — bound to- gether liy intlnence — united in common ariicias of association — vivified and sustained by receiving the deposits of the public money, and having their notes converted, by being received everywhere by the Treasury, into the common currency of the country, is to all intents and purposes, a Bank of the United States — the E.xecutive Bank of the U. S., as distinguished from that of Congress. However, it might fail to perform satisfactorily the tisefnl functions of the Bank of the U. S., as incorporated by law, it would outstrip it — far outstrip it — in all its dangerous qualities, in extending the power, the influence and the corrnjition of the government. It was ii:;possible to conceive any institution more admirably calculated to advance these objects. Not only the selected banks, biit the whole banking institutions of the country, and with it the entire money power, for the purposes of speculation, peculation, and corruption, would be placed under the control of the Executive. A system of menaces and promises will be established — of menace to the banks in possession of the deposites, but which might not be entirely subservient to E.xecutive views ; and by promise of future favors to tho;;c who may not as yet enjoy its favors. Between the two, the Banks would be left without influence, honor, or honesty ; AND A SYSTEM OF SPECULATION AND STOCK-JOBBTNO WOULD COMMENCE, UNEQUALLED IN THE ANNALS OK OUR COUNTRY- 1 fear they have already couuiienced — I fear the means which liave been put into the hands of the minions of power by the removal of the deposits, and placing them in the vaults of dt|iendant banks, have extended their cupidity to the public lands, particularly in the southwest ; and that to this we must attri- bute the recent phenomena in that quarter — immensi: and valuable tracts of land sold at short notick —SALES FRAUDULENTLY PO.STPOXED TO AID THE SPECULATORS : with which, if I am not mis- informed, a name not unknown to this body (Gwin) has performed a |)rominent part. .As t(j stock-jobbing, this new arrangement will open a field which Rothschild himself may envy. It has been found hard work very hard, no doubt — by the jobbers in stock who have been engaged in attempts to raise or depress the price of United States Bank Stock ; but no work will be more easy than to raise or depress the price of the stock of the selected banks, at the iileasure of the Executive. Nothing more will be requind than to give or withhold de- posites — to draw, or abstain from drawing warrants— to pamper them at one time, and starve them at anothrr. Those who would be in the secret, and who would know when to buy and when to sell, vvouro HA.VE THE MEANS OF KKALIZING, BY DBALING IN THE STOCKS, V/UATEVEB FORTUNE THEY KIOIJT PLEASE." 122 Jackson and his flatterers — duane and the sinecure. purposes, and that the whole proceeding would tend to diminish the confidence of the world in our regard for national credit and reputation. On the 20th of Sept., 1833, the Globe announced that the deposites would be removed. Next morning ]Mr. Duane waited on the President, and told him he would neither resign office nor remove the public money to the pets.* Jackson tried to bribe hirn, or call it what else you please, with, the $18,000 bait which so many have swallowed since, the Russian embassy sinecure. " My dear Mr. Duane (said the President), we must separate as friends. Far from desiring that you should sustain any injury, you know I have intended to give you the high- est appointment now in my gift. You shall have the mission to Russia." " I am sincerely thankful to you, sir (replied Duane), for your kind disposition — I desire no new station, and barely wish to leave my present one blameless, or free from apprehension for the future. Favor me with a written declaration of your desire that I should leave office, as I cannot carry out your views as to the deposites, and I will take back this letter [in which he had stated the same determination]." On Sept. 23d, General Jackson wrote his resolute officer, " I feel m.^'self constrained to notify you that your further services as secretary * In a letter to Joseph Neef, Sept. 3d, 1838, Mr. Duane said of General Jackson, " His inclinations Avere patriotic, but his passions were undisciplined. Of both, designing men took the advantage. The possession of power produced adulation and servilit}', and these intoxi- cated the President, as they had bewildered greater men. He could not bear contradiction, and was himself overcome b)- the lust of overcoming. At length a vindictive s-pirit mingled itself with feelings which, if well regulated, would have been honourable and useful. The President, while he fincied his will was the true spring of action, was but a purveyor for the ambhious and selfish men around him. While declaiming against abuses of the bank, he was assisting speculators in politics, stocks, and lands [such as Wright, Butler, Young, Van Buren, Marcy, Kendall, Hoyt, Slilwell, Stephen Allen, Blair, Cambreleng, VVetmore and Swartwout] to gratify their own rapaciousness. The notion that his clandestine associates [Kendall, Whitney, Blair, &c.] were shocked at the transactions of the bank, or at the want of morals in Congi-ess, is preposterous." The MaysviUe Eagle published a private letter from Mr. Duane to a gentleman in Ma.son coiuity, Kentucky, dated Philadelphia, Oct. 17, 1833, as follows: " Dtar Sir : I have ,1iist now received your letter of the iOtli instant, expressins your approbation of my cctir:. fiiink, aiid to all such arisiocrHtic indimpnlies; hiit, I con'^idered the removal (sf the deposites unnecessary, unwise, vindictive, arbi- trary and U' ju-l. I believed that the law gave to the Secretary ot' the Treasury, and not to the Pre^i(l^ n , dis- ereiion on the question ; and I would not HCt to olilige the President nor any body the v/hen I lh"U]:ht it im- prf>per to do so. 1 never asked olfire — I accepted it r«-luctantly, and was renK'Ved for ;in hime^t di cliarpe of my duty. If to kfep olBce and $0(100 a year. 1 had given tip iny jud{;nient. 1 should have liroUfjht >h;inie upon the prrt> hairs of my father, and upon my numerous children : so that I am content to return to hiinible life with a tranquil mind. W. J. Di-ane." " Mr. Duane was dismissed (.say Blair, Van Burea and Kendall, through the Globe of Nov. 19) for faithlessness to his solemn written pledges, and for the exhibition of bad feelings which made him totally unfit for the .station to which he liad been elevated. He was nut dis- missed m?rely for refusing to remove the deposites.'' Henry Clay explained the tiling more clearly in one of his .s}>ecclies. " A .'^on (said he) of one of the lathers of democracy, bv an administration profcs-^ing to be democratic, was expelled from office, and his place supplied, by a gentleman, who, throughout his whole career, lias been unii'onaly oprosed to democracy." Mr. Taney wi;S ready to oblige Wall street, Hoyt, Butler, Lawrence and Crmbreleng, cy re- moving many millions of dollars from a bank whose pajcr circulated throughout the Union snd abroad, to werk banks whose bills had only a local circulation, and of whose stock the Union held not a dollar. Flattery sent Napoleon to Moscow — it induced Jackson to di.smiss Duane, to cause his character to be traduced, and to cling to Kendall, Van Buren, Blair and Butler, who had mocked and sneered at his pretensions as a candidate for the presidency in 1823 and '24, while the Duanes, father and son, were affording him Iheir unbought, disinterested and power- ful support. In August, 1833, Van Buivn had three Safety Fund Commit-sioner:^— Amos Kendall was despatchetl from Washingion as Coinmi.'^sioner the fourth — James Gordon Bennett was his crony — they quarrelled — Bennett ))ublished Kendall's private corrc.-pondence with him, adding, that " a.'^suming at times the spirit of enthusiasm for liberty, and purity of "purpose, you [Kendall] contrive to hide purposes of the deepest avarice, and to conceal llie "most unshrinking ferocity towards tliose wl^o presume to cross your path." JAMES KNOX POLK. 123 of the treasury are no longer required." And from that day to this, Duane has remained a full private ; while Taney, his successor, as the recompense of his pliant suppleness in a dishonest cause, has ascended to the seat of John Marshall, as Chief Justice of the Union ! Does any one suppose that Taney, had he resisted Van Buren & Co.'s spoliation scheme, would have received that promo- tion ? No, indeed. CHAPTER XXVI. Polk and the Peta. — Polices Early Life. — Bank Defaulters. — Griswold on the Banks. — Van Buren\s Polici/in 1837. — Mechanics'' Bank. — Marcifs Mortgage and Ten Million Bunk. — Van Buren., Lawrence, and Marcy^s Message. — /. Hoyt. — Alez. Wells. — CoL Samuel Young — of Irish descent — a Lawyej- — in Convention, 1821 — for Clay — on Slave Representation — a dealer in Bank Stocks and Scrips— for Marcy—for Banks — on the Wattrvliet Bank — on Van Buren — begging for Bank Stock. The history of the pet bank experiment, in which* Mr. Polk was the most conspicuous actor in-doors, and Mr. Kendall without, would fill a goodly folio. * James Knox Polk, President of the United States, labored indefatigably, in 1832 and afterwards, to remove the public treasure to the pet banks, put down the United States Bank, and generally to give success to whatever measures Kendall and Van Buren chose to propose or countenance. As I shall have lo notice his votes and proceedings on many occasions, in this volume, it may be the proper time now to give my readers a very brief sketch of his early life. The Democratic Review of 183S states that he was born in Mecklenburgh count}', North Carolina, Nov. '2, 1795— he is, therefore, like Silas Wright and B. F. Butler, a little over fifty years old. Soma accounts make his ancestors Irish, others Scottish— some say their original nams was Pollock, others that it was Polk. It appears that his branch of the family had resided in Maiyland, in Pennsylvania, in North Carolina, and finally removed to Tennessee. Andrew Jackson stated, in 1811, that he had known "James K. Polk from his boyhood, and that " a citizen more exemplary in his moral deportment, more punctual and exact in busi- ness, mora energetic and manly in the expression of his opinions, and more patriotic, does not live." Mr. Polk's father is still alive — he was a farm?r, and removed to Tennessee in 1803, when Jam3s K. was in his eleventh year — it is also said that hs acted as a surveyor, and, w.th his fa-nily, hal to toi| hard for a liviag in t'xi valley of tli2 Dack river, tlien a vvild-^rne-ss. Jamis K. is the oldist of tei children — ic^iiriJ the r"u;Um:nts of an English and a classical educa- tion neir his hj.n.\ ani after y:ars of sufering from a very painful coaiplaint, was relieved by a surgieal operation. He jjaiael high honors at the University of North Carolina— was assidajas, persevering, and re,M'irin his attendance— a goo J aiathematical and classical scholar. In 1819, he began to stu U' the law with the celebrated Felix Grundy, of Nashville, was admitted as a lawyer of Tennessee in 182J, ani was well employed in his line. He ssryeJ as clerk to the Tennessee legislature, was next a member for Maiary, his place of residence, ani in lSi5, in his 3)th year, elected to Congress. If he was opposed to a national bin V, he kept his opinio.is to hi nself, for the first two years in which he sat in Congress, b it after Van Buren went to Washington as secretary, to wit, in August, 1829, he began to give the Tennesseans some hints about " the monster." Upwards of twenty years since, he mar- ried the daughter of Joel Childers, a merchant of Rutherford comity, Tenn., and who had kept a hotel ani boarding-ho ise in Norfolk, Va. Mrs. Polk has no children— is said to be imo*- te.atatious, q liet, do nestic, ani religious — not foal of show, dancing, dissipation, and late hours. Mr. Polk, Mr. Buchanan, and, if I mistake not, Mr. Bancroft, are named as staid Presbyterians, like Silas Wright. It is greatly to Mr. Polk's credit that he has the reputation of being no duellist, no gambler, but a steady opponent to spiculatian. He was fourteen years in Congress, and two or three of these years Speaker, having been chosen in Dec, 1855, and in Sept., 1837. No more thorough going party man can be found than Polk— he is very indastriaus, and while on the flojr of Congress is reported never to have missed a vote. As he received a vote of thanks at the close of the session of 1837, for his impartiality as Speaker, 124 ELECTIONEERING THROUGH TREASURY BANKS. Jd August, 1836, the banks had about 40 millions, without interest — in April, about 32 millions. Of these 32 millions, the Union Bank of Tennessee had $480,916— Commonwealth Bank, Boston, $1,009,731— Manhattan Bank,N.Y., $3,512,791— Bank of America, N.Y., $3,70b,714— Mechanics' Bank, N.Y., $3,816,261 — Commercial Bank, Cincinnati, $395,135, and its agency at St. Louis, Mo., $1,471,157— Girard Bank, Philadelphia, $2,540,9"! 0— Branch Bank of Alabama, Mobile, $1,694,464 — Planters' Bank of Mississippi, Natchez, $2,649,596— Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, Detroit, $702,380- Bank of Michigan, $960,364. The influence for Van Buren's election, exercised by the state pet banks and the national pet banks, the contracts, the 60,000 federal offices, the millions of stock thrown into the market as bribes to partisans, by the N.Y. Legislature, the land sales, made to suit favorites, the cusiom houses, the post offices, and the state offices and influence going the same way with the federal — these powers, added to the betting, gambling, and electioneering, with the men who hoped to get offices, get contracts, get some advantage or other, through Van Buren, surely turned the scale, and with the 777 presses in his favor, made him president. His skill lay in marshalling the powers of intrigue, corruption, and intimidation, and he succeeded. In Feb., 1834, the deposites were only 11^- millions, of which five millions were in three N.Y. banks. The 25 pets had, at this tim.e, more public money free of interest, than they had bills in circulation. The Tradesmen's, Union, and Lawrence's N. Y. State banks, were made pets in August, 1836 — and we find the Globe by Blair, some years after, complaining that " MORE THAN 48 MILLIONS OF DOLLARS HAD BEEN LOST BY THE BANK DEFAULTERS" during the war of 1812. Did not Polk and Van Buren know^ that just as well in 1834 as in 1840 ':* I infer that he ha.s a great command of temper. He is a ready debater, makes long and animated .speeches, and was a hard ivorking legislator. It is .stated that he is about 5 feet 7 inches in height, that his countenance bears the impress of anxiety and care, that his voice is unmusical but .'Strong, and tliat he is clear-headed, firm, an attentive listener, and possessed pf a good share of common sense. Some say his face is repulsive, otiiers that it is interesting, and that in feeling and manner he is kind and courteous. Such is his piety, that Governor Branch reports that during tlie four years he was at college, he (Polk) never missed prayers. * B. F. Butler, in one of his secret epistles to Jesse Hoyt, about the removal of the deposit&s, dated Feb. iJlth, 1834, has this remark, that " As for supposing that Newbold, George Griswold, Stephen Whitney, or any of the old federal commercial men, were with us on this occasion, for any other reason than because they found il for theii- interest to go with us, I never for one single instant had such an unwarrantable idea.'' p. ITl. In a letter to James G. King, dated New York, Sept. 1), 1840, George Griswold has tliese remarks: " 1 never look any part with the ofliceis or agents of the government, in counselling, advising, or recommending the jcmoval of the deposites In Oelober, 183t), when the banks were suffering under the operation oi' the distribution law, and were on the point of suspending specie pavments, and in the opinion of tiiose who knew all the facts, WOULD HAVE SUSPENDED IN LESS THAN ONE WEEK, if not relieved, 1 did go to AVash- ington, and, with the aid ol others, prevailed on tiie secretary to p(jstpone the payment of drafts on this city, and in other ways relieved the hanks from a call Ibr more tluui a million of specie, .*;G00,000 of which was payable in ten days; enabling them to continue specie pay- ments, and increase their loans to merchants." It thus appears tliat tlic banks were ju.st a-s ready to break in Oct. 183(5, as in May, 1837. That would have interfered siimewhat with Van Buren's election, and rendered it necessary for General Jackson to make veiy material alterations in his farewell iiddress ne.xt March. Van Buren called a special meeting of Congress in the lall of 1837, and gave indulgence to the broken banks and mercantile defaulters — that is, to the British and otlier foreign traders and manufacturers, and to the, bank (H England, at the expense of the American people and their interests.. In Woodbury's I'eport, accompanyirig the president's message, and dated 5th Sept., 1837, he ' aid that with regard i.o tiie pet banks, tlieir specie, as compareil to their circulation, was nearly as great in May, 1837, Avhen they stopt, as in Nov. 183G, when they went on — tliat their immediate means, as compared with their immediate liabilities, was as one to two and a half, marcy's mortgage message. 125 The public balances in banks, Jan. 1, 1837, were $45,968,523— on the 1st of Jan., 1S3S, it was estimated that the balance was $34,187,143, but of that sum Van Burea computed that only $1,085,498 were available. Perhaps the most artful and dishonest proposition made to the Legislature of N.Y. io 1834, was by Governor Marcy, on the 24th of March, to lend the banks five or six millions ; borrow the money on a mortgage of all the property in the state, by the issue of state due bills ; and, if necessary^ charter a ten mil- lion bank in the city of N.Y. The pretext for doing this was, that the U. S. Bank was harassing the state institutions.* Of course this was untrue, and he and as this was greater than the usual ratio in the best of times with banks having large deposites, he assm-ed Congress that their failure was not generally anticipated. He admitted that the banks failed without cause, to make ^ain at the public expense, on the 40 millions due to the nation. As to the merchants' bonds for duties of which they had got six months credit through a bad laAv, and realized and sent the cash to England and France, long before that term expired, to help foreign trade at the expense of American credit and currency he said that Van Buren, without any law, had given them a further credit from May to'Sept., less or more (that they might be enabled to export the more specie). The govern- ment was bankrupt— it had nominally many millions, but Van Buren and Polk's treasury banks had clutched the whole and held on with a death grip. The banks had given security, so Woodbury athrms— so the Globe boasted when Calhoun doubted their solvency— then they could be insured for a half per cent. ! The government should have borrowed ten, twelve, fourteen millions of dollars, or whatever sum in'hard snecie would have saved it from the deep disgrace of otTering its creditors orders on broken banks in payment of lawful debts, on contract or otherwise, which it knew would be paid, if paid at all, in a currency from 6 to 16 per cent, below real money, which difference they would divide as plunder, Avhile the honest debtor was cheated and the government It appears that while the revenue was raised from the payments of many merchants, those of (hem who had to borrow had often to pay two per cent, a month, wliile the banks and brokers had the use of 20 to 40 millions without interest. Some years ago the Alb. D. Advertiser said that " the Mechanics' Bank, N. Y., recently found that more than a million of dollars of its funds had been most illegitimately used.'' The Alb. Argus remarks on this, that it must refer to transactions of 1837. just before the banks became bankrupt, and that if it v;eie so, it showed ''■ that at a time when the bank had perhaps two millions of the public money, instead of granting proper accommodations to the regular business of the city, more than a million of dollars had been used, probably, either in loans to speculators, or to lirokers, who shaved the notes of merchants at 3 and 3 per cent, per month." * At this tiiiie, Van Buren, through the Argus, exclaimed (Feb. 17), " Let that man, or that newspaper, which attempts to disturb the public confidence in the banks, or in the merchants, be marked as an enemy, and treated as such." Such was their reckless course, that the whole of the sixty-nine Safetv Fund Banks, had only two millions of dollars on the 4th of March, to meet nearly thirty-five millions of debts, over thirty of which were due on demand. Is it not clear that they were mere machines to do the executive will 1 Could not the servile Taney, at the nod of' his superiors, have broke them any day in the year1 They had not one dollar in cash to sixteen of debts! A Safety Fund indeed! Well might the Buffalo Commercial exclaim of Marcy and his colleagues, that -'To humbug the people, to use the power to repay partisan services without regard to fitness for station, to succeed in a stock gambling operation, and to make honorable men the innocent means of bolstering up an in- solvent bank, seems to be the end and purpose of the several actors. But the mask is re- moved, and the disguises stripped off by their own hands." Turn to Stephen Allen's instruc- tions to Hoyt, No. 241, page 241, for a Tammany Bank of the Safety Fund order ; and say whether that letter does not strip the mask in right earnest off VanBuren's Receiver General of the Sub-Treasury, who had through life assmned the garb of a hardtmoney democrat ? Turn next to [No. 264, page 250,] John Van Buren's letter to Hoyt, dated Saturday, March 22d, 1834, the day on which Marcy wrote and dated his mortgage message, which he withheld from the legislature till Monday the 24th. May not that message have been of Olcott & Co.'s manufacture ! Van Bm'en tells that it Avas got up to " charm you Yorkers— Lawrence will run like the cholera." Lav/rence had betrayed his constituents, was deeply versed in stock-jobbing, had become rather unpopular, and the message was needed to get him elected over Verplanck by any majority at all. If Marcy told John Van Buren on the 22d about his message that was to affect the public stocks, so that he might employ Hoyt to buy S25,000 worth on Monday, and sell out on Monday week, $1,000, or $1,500 richer, through the secret, 126 AVARICE HAS NO COMPASSION, GAIN NO BOUNDS knew it, but he was the confederate of Hoyt, Allen, Lawrence, Van Buren, Olcott, and the base clique of stock-jobbers who then (as now," I fear) controlled the monied affairs of the Union. Eleven or twelve millions of dollars had been withdrawn by Taney and Kendall, from the United States Bank and branches, and six millions and a half had been, by Jackson's order, lent to the favorite banks of Van Buren, in IS.Y., to lend out, but no interest was charged to them. They had the use of about $800,000 of other U.S. monies. They had in their custody between two and three millions of the funds of the state. They had eight and a half millions on deposit for safe keeping by individuals. They owed the United States Bank at least a million. They had lent out their capital — lent their credit in the form of bank notes, some twelve millions — and also lent the above twenty-one millions of borrowed cash — and yet they growled, grumbled, and stormed, insomuch that the Bank Junto at Albany and their confederates in New York, set Marcy at work to influence the gamblers' or stock market, and affect the elections, by a moonshine message or proclamation in which it was proposed to mortgage the farms and other property through the slate for another five or six millions, and lend that also to the Safety Fund Banks. It may seem incredible, but most true it is that, under these circumstances, did Polk's present war secretary present the state with the prospectus of his mortgage. Morris, now postmaster at New York, was in the Assembly, hard at work pushing through the annual batch of Sandy Hill charters, for the good of the party and gain of the initiated. The Dramatis Person^e played their parts well. Our circuit judge, Edmonds, in the senate, and our postmaster,Morris, in assembly, moved the reference of Marcy 's grave suggestions to a joint committee, and with Angel, Livingston [C. L.] and two or three dittoes, formed the committee. is it not equally probable tnat he gave copies to Olcott, Allen, Butler, Corning, Croswell, Wright, Lawrence, and the other d?alers in politics, to enable them to take time by the fore- lock 1 Van Buren's message to Ho^t, with his " 1 fear stocks will rise after Monday," s^Ijows how a stock-jobbing band of liypocrites, in power, made fortunes ten years ago. Is it not very prj'jable that o.ir Attorney General made many thousands, with his friends, by doing with his father's m-^ssages when President, as he had with Marcy's when Governor 1 Why does he curse and blaspheme at Hoyt for not having always spare cash to be used in his stock- gambling 1 Was the coUectorship bestowed on that unprincipled profligate in order that the Van Buren family might be provided for out of Jesse's sub-treasury ? Hi am biameable for printing liicse secrets, as a warning for the convention, pray. Col. Young, is not Marcy a thousand times more censurable for telling s/ri/^ .wc/cit, that our crowm law^-ers may make fortunes out of them 1 The Argus and the Evening Post of 183-1, like Marcy's message, tell ns of privation, bankruptcy, and public distress. As the contractor near Patrick Henry could only cry, " money, money, bsef, beef," our Attorney Genera! Van Buren could only think of .scrip, stocks, and hocus-pocus. If money, gain, avarice, were uppermost in his youthful mind, in 1831, how keen must his scent b3 now alter the dollars ! In I83l3he was borrowing of th:^ banks and speculating with Hoyt and Cutting. See page 25^1. in June, 1830, Thomas W. Olcott was re-elected President of the Mechanics' and f'armers' Bank, Albany; Elbejl Olcott was its cashier, C. E. Dudley its Vice President. On the 5th of June, 1837, this bank which had got two millions of the dcposites to use jii,ilici<>vsli/ hcfitre tlvc P reside nttal ckctioii, but had fbun I it profitable to stop payment, made J. Van Buren a director, and, 1 think, its Attornev. " ilevclations had recently come to light," said Mr. Wells of N. Y., in the Assem- bly, at Albany, Fob. 25, iSltJ, " which let us into a side view of the piety, finance, and politi- cal trickery of the Regency; and could the curtain be entirely lilted, a sight would be witnes.s- vd which would increase a hundred fold the abhorrence with which the people now view Albany and Albany inliuence. He would kill the Argus in its old age as he would strangle the Atlas in its birth." I don't like these state loans and national loans to individuals and chartered concerns.' They are another word (or gifts; the country rarely sees its cash again. "Of all creditors, the State is the unluckiest." Gojd security and regular instalments to be paid with interest; no loss t J fall upo:i the public. It reads very well, but has a false quarter. If the security is goo I there ar-^ 'len;l:rs enough, withjut taxing the million to enable the party uppermost to accommolate their friends, or John Van Buren's, or to earn their thousands by future Marcys' messages and mortgages. V COLONEL SAMUEL YOUNG. 127 When I read* Colonel Young's strictures on my publication, wherein Attorney General Van Buren's improper conduct in this mortgage business is partly uncloaked, I confess I felt some surprise, but the following correspondence since published fully explains everything. The patriot who, while he was * Colonel Samukl Young has some valuable qualities ; and if he is not what I could wish, and what I once believed him to be, let it not be forgotten tiiat the Paternoster asks heaven lo preserve erring humanity from temptation ; and, that Samuel Young lias, for about as long a period as the Israelites took to traverse the wildernes';, on their way to Canaan, tiie Oregon of ineir time, been a placeman and a politician breatiiing the mepliiiic atmosphere of Albany. He has been an etieciive and practical friend of etiucation, and has not for some live and twenty years voted for special chartered banks. He would have been supported by Wright, and elected Senator in Congress in place of the polite and pliant Di.x, had not a I'ear of his anti-slaverv principles, which might have marred the Texan annexation, inlerferetl. While Wright aiid Van Buren, with Webb, Marcy, Croswell, Jones of N. Y. and otiiers, were actively employed in discouraging the proposition Ibr a state convention to amend theconsiim- tion of 1821, Young came boldly forward in the foremost rank of its advocates. Whether his good qualities are .shaded over with failings and inconsistencies, which his acknowledged abilitie-s and great energy of character scarce atone for, 1 am not perhaps in a position to form a correct judgment. Colonels. Young states that his ancestors, (how far back, or whether on the father or mothers side, or on both"?) were from Ireland, in his youth, I am told, he was employed in larming work, which, like W". H. Crawford, he exchanged for the law. In the August term of InOT, he was admitted an Attorney of the Supreme Court of this State — and, being I'avorable to the then administration, the council of appointment, [ClintonianJ in March, IHOH, appointed him a justice of the peace for Ballston, in Saratoga county, with John W. Taylor. Un the same month, Van Buren was presented with the othce of Surrogate of Col umi)ia. Young was thus, at one an.l the same time, an attorney to plead, and a judge in the primary conn of his town, a union of offices not to be commended, any more than Van Buren's Attorney-generalship, united with a seat on the bench of the Court of Errors, and the legal practice of a counsellor, pleading for hire before his own court. On the 2jth of Sept. 1814, a legislature, friendly to Madison's administration, and a vigorous prosecution of the war with England, met at Albany; and the Assembly chose Samuel Young for speaker, and Aaron Clark, since Mayor of N. Y., their clerk. Young was first chosen, in 1812, as a 'republican' member of the Assembly, for Saratoga, and gave a firm support to the cont3st, voting for Madisoaian electors and against Clinton. Lately, in Senate, he said, that •when he entered public lite he had a flourishing law business, with four students, two of whom had b3conie distinguished judges of the State; and that he had made no more i)y iiis public services than h3 would have done if he had refused office. He was the steady friend of Tompkins, supported Clinton for Governor in 1817, and turned against hiin when Van Buren did. In 1819, Col. S. Young was a candidate for the office of U. S. Senator, and received the sup:x)rt ot Van Buren, who well knew that he would not be elected. Both of them avowed the.'r opposition to Rufus King, the Senator whose term was about to expire, whom their presses denouncxt as a federalist, though Van Buren or his friends had elected him in 1813. Next year, (1820,) Van Buren and Marcy wrote a pamphlet in favor of King — Young disap- peared as a candidate, wheeled into line v\'ith Roger Skinner, Benj. Butler, Yates, Van Buren and M.trcy, an I assisted to elect King for ano her six years; and at the next vacancy, Van Buren, through the caucus system, and the aid of King's friends, was sent to accompany King, in the Senate, at Washington. At the State Co.nvention, 1821, Young, whom Hammond calls an upright, faithful man, opiwsed the idea of giving the black population votes ibr governor, senators, assemblymen, &c., because they were ignorant, and therefore unfit to judge of the contluct or character of public m;n, a degraded race, and, as yet, incapable of worthily exercising the duties which an elector is in dity bound to discharge for the common weltare. He opposed, in 1821, the elec- tion by the people of their ju.stices of the peace, and mayors of cities, but supported with ability against Van Buren, the present .system of universal suHrage. In 182(5, when Clinton brought the-se great measures again before the people. Young supported both. Young and Van Buren now excuse their opposition in 1821 to several popular amendments, by saying that they were proposed to induce the people to reject the whole constitution, as amended. Why then ditl the party of Van Buren and Young then oppose the common sense pjoposiiion of Judge Kent and De Witt Clinton to allow the people to vote on the amendments separately, and refuse or accept according to the deliberate sentiment of the communityl Even now, the question of giving the unchecked rights of an electt)r to a man who can neither read nor write — who is unable to sign his own name, or pronounce tlie letters of the alphabet from a book — lo a man 128 YOUNG FOR CLAY— HIS OPERATIONS WITH THE BANKS. seeking the public approbation by the most ultra denunciations of what he called a corrupt system, stood a steady beggar at every new bank door to SOLICIT a share of the " unclean drippings," was not likely to favor such exposes as mine. If it was Van Buren and Buller's turn to-day, it might be his own to-morrow. who cannot read either our laws or constitutions — who sees in the recorded votes of congress- men, in print, only such scratches as a hen and chickens might have imprinted with their feet on the journal bel'ore him — is a very Pi-ave and serious one-^whethcr the man's skin is white or black, or his birth-place, Africa, the Carolinas, Ireland, Germany, or Long Island. Wc want good government. Will ignorance, and the prejudices inherent lo such a state, turn the scale in our elections, and seciure that blessing 1 On the contrary, is there not a more than semblance of gambling and hazard given to the system which accepts Tom's mark at 2l, he being incapable of writing, and refuses Dick's signature at 20, though educated like a Clinton, Calhoun, or Jefferson? Col. Young addressed a letter to Hon. Jesse Clark, dated Ballston, Sept. 29, 1824, as follows: "Dear Sir — I have received yours of the 20th ins:., iu which you inquire whether my opinion in reference to tlie ilectoral law has chan;;ed. " Since the first OLiit uion of the question at tlie last election, I have uniformly entertained and expressed an opi- nion in fiivor ol trnntfTerriiig the clioice oT Pri.^idential ekctors from tht legislature to thf ballot boxes. 1 have en- tertained and expre.-i.-'ed this ojiinion, not only hecau-^e I believe that such a law would be correct in principle, but because I ua-; satisfied lliat it was called lor by public sentiment. "1 have, wiihiii ilie last tive or six weeks, rectivtd many letters from various parts of the state, making the sanic inqniiy as yours, and sonie of Iheni asking my opinion in refrence to the candidates lor the presidency. I have nn dbjoctinn thut my sentiments on all political subjects should be known ; but 1 liave felt great reluctance to be the or?a;i of their publicity. "The m.iny pie.t infamous of these 'arrogant' concerns that Van. Buren had chartered. The cry uf'stop thief ' by a culprit has oflener than once .saved the guilty, and the exclamation of 'mad dog' condemned the innocent. Colonel Young has not voted for a bank charter since 1822 oi" 1823. He holds, or has held a large amount of stock, in the following banks, namely the Watervliet bank — Seneca county bank — City Bank, Albany — Saratoga counly btink — Herkimer county bank' — R(xhester Lank — Commercial Bank oi" Oswego — Steuben counly banlc — IJtica bank — Lockport bank. It is possible that he may have had an intere.-t at Sandy Hill or Buflalo in 1819. It appears that he has voted for all .sorts of corrupt charters — has held on to lucrative offices until he has thereby acqijircd a large fortune — has speculated in lands, in legislation, in scrip, in every thing — and now comes forward, laic in life, to act the i)art of Cato, the censor, with a view, as some say, lo the occupancy of the scat now filled by Silas Wright. Mcihinks the discussions of this session of the legislature have destroyed his chance of that promotion, among the honest pure minded, and patriotic electors. Such men as Butler, Van Buren, and their unexpected YOUN'G SOLICITING BANK STOCK. 129 My Lives of Ho}^! and Butler, the State Printing, and the Texas slave ques- tion, are working miracles at A.lbany. Like the diving bell to a wrecked East Indiaman, they are bringing to light the works of other days. The knaves' league is broken ; the old regency are uncloaking each other. Croswell, in a late Argus, publishes the following note, addressed to Lyman Covell, Esq., and dated, 3:^" Ballston, lOiJi May, 1333. Dear Sir: Without the pleasitre of a personal acquaint- f:^ ancj, psroiit ni3 to take the liberty to solicit you to subscribe, in my name, for slock in the ^:^ CiijniLUig Canal Bank to the amount ot j?2500. I wish to make a permanent investment §;^ in the Bank to that amount ; and it has been suggested to me, by a mutual friend of ours, i:^ that you would probably be willing to do the kind office of making the application to the g^" commissioners for me. Should you consent to do this, A. B. Dickinson, Esq., will hand 1^ you the money lor the subscription deposit. Youi's, &c. S, YOUNG. " P. S. 1 have added a warrant of attorney on the next page. " I hereby authorize Lyman Covell, Esq., for me and in my name to subscribe for shares of stock in the Chemung Canal BanJi, amounting to two thousand five hundred dollars. S. YOUNG." The Argus's correspondent writes Croswell, that " Mr. ovell did the ' kind office' as solicited bv Col. Young, Mr. A. B. Dickinson furnishing the money for apologist in the Senate, will, it is fondly hoped, surely find that they have undervalued the sagacity and morality of modern N. Y. In 1833, Young was chairman of the Herkimer convention, which nominated to the people as a patriot governor, the cunning and corrupt W. L. Marcy. On the same year he published a pamphlet against the U. S. Bank, and in 1835 (see Argus, May 11) signed an address of the members of the legislature to their constituents, in which Van Buren's Safety Fund is called an improv^ement— that that system and its vigilant commissioners had protected the banks, some of which would have failed else during the panic caused, they tell us, by the U. S. Bank— ' and that the fund would soon be as large as to protect the people, in case the losses were not very wide spread, which was not expected. He voted .same year to allow everybody to set up a bank, but against the bill of 1839, which modified the restraining act. [See psge 174 \o page 183.] Hammond thinks that the excellent bill to give every school district a public library, would have been lost but for S. Young and L. Beardsley's eflbrts in its favor. In 1839, Young and Spraker were the minority opposing a repeal of the law prohibiting bank notes under S5. In his Finance Report of 1839, he tells us that the bank note issues of the privileged corpo- rations form a " stupendous system of fraud, falsehood, crime and suiTering," and says muc!i more to their injury — yet it appears he has been a very active builder of the system. His conduct and his language are strangely inconsistent. In 1813, in a bill to incorporate Thomas Storms, &c., with $600,000 capital, as a manufac- turing company, Young moved to make the capital two millions, but could not carry it — Van Rensselaer moved to allow the corporation to do BANKING business ; and when another member proposed to strike out banking. Young voted to retain it ! In 1814, a bill to allow the Merchants' Bank, Albany, a charter, for the city only, was attempted to be improved bv Young, who moved to give them power to bank also at Ballston Spa. Its charter was to be a million, and Young voted for a motion to oblige it to lend S'200,000 to manufactiuxrs. That same year an elfort was made to incorporate the N. A. Mining and Coal Company, as a bank, and for this also did Young vote. So say his brother senators, for I have not specially referred to the journal. He voted against the bill in 1818. In I8l8, the New York Franklin Bank charter was carried forward by Young's vote one step, yeas 13, nays 12, but at the final passage of the bill he voted against it. The Assembly rejected and sent it back to the Senate, and then sent for it again, and Young, though he had professed to oppose it, voted to send it back tn them, but Van Buren dodged. Young supported, by his votes, the Chenango Bank, as did Van Buren's brother-in-law and state printer ; but Van Buren himself dodged the last vote, as he knew the bill could be carried without him, others assuming the responsibility. Young dodged the two final votes on the Cherry Valley Bank, Van Buren remaining both times as a nay, there being enough to carry it without him, including, of course, his brother-in-law, Cantine, with the yeas. In 1821, Young voted for the North River Bank charter. When, in 1818, it was proposed to enact, that if a person should ask payment of its notes from a bank, and it were to refuse, it should be liable to pay interest on said notes from the date of its refusal, Avith costs of suit, Bowne, Van Buren, Young, Tibbets, and Roger Skinner voted NO ! One of the corrupt banks of 1836 was the Water\iiet, presided over by an Olcott, who dis- appeared. Young, while denouncing the S3-stem, took $2,000 stock, and "lost it. His conduct in this was like John Randolph's, who, after doing his utmost against the U. S. Bank charter, 130 folk's pledges ; young's spectulations ; his position. the subscriptions and deposits, Col. Young being the fifth applicant on the list, but the Colonel's application was not granted, by the board of commissioners, as appears by the printed statement at the time." Croswell sees nothmg wrong in thus collecting his old friend's private, personal letters, and pubhshmg them to his injury. How can he reconcile this with his abuse ot me last Sept. and Oct. ? CHAPTER XXVII. Folk's Pledqes.— Verplanck's Resolution.— Michael Hoffman— the Naval Officer —a Sinecure— Duties Political— Luck in getting Places— Votes in Congress- Pet Bank Loans— Herkimer Bank Stock— Hoffman and Young— Relations- A vote for Barker.— Executive Patronage.— Natal Office no Check.— Millions j^ost.— Tke Merchants-' Entries.— Alderman Purdy —Woodbury and Swart- wout.— Polk's Choice.— Bonds hoio hit.— Noah's Grief .—Folk denounces the Sub Treasury.— Wilde, Gorham, and Binr.ey, on the Pets.— Polk prevents Bank Inquiry.— Adams on Taney.— The General Scramble. CoL PoLK was one of the original supporters of Jackson -and professes hostility to a high tariff for protection, to a national bank, to distributing a surplus of U S revenue monies among the states, and to internal improvements made with ■ funds at the disposal of Congress. He is said to be friendly to an amendment of the constitution so that the people themselves might directly elect their presidents, and to the one term principle. He was warm in favor ot 1 exan annexation, with slavery, and the slaveholding interest ot the south believe that Usurylawmayha'^ arisen Itly from 'a desire to withdraw ^^J^^J^,'!:^^^^^^ lend them to farmers at a high rate of interest, upon mortgage. He puichased Hock, at j ^^"^c a preii, in the Oswego bank. It failed The lobby agents oi t^.f J-T ^l^-Jf/ Pncern, Sie Seneca C^nty Bank^p SerKi|.r C ail, ^^^^^ -oclj. ^^l^o^:^!:::rrk:^'^^:^^^^^^^^ra a- the oW f^eljesu^r Bank^ worth £ ? nn if °t ^50 a share In the Saratoga (Wateiford) Bank he had fe5,000, his wile's fro- ilnvll Ucmiw^ ani bought at 12 jer^eem. rremiuin. This was sold out m part or the Kie at M premium He took S3,odo stock in the Lockport Bank-it broke down-lie sold hislockat80pcr?m dTscount, and voted to repeal the charter. He was not a borrower m tanks bufa real banSr-and when the banks stupt payment in 183G, he was ^"^^" b' e"oigh Donivs uuL ciieai uaiuv irrr,ir^<^ Mnvfv .ind the Van Burcn clique, rScf Sc^ri^ r '^;:: a,;:^ r;;co;d i;i;;;.^ga^^t Marcy and W ^^n Bugn^ciicju^ who were for giving their knavery a legislative proieclion. ^ct Irom I8l3 to 182. while S^w^s vo ingfor pet charters, when from party apulicants, he had the suspen .on o 1814, and the warning o Clinton, Tompkins, and the latWrs ot democracy daily betoie his 630., '"V^ .r ^S5.000 in the City Bank, Alb.ny, and large -ounts in^the Utica and^ ihree or four others. His connection with such a person as ^" f yj^^f;^''',^^^'^ -^"^^^^ orcuDies no very high place in llic code of bank morality, is against h m So also is his \o e Sfavorot gi;^ng fo I new incumbent the oliice of state printer, w Inch the patron of h^ avShavfJo fongandso shamefully abused The a^h-ents of Wa kcr^ P^^^^^^ and Mnrcv, fearing that Cassidy's backers might be opposed to the r ^leclara Hon of depend en«, iie united in>tting dowtl the corrupt machinery ^^ey can no longer contro On the iCth of May, 1833, Col. Y. dehned his position in the Albanj Atlas, m uiest a\oi-u. . ..The Demurrauc P .ny, wah Mr. V.. B, k.s ..its |'- 1. .riH how easily otficinl iifople. in tlie chief situation-, ronliUe to mve a sort of mystical interpret ,tion I.i biws !.pp,renily plain and simpif— their object while in. is to fill their pockets— and Woodbury, SwHrtwoiit. Vmu Buren, Iloyl, &c., are proofs that no profes- sion ofulirH deiiincr.icy Ciin ensure nn efleclivtj check on officiMl profligacy. I presumt; th it it is well under- stiKid thm Hortiuan holds on. conditioned ill it be shill devote his politic il tHlents ami experience to tbe jiond of til • Rege-icy leaders, whose d;m>cricy consists in luiyins over and ret lining prominent politic il men. through 'the .-pod",' liimntirully diviiled amon/it'tliem f>r iheir servicm in deceivini; and deluding a people wh •, if themselves lielieve in the doctrines of Tionixs Jeffei-sou, have too often followed in tbe footstep.* of certiin urtful and designing p diucian- wh i d mot. Judije H (if inn is a lawyer, by In le a p ilitician, has the rsputation of bsinj very strict on " constituional qutjilions"— very clever ui gelling lliom uo— ihviy- lookins in Ihfl direction of iiltr i-dem icracy— ever rowing his boat towirds Pl.ace, Power, and Officiil PUmder. For two year? he was a ilistrict nttorney; nnd for four he dispen ed English law as a .-alititule for American ju-lice in the capiciiy of fir-t judge of the Countv of Herkimer. An additional Canal C.nisniwsioner was said to be Witited. ju>t in lime to secure to Judge Hoff- inan, fir two years, a seat at the ciiial board, with a handsome income. The atftirs of the nation required to be set to righu. and Congress cnulJ not get thn J^icj/i!) properly regul ited without nt 1 -ast one Admiral ; in due time, therefore, 'the pirty' sent Judge Ho.f.mn for six or eight yeirs, to the Home of K'p.-e«entatlve». in the pure and moral, atiiiospliere of Washington, where eight doU.irs perd ly, with mileige honeitly measured, Dallas fashion, libenl presents voted from Jonathan's Exchequer, by pilriots to themselves, and secret promise.s. of office thereafter, if they vote right, has reconciled m my a hot reformer to the discipline of a parly leader. His recorded voles then, present a droll contrast when taken into view w.lh his vau anxiety 71010 for n state convention, to affiiJ mire ch'cks on our money-horrowni, saiiity fund -b ink chtrlering m.ijorities, for Ixith of which, when at Albany, he entertained, as he siid. a truly virtuous abhorrence. 'i'he nation, through Congress, in 1810. ^old to the United States B ink. the rioht to become the Treasury of the Union for twenty years— took $1,503 009 in cash from stockholders, in payment for this privilege — and the fSiipreme Court Judges of the Union declared the transaction to be con-stitutioiial ; whether it w.as t-o or not, nothing could be a greater violntion of the puiilic fiilh than to take the U. S Bink money as a consideration for a privilege, and then lend out the whole national income to a batch of trading politicians, under the pretext of depo iting it in the more fivored chartered and unchecked b inking monopolies of Ihe Van Buren school for better security. In March, 1833, Mr. Polk joined Michael HotTman and Campbell P. White in negitiving Ver- planck's motion that the money of the nation was sate in the Biiik of the United Stales. In that same year, Mr UofTman might also be found (as Mordccai M. Noah told him) liberally partaking of the unclean drippings of bank legislation and special charters. His county (Herkimer) had to be managed by a b.ink in the hands of the faithful. Mr. Hotfmnn had one hundred shares (say SIO.OOO) apportioned to him, with other 80 shares to his friend Col. Samuel Young— lOU more went to A. Looniis— 100 to A. Mann, M. C, ami lOlt to Uudley Burwill. " Under cover (said Noah, in his Star of October, 1834,) of charging the U. S. B ink with bribery, the grossest corruptions are c;irricd on in this state— the very legislator who votes on a bank bill receives the assurance of pay in advance." Honest MichaeU'it appears,'was not forgotten. After doing his best to lend forty millions of the money of the Union to the pet banks of party leaders and gambling bank directors with no security at all- after partaking liberally of chartered bank stocJk— after violating the oblig::ition of contracts to '.he U. S. Bank, and aiding in the anti-bank cry of Martin Van Buren and his decoy-ducks, who, under the safety (! ') fund sys- tem, chajfiered, from 1829 to 1S37, banks oa the special privilege principle, VFith some 30 raillions of nominal, 132 Hoffman's sinecure, principles and policy. Pollc could be depended on— Stevenson was Speaker, and looking up to Jackson for a more lucrative office— the latter placed the former at the head of the ways and means in Dec, 1833, to oppose the U. S. Bank and Sub Treasury, and uphold Kendall and the political scheme of the Treasury banks. All this but far less of real, capital in this state— after this, Mr. Hoffinan sat down in March, 1843, to write to Col. Youne, that he hail just heard of his effort to save one plaiih from the wreck of t!ie constitution— pullBd him- Michigan, resting lor two or tnree sessions in wa n.m=c ui .T.=oc..i^.j, ... ,^.^...y . „. ... ....5... _--- .. . «)(l,OUO to SIG.UOO a year priz.e of the Naval Office, in the lucky state lottery of 1 honias Ritchie and James K. I'olk. Who can deny the fact, that the Admiral has acted on the principle of rotation in office 1 Out of one fat berth he goes into another, tumbling out both friends and foes, when in his .wa>% but a ways piping some democratic tvuie always ridin- some popular hobby. To-day corresponding with Byrdsall " as Pies dent ot the association lor Constitutional Refonn "-to morrow sanctioning Byrdsall's removal from a $loUO sinecure in the Custom House, because he was too Calhounish ! j •.. 1 ■ 1 ^.^ ,n ^i.>==o« h.u That the .\iiti-Kent party complained of real and serious wrongs is now admit ed by almost all classes, but Hoffman, like Silas Wright, was slow to perceive the pith of their complaints. He voted, in 1826, with Butler, "0 renew the Mechanics and Farmers' and other unchecked bank charters, but they could not get enough to loin them. Van Buien, Olcott and the party chiefs next year got np the ba fety !• und nnpostiire, and pla>ed iheir parti so artfully that it took. I think that Hoffman voted against the bill U. elect Canal (ommissioners by the people, and against the bill to destroy the State Prison Monopoly. In the distribution of the patronage of his department he takes his cue from Washington, to suit the party interests. miiBntnr thrn- When Hofihian entered the Custom House, it was asserted that the pretended check on the Col ector thro the naval office, a very expensive and useless farce, as now and lor many years past performed by v^eeran actors (this much the Evening Post admits,) would in his hands become a reul one-but I doubted. 1 he legis- d- who voted ;^ Hoffinan did, for George P. Barker to be our Attorney General, after the Pi^liljc c^^posure of he frauds of the Bullalo City Bank, (sayinc nothing of his votes in favor ot all that Hofliiian ca Is corrupt in the session of 1836,) was a meet yoke fellow to Cornelius W. Lawrence, in their othcial duties ol checks upon the monev operations of the Custom House of New York. , , , 1 ■ • , i,., Mr. Polk showed the sincerity of his respect for his friend Andrew Jackson's memory and principle, by choosinr.- lor collector here, a pet-bank president, whose conduct in failing to pay the public cash to the publ c creditors, when his bank had been trusled with plenty of it, had disgraced 'l'V"'T';;r.Ar'ro\nmmlllr the frail concern. He showed equal, consistency at least, in selecting as our .Naval Othcer, or comptrol er, the Hoffman who liad voted against Major Dave/.ac's motion in Assembly, for refunding to the old hero, before his death, his New Orleans fine and the costs thereof, ^. . , i „„„„«» ,<,r„o Far be it from me to undervalue a Convention or nofrman's stipport of it-tho people ''f ;^,f;"°f, j'j^/^Xn.^ sentatives to it, and check their action, too, if a majority of them should prove indis;creet-but I dislike L%ening Post homUies on slate reform emanating f^m the Custom House desk of a ,«lfi,000 f'"'-''^"''^''/::' end'uid effi own department there in as bad a condition as he found it, uhile he has the power '" ^^-'f. ' "f 'f '^''Ivstem cient for the public service. He had no ear for a specie treasury in 1833-'-!, but was ready tor the cash sj s em iiiee Ezecutioe Patronage, fi ?^S ;;;;wtv;;; ;i"a P^:id;;rPolk hai ;^c^^X^ ...erits, and g^en mm^hroop's old place and in- examiners at Washington, and deputies to do the business, it costs the nation $bJ,t)UU a )<^ai. It has been shown, that in the two last months of Mr. Hoyt's term, entries amounting t..S63 00J were stolei^ da ly as presented, from the Cashier's otiice, before the clerks had ^^e" or entered then, on Collectosbook^^^^^^^^ the duDlicates of the^e same entries were just as punctually stolen from the Naval Ufhcer s othce before he 'nitlfderk: had entered them on their record, oJ check-books, and that, had ""' -■ j-c'-i-;' by" he lYalld "o'f and a whig secretary e.^amined into the matter, Jesse Hoyt would have been JG3,000 che 1 I'e Irauds o January and February, IHU, be the thief who he may. 1 believe, that, altliough !ii,b3,OlO «cre m this wa> all but pick wc have ways, ui the parties iciU omit to menUoii ? I blame no one— proiess u. susi.cu. ..,j .,..=—..... .y 77;\°--:r";, :-" i --- p„,„ scribed there must be a check. How is it now 1 The entry, in dup icale is handed " '\,^^,^'^' "*^.'^.^"j ^ clerk, who examines it, another clerk folds it, a third clerk endorses it. The endorser hands ''. « />" ^^ ^ .'o ''^. Reeister whose duty it is to enter it on his great book, and he does so, but not till nex« day, alter ten o cloclv , and' as 'tirinrndle^of entries of any one day is not locked up, ^^f^-^yrZ^^r^^^ ,'en or more noihinff would be more easy as far as the Nava Othce is concerned, than to abstract any two, ten, or more en r^ s' rcordmg "uho slz'e'am/nttality of the .laily bundle ; and if" matters should at a future J-^e - "jade to correspond in the Cashier's office, wholesale frauds are as easy "ff *;""'' '=;l''''''"'"^'t'';''r "^ ' f^' "^J thev oer Ibrmed them in Jesse's lime. The truth is, the day's record should bo completed d.iy by daj, signed .yYlcl'fCtl'hhnseiraf'er personal examination, before he leaves the office, ami "^J'^V ''-'^^^^--,^J'J^^^^^^ to the U. S. Treasury. The entry should be recorded on the book, imiiicdiately alter the merchant or nis cierK hands it in— and this could bo done with ease. (Jlfice unlit persons, because they are serviceable tools as poll chairmanship, with the duties of the siirveyorsliip of the Customs 7 POLK, WOOBBURY, 0*SULLIVaN AND THE PETS. 133 he did, with spirit and energy. Let the Democratic Review, in its confessional numbers after Van Buren's defeat, explain to the millions the results of the ex- ertions made in 1834, '5, and '6, by Kendall, Whitney, Van Buren, and J. K. Polk. Speaking of Van Buren & Co.'s failure in 1840, the Review says : " Nor can we lay our hands on our hearts and say, on honor bright that it was entirely un- deserved on our own part, after all. We had not been-no party could have beeii-so long in power especially under all the existing circumstances, without having contracted sundry sins both of omission and cornmission-and with the same certainty mat drags the shadow after the substance, does an inevitable retribution, to parties as to men, loUow every fault and everv folly they are ever guilty of. One great blunder, indeed, of the Pet Bank experiment, entailed a lona- series of consequences which made it eventually one of the heaviest of the wei-hts that bSre us down— a measure adopted at the express rejection of that veryone which at a late? dav we so iustly hailed with delight, when brought forward under difierent party auspices. We meant well to be sure, in that most ill-starred of experiments— and it was at any rate better than the alternative of the other side, the re-charter of Mr. Biddle, but good intent is no excuse, to the inexorable justice of the providence of events, for great political errors, p^ And when we remember all the practical mischief we did, stimulating the expansion ot the currency thi-ou<^h the distribution of the vast accumulated deposites among the banks— without even a char-e of interest to thei\i, and at one time an official encouragement to them to apply them liberallv to the ' relief of the community— when we remember the prophetic warning.s from tire opposition of the very consequences which indeed were not slow to develope themselves— what light have we to complain if we had ourselves to swallow a very bitter dose ol retribu- tion for our fatal error f I am persuaded that no impartial, well informed individual can be found who would hesitate; after inquiry, to blame Levi Woodbury, Sec. of the Treas., for his neo-lect of duty in the case of* Swartwout, who had embezzled some $1,250',000 from the New York Custom House, long before that lazy, or worse than lazy, functionary thought fit to announce his knowledge of the delinquency. A brief account of S.'s defalcation may be seen by reference to the index ot my Lives of Hoyt and Butler— and it is worthy of remark that President Polk, knowing Woodbury's course in that and other matters, hastened to give him a life lease on the bench of the Supreme Court—and followed up that appointment by the nomination of the most intolerant lawyer towards citizens by choice, and not by chance, that he could find in Pennsylvania, or the Union, to a similar hio-h station.! Mr. Polk's clumsy interference with the deposites was the indi- * Until 1834 Swavtwout hsd embezzled^ but little of the public money. When the deposits were seized, he seeu>s to have taken a leaf out of Van Buren's book. On the loth of November 1838, Woodbury wrote to Ho ",hhuin'thiU the clerks who knew and concealed Swartwout's misconduct, ought to be removed, luo S after dgden the cashier, and Phillips [Noah's relative] the assistant res.gnedthe.r sUuat.on^. Hanes^ Noah in his Evenin" Star, grieved aloud at Swartwout's resignation and French tour. 1 here are tew men who l^lve an importont situation with more of the public approbation than Mr. Swartwouf'-said Noah. Wood- burv was mere W to public pilferers. For e.xample, " Harris, the receiver at Columbus, Mississippi, was a noKn rinlrdan7deLut^^^ office Iwo years, in full knowledge of the department untU he ower S160 000 So Wise teHs us, throus^hthe Globe In August, 1835, Woodbury tells Harris that he is a def^nlttr-again in October-and so on till September, 183b, xvhen the fellow proposes to resign alter having bee 1 wo and a half years a heavy defaulter ! A Mr. G. D. Boyd succeeded Harris, and was " in emperate, ' a land speculator, like Butler, and resigned a defaulter, m^ny thousand dollars in arrear, in August, 1837. John Davis applied ne.xt, as " a warm friend of the administration." t Polk and the Banks.— When Polk reported, in March, 1834, from the majority of his committee of Ways and Means, for seizing the revenue, using it to corrupt the banks, influ- ence the elections, and uphold " the party," a minority report was presented, on the 4th, by K. H Wilde Benj. Gorham, and Horace Binney. They remind Congress, that a partnership of different corporations for profit and loss, or mutual guaranty, with independent boards ot direction was a strange contrivance to secure the stockholder and regulate the currency--that Polk Wright and Kendall's scheme had been tried and tailed, and would fail again— that il Polk' and his friends were correct in quoting the maxim that " the borrower is servant to the lender " the banks borrowing the public money would be slaves to Jackson and his cabinet —that if their other maxim. " that he who controls a bank, controls the debtors ot the bank' h^ld good, the deposites had been placed in banks whom Jackson's advisers intended to con- trol, through these slave banks of theirs— that the scheme would derange the currency, which is the measure of the value of every man's property, of his contracts, of indemnity lor break- ing them, and of the public revenue— that a deranged currency makes laws, verdicts, promi- ses and decrees of courts speak the language of deceit and falsehood, gives Iraud a premium, 134 POLK AND BLAIR CONDEMN THE SUB-TREASURV' rect cause of the loss to the country of $646,754 paid him, as the cashiers of his choice, for bonds. When Polk, Kendall, Van Buren, and Lawrence, united and strips honest labor of its scanty earnings, pajnns; it in worthless or depreciated rags, un- der pretence that they are as good as gold — that doiibt and uncertainty were deeply injuring the business of the merchant and manufacturer — that if the U. S. Bank was not to be rechar- tered, some better plan ought to be proposed to Congress, for as to Polk and Wright's pet scheme, it was the merest delusion, because the banks selected, and the vast number that would arise like mushrooms, would only promote the disorder. The state banks wanted a regulator — a good currency was hopeless if tlie U. S. Bank, as a check, was removed, and no other substituted than the party politician's orders whom circumstances might place at the head of the treasury — that the bank had been accused of paying money to printers, but, when traduced by the executive power, by many presses, and by speculators in Congress, was it not the duty of her directors to appeal to lacts, where the public were so deeply interested in the result 1 — that the framers of the constitution had provided the Supreme Court for the trial of aught done by the bank that was wrong, with the penalty of loss of charter if shown to be for- feited and that the attorney general might prosecute, and tlie bank be heard in defence before the country, which WJUld be a better, more manly course, than continued slander and party abuse to niystify the issues, delude the millions, and end in making the fortunes of bad men, to the injury and rain of thousands who would be made to believe that they had been wronged by those most deeply interested in the cause of equal justice. ' The Apostle Paul, had he been on earth, would not have convinced Polk, Wright, Van Bu- ren, Butljr, Kendall, Whitney, Lawence, Cambreleng, Tallmadge, Marcy, Taney, and their confederates, that anything less than the use of the pitblic purse — its plunder — could benefit the public. The party were not yet ready for the Sub Treasury, and therefore it was that in that year, Polk denounced it in the following plain terms : " Between the respmsiMt,.'ti/ of a public receiver and bank corporations as banks do exist, and " are likely to exist under State authority, the latter, itpan the ground of safety to the public, are to " be preferred^ Da.aks, when they are safe, recommend tlwinselvcsto the service of the Treasury for " other' reasons. The increased facility they possess over individual collectors and receivers, in " m.iking transfers of public money to distant points, for disbursements, w- thout charge to thepud- " lie. indeed, this is a service which individuals, to the extent of our large revenues, could not " perform. Whilst the deposite is in Bank, the bank may use it, keeping itself at the same time " ready to pay when demanded, and it is not withdrawn from the general circulation — as so " much money hoarded and withdrawn from the use of the community. In the hands of receivers, " th;y must either hoard it by keeping it locked up in a strong box, or use it at their own risk " ia private speculation or trade. This temporary use of monjy on deposite in a bank, consti- " tutes tlie only compensation which the bank receives for the risk of keeping it, and forthe ser- " vice it pcrfjrms. W re.eioers bo employed, they can perform no other ser\'ice tlian to keep the " monev, and must be paid a compensation from the Treasury." Blair, of cjirse, tojA the same ground in the Globe. He declared "(hat (he Independe^it Treasicry is disorganizing and revolutionary, and subversive of the fundamental principles of o ir government, and oi' its entire practice irora 1798 down to this day, and that it is as palpa- ble as the sun that the effjci of the scheme would be to bring the public treasury much nearer the actual custody and control of the President, and expose it to be plundered by a hundred hands, where one under the late system could not reach it. in such event we should feel that the piop'.e had just cause tor alarih, and ought to give their most watchful attention to such an eflbrt to enlarge execitive power, and put in its hand the means of corruption." On the l3th of June, 1831, the Senate sent for concurrence to the Plotisc of Representatives, a resolution it had agreed to, in opposition to the treasury banks, that the public treasure ought to hz left with the U. S. Bank and its branches. Polk moved to give it the sro-by. Yeas, Joel B. Suth3rlanl, R. 11. Gillct, J. Cramer, A. Vanderpo;!, H. Hubbard, Folk, Cambreleng, White, &c. Nays, J. a. Adams, Dixon FI. Lewis, Dudley Selden, H. A. Wise, W. Slade, M. Fillmore, E. l:^verett, Levi Lincoln, &c. Where was Collector Lawrence 1 April 4, 1831, Polk's resolve " that the state banks ought to be continued as the places of de- posit for the public money," Congress prescribing the mode of selection and the securities (never done), was cairied iri the House of Representatives, 117 to 112. Yeas, Polk, Cambre- leng, Cramer, Beardsley, Bockee, Gillet, Hamer, Hubbard, Richard M. and Cave Johnson, C. W. Lawrence, Mann, J. Y. Mason, Joel B. Suthei land, Vanderpocl, &c. Nays, Adams (J. Q,.), Selden, Slade, McDuflie, F. Whittlesey, Everett, Lincoln, &c. March 17, 1831, Gorham presented a memorial from many influential and highly respectable inhabitants of Boston, for the incorporation of a national bank, and the restoration of the depo- sits. Polk, Bynum, Cave Johnson, Beardsley, VanJerpoel, Gillet, Ma.son, &.C., argued and voted against allowing the names of the petitioners to be printed with the memorial. This time C. W. Lawrence left his leader, and with Sutherland, Selden, Wise, Adams, &c., went for allowing the people to see who the petitioners were. POLK QUASHES ENQUIRY— BINNEY PROPHESIES. 135 in driving the able and intrepid Duane, whom Jackson could neither bend nor bribe, from the Treasury, Taney, four days after his appointment, ordered the President of the U. S. Bank to deliver up the bonds given by the merchants of Philadelphia, for duties, to the Collector there. It is presumed that a like order was (riven in New York ; and the consequence was, that instead of the branch bank here being a check, and a safe depository for the bonds, till paid at the bank, they were placed in the hands of Svvartwout and his reckless subalterns to manage as they thought fit. The result is matter of history.* * It has oflen b3en found, on examining the affairs of a broken bank, that certain of its officers and directors owe it far larger sums than the stock they hold. These debts they con- trive to pay with the notes of their insolvent institution, at ■par, buying them in the market for 25 to 5J cents per dollar, and thus gaining by the failure. On the 7th of June, 1834, Mr. Adams proposed a resolve requesting the names of the Presidents, Cashiers, Directors, Stock- holders, and Solicitors, of all the banks that had been selected by Roger Taney, as treasmy banks, when the U. S. Bank was discarded — the amount of stock held by each stockholder — and the amount of debt due by each director, cashier, and president of each pet bank, to the bank, at the time when it got the public treasure, and at this time. This would have shown whether the banks were in the hani-s of borrowing speculators, whether they had borrowed oat the public monies, and whether they had power over the banks without having a real interest in their gjoJ management. Nevins's letter to Hoyt, page 189, explains in part their schemes. Mr. A lams showed that it was not unusual for a favorite to be allowed to .subscribe for SJJ,J3J of stock, be elected a president or director, and never pay one cent into the bank coTers; bat, whin he could, borrow the credit ot" the bank and ottiei men's deposits. Mr. Polk screened the pets, opposed all information, and for the purpose of crushing inquiry, moved an amendment about the U. S. Bank, which had no deposits at all to lend to any one. Cambreleng, too, was opposed to inquiry, of course. Coulter said that secretary Taney had not forgotten his own interest in selecting the pet.s — that he, Taney, was the Attorney for one of them (the Union Bank, Maryland) that he was also a large stockholder, and had moved the depo.sits so as to give new value to his own bank shares, and increase his dividend.s — that this conduct was a violation of the law — and that Taney was not alone in such works, as the returns would show. Mr. Adams was very sarr astic. He suggested to Polk, as chairman of tha ways and means, to add to the precedents with which he had befogged the House, by proposing that it be ?)C?° " Resolved, th it the thunks of this hou^e be piven to Roger B. Taney, secretary of the treasury, for hlg ^jiCr" ^"^'<^ '""J DISINTERESTED (iMtriotisiii in translerrinj; the \i>e of the jmldic fiiu.l< fruin the 15 ink of the ^fCT" U'liteil Stales, wiitre iha/ were protitiiLile lo the people, to the Umon Biiik of UdUiaiiire, where they {)Q= were protilable to himself." The guilty usurers were in the majority, but all was kept dark. Campbell P. White bor- rowed ^^/t.'V$'l72,0J0— the Butlers .^30,000— J. G. Coster S3i3J,OOa— James M'Bride^TtJ.OOO; all this and inuch more out of the Manhattan. Ofcour.se the patriot, White, wanted no inquiry. Polk was the leader of the greedy usurers in their "general scramb.e." Is it tiius we are to account for his patronage of B. F. Butler 1 On the 13tb the resolution was again debated, and Mr. Miller moved to dispose of it, as delay would quash inquiry. Polk said no — the usurers were in his majority, and inquiry was thus stifled till the general bank- ruptcy of 1837-8, told a sad tale, a day too late. Horace Binney of Philadelphia, in his speech against Van Buren's Pet Banks, in the debate in Congress, January 9th, 1834, had clearly foretold these results. I quote his remarks verbatim. "Sir, the project astonishes me. It is lo bring a second time, upon this land, the curse of an unregulated, uncontrolled, State Bank paper currency. We are again to see the chama, which already, in the course of the present century, has passed before us, and closed in ruin. If the project shall be successful, we are again to see these paper-missiles shooting in every direction through the country ; a derangement of all value; a depreciated circulation ; a su-spension of specie payments; "then a further extension of the same detestable paper; a still greater depre- ciation ; with failures of traders and failiKes of Banks, irt its train ; lo arrive, at last, at the same point from whence we departed in 1817. Suffer me lo recall to the recollection of the House a few of the mure striking events of that day. The first Bank of the U. States expired in March, 1811. Between the 1st of January, 181 1, and the close of the year 1814, more than one hundred new Banks were established to supply this more uniform and belter currency. For ten millions of capital called in by that Bank, twenty millions of capital, so called, was invested in these. In the place of five-and-a-half millions, about the amount of circulation in notes of that Bank withdrawn, twenty-two millions were pushed out. Then came a suspension of specie pay- ments, in August and September, 1814. As an immediate consequence of this suspension, the circulation of the country, in the course of lilteen months, increased fil'ty per cent,. 13f6 THE GRAND CATASTROPHE OF 1837. CHAPTER XXVIII. The very name of a politician or statesman, is sure to cause terror and hatred ; it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cruelly, fraud and tyraimy ; and those \VTiters who have faithfully unveiled the mysteries of state Ircemasonry, have ever been held in general detestation fur even knowing so peneclly a theory so detestable, Burke's Vindication or Natural Society. The Catastrophe^ 1S37. — Partnership Law. — The Pels versus the Subtreasury. — Free Buvking. — Kendall and the Post — Marcy''s Reslrainimg Law. — Clay on the Bunks. — The Brokers^ Batiks. — Jackson, Blair, Folk and Ritchie against the Subtreasury. — Calhoun for a Bank, in 1834. — Jackson Alvney., all hard. — Gold, nil gold. — Silas IVright and the Soulless Existences. — Harrison on Currency. — Tebbett'^s $800U Vault. — Hnyt and Allen working out the Act. — Flagg''s Practice. — Van Buren''s Specie Mixture. — Peel on Paper. — English Banking. — The Knaves^ League. — JJoyt, McNulty, tj-c, above all Law. — Bennett Explains. — Knowledge is Power. — Canibreleng., Webb, 6)C. — Walker and his Pets. — Corcoran ^" KigtiS. — Four Hundred Stockjobbers Sportiiig with Uncle Sam''s Strong Box. —McDuffie^s Notions. England's republican poet, John Milton, thus records in his ' Paradise Lost,' the lamenlaiions of the eldest of human kind : " JNow I perceive Peace to corrupt, no less than War to waste." Addison, one of her ablest M'hig states- men, frankly declares his opinion, that " The waste of War is not, in its final consequences, so injurious as the luxuries and corruptions of Peace." John Quincy Adams, with still later experience, and certainly very superior powers of observation, approvingly quotes Milton ; and assigns " the abuse of credit, and the unrestrained pursuit of inordinate wealth, especially by the agency of banks," as the proximate causes of the great catastrophe of 1837.* or from Ibrty-livc to sixty-eight millions of dollars; and the fruit of this more uniform curren- cy was the fa'durc uf innuincrable traders, mechanics, even farmers ; of one hundred and sixty- five banks, with capitals amounting to S:30,000,000 ; and a loss to the United Slates, alone, in the negocialion of her loans, and in the receipt of bankrupt paper, lo an amount exceeding four millions of dollars. * * * Does Kentucky wish to see the return of those days 1 I trust in God it will be defeated, that the poor men and laborers in the land may resist it, for it is a scheme to get from every one of them a dollar's worth of labor for fifty cents, and to make fraud the currency of the country as much as paper." Martin Van Buren and his friend Butler saw it all just as clearly as Binney, but his follow- ers would leave if not gorged with plunder, and he satiated even avarice itself. As early as 1835, Jackson and Van Buren saved appearances by abusing the banks and thus weakening their' credit; and in Holland's Life, pruned that year at Hartford, banks and paper money are unsparingly vilified. When they fell with a crash, Van Buren started the sub-treasury, while his instruments denounced tlie banks he himself liad endowed and made. * The Catasthophk. — As early as October, 183(), tiie Salcty Fund Bank system was leady to blow up. Van Buren and Jackson's pel banks, with the hundreds of other bank.s created all over the Union, had increased the circulation of paper as money beyond all precedent. Every- thing' that w;is for sale rose in price — everybody iikcsf to sell in a dear market, and therefore many millions of dollars worth of foreign merchandia" was imported in 1835 and 183C., beyond the average of more frugal years — vast imports iirought a great revenue — the revenue was handed over to the pels lor safe Iceeping, and by tiiem lent to their managers, to speculate in lands and lots, or for the accommodation oi' tlie merchants at 1*2 to 50 per cent, interest. The public land sales rose from ''"'^«'f Rnnks of New York resolved tovnthhold papnentof r,STa"5 wti,e,r M^c^SE sasl°i=?e" legalized llijs ,nons,ion.;,raud; and nons to ^, Dem-, a, vvuuuiaw -i ^^ ^^^ hundred— and a large business, ^ith not^\oXl^t^^W debtors The Bank of England allowed James English creditors were ^^^y ^asy^^ ^J^,^^ minfons of dollars to uphold credit here. Brown of Liverpool to draw on ttiem toi ci^m ui icii ii i nf Dpp 1837 Van Buren's and of that sm.\ tlnnk ^^^^^^^Sl^^t the" pe^^baS^s^tnimenTJou^S no^tTm! message told the public, ij^^'^^,!'";^-!;"— paid to the public creditors in lieu of real Soney%nd tSe^nSes weTeSSl^lSrCust^ House in p^ment of government duties. Bank bills were refused. >. rr „ r„,, -R ..„.c TVip TP-ider bv referring to the correspondence of Messrs. I- lagg, Cut- tinr C L Livm.; on mS ■ Hoy .an 1 P ,' Ips, will perceiveAhat ivlien chartered tanking had S; Voldind taSd S taigained off Jlavorites, to make presidents aiid governors and SuK'tll^^h^j^otVanBuren^^^^^^^^^^^ !SL?;Ss,hf;;i?|||j^n|iigono^ schemes of wholesale knaveiy, like tne inoiui ^xiucii^a ,-nimic ^nle The neonle D. Beers, President; others equally desperate m f ^-^^^^^J' ^Jf^^°' , ^Xd tSn and wh?^^^^^^^ lost, by tile insolvent banks, from 5 to io per cent. «" . ^e no^es they had '^1^^"' f J^^.^f'^"^ came of those who trusted funds witli them may readily be guessed. As to the ^eueial iree 138 FREE BANKING. MARCY REPEALING VAN BUREn's GAG. banking With a remedy provided for neglect or dishonesty which is no remedyf at all buch a law, preceded by a commission of practical inquiry, is much tTaf" h ^'h^'; ^^'ll-^^-*^^ ^-^i ^'- Hard, in SenL, express'ed tt opmion that "banks had cost th,s country, by their expansions, faiiuis, and subsequent revulsions, hve hundred m.lhons of dollars." Banks, lik^ merchants, are very use- iul to society ; but as long as the government shall continue to be a sort of patent panic manulactory and the laws not be made for the public benefit, we shall hear contmuaUy ot the stoppages and explosions of our defective financial ^^nrZ ] uVfA ^1 '"°''' '"'u^''"= '^ '^' understanding of the An.erican people, than to behold a league or band of their hired and well paid officials trade law the Supreme Court have decided that the legislature could not on their oaths rnn «itutionally pass it, but the Senate of N. Y, as a Cdirt of EiTors have dec ared ihaf'.s « Senate they made no mistake at all. There was no other bankin.o^irtWsSo??^^^^^^^ melve or tourteen years of its independence than tree banking under^he SgfiJh pStnerhip law. Levi M'Keen's was a free bank ; so was Jacob Barker's Lxchange • but tlfev dfd r/o^f solve the grand secret, stability and uniformity of value. Amos Kendalf h'ke Sir PoUr r^.f declares that "free banking is free gambling." On the contrSy^Mr.' Enant oi U e FoS would make bankmg tree to all. He is a liberty boy in right eainkt He would tlnow?£ reins over the horses' necks, and trust to their discretion not" to upset hecocch so he rcnld Lxpenence on the contrary^ would check the quadiupeds, and the^ed tor ol S;e Po° ft he S but look at the results ol tree-banking in N. Y. since kst he reviewed KenSlmaVfrd h stated. In iMarch 1817, he introduced a bill to Senate for a new bc.nk>ng!vMcm nolidii- tl u^"'°'V^f\^''^^ P'^''*'"' ""^^' ^^*^^°"^^<^ ^« Iree-b.nkers, to be jointV." rd^cma Iv e rF^f!u!l.!f '^'' ?'"'''''"' '"'^^' ^' ^ P^'^^*^ ^P^^if''^-'^- In ^a^^e the link stlp tnmc^r oMt^ notes It shall pay ten per cent, interest on the amount to the holders: its parlnus mun ro? while thus associated, buy grain, sell merchandize, or deal in securities or S urlf'^^iKfe they have to take them tor debt. Ihe bank to rcrcrt cnce a vccr to the rr i^rTn'l^. r t^ he mJghl be fined from a cent to SI.OOO, and sent between one day and seven vcls to -S^c's prison. Why did not this last clause appjv to chartered banks i ' ^ ^ me^sTf "o? 1?37'^ d7ounced the N. Y. kcstiaining Law as a most odious monopoly in his mes-sagt. ol 18J7. Of course \ an Burcn had teen friendly to it. Cn refererce to c-Vr- ^ Journal^lS, page 17U, I find that the Restraining Law froiidcd, hat Lkdiilefurl ^^^cci■ «°n;7n .'^^ '""f."'''"' "'^'" ^*^'P ^">' office of dqosit /or the Furrc.e5di..eSgrVcmt' soiy notes; or lor carrpng on any banking business which incoporated tanks aifcmfc; ized by law to carry cn ; or i.^sue any tills or p rcmi.^scrv r.ctes as j inate barLers ur k- e re "cially authorized bylaw. ' Aclause in the bill exempted Jacob Eaikcr's btrki;;- J ee^v^ffs' from the monopoly ; and this was opposed by Col. Young, and Messrs Eow e ^nd H rri^rTH In I&IO Jan. 20, in Senate, Mr. Clay assumed it as a tact, that wiih'h s constiiut icr^ t'nk E' '',K^ •?■''"' '"'^ 'f "°' }^^ put down. U it is stopped i,,' one state, another Sflcodtha; T K ^ 'fi P^P"' f^ ^'.' '^' P™^''- ^« in^^t^nced aates which had oi ro.cd p; per in tverv shape, but findmg that other states supplied it to them, changed thcir\olicy^n order ih-^ they might have some of the advantages of paper * i^'^-y, Ju orcu ma .Jiv^'^'r^'^^ '*•"'' the French Republicans disliked bank notes, end were erra-cd at the abolition 01 the as.signal.s. " The intention of having recourse to the fin.' ncial c ir pfniei re vived all prejudices. 'Hic government.'Mhcy said, ''was going to give it^eSfpae^in^to^ jobbers; ,t was about, by establishing a bank, to ruin the assignals, and o d?c^rov ,1? r ne.^ The Senate's Commutee on Banks, Albany, April, 1845, document 97 de4ribe in r-^rt thP operation 01 the general hanking law of 1838, this :-There are initmions ''called^ uVk. principally owned by brokers in New York, whose soleorchief business iftoobtarb lit frrn,' i^T^-U n^ ^^ T" •^" •"'" : ^"'"''''"■'* ""^ Mechanics- Bank of Ogdensburgh,' whS h?d .S208 734 of their notes m circulation, and had not lent the public one cent • ll.c Jrmes' Bark cani't^rJ'" ^i'm ™'r '^- ^'^^^^r^ Bank, Rochester, and two o?three mole ; in al eight •' ^^^^-.n^w ^'•.""'"u"' circulation, §545 600; loans and discounts ,o the public fnlV ».17,920 VVould It not be as well for the republic to have the interest on this ciiculatLn i he ew brokers that now get it ? Probably eve n the S37,9'20 lent, is chiefl^ lcn?3Mheie tanks Rpn'^Vn)'"""'- 1^*1" committee consider the White Plains Bank, and "tlie Warren Countv THE GRAND JACKSOM REFORM WHAT WAS IT ? 139 condemn an important measure, as vile, unprincipled, infamous, revolutionary, tyrannical, innately corrupt and base, and an open violation of the constitution ; and when they have thus crushed and blackened it, and left the country to be pillaged for years by other means of their providincr, to see them all of a sudden wheel quite round about, and begin to puff and laud the same old and repudiated proposition, as if it were a voice from heaven 1 Was it not thus that Polk,^ Wrip^ht, Croswell, Van Buren, and their interested allies acted in the matter of the sub-treasury and the pet, state, local, or treasury banks 1 Secretary Duane replied to Gen. Jackson's recommendation of chartered state banks (of our politics) as being the best sub-treasuries for the party : " Trea- sury Department, July 10, 1833. Il is manifest that the icelfare of the people demands, that instead of being a partner in either, they [the people] should be independent of both United States and local banks.'' To which Jackson res- ponded, " that he had himself asked Congress, so to organize the treasury de- partment as to dispense with banks, but that he had not been attended to by cono-ress or the people." Sixteen months afier that., the Globe, by Blair, thus officially expressed the deliberate opinion of Jackson, Van Buren,* Wright and * What WAS THE Jackson RsroRM TO CONSIST IN ?— ft is to end, sikl Blair, for Vnii Buron, " in t'le s ip- prPssionol-Mlli.ape, Hi.nevund r $100.' -•• I w..u|,l n.vsdf l.miisi, all |.:M.er money under $11)0, ; .aid I II. Benlon in a leiier.— ' R sirict all issuf-s of bank bills below S:0, fo ihwiili. ' «ui ■tli the D.-iiiocraic Review — '•Gol.l'and silver C'. in is J.ck^-m mo .ev ; "loies wiili pictures on tli in i.romi-i .■; to pay, ;lio hunk s nii.ney. So -:aid Bl^ir March 29 l?3l. Did n .t tho |dan oi 1837 preseive Hie J tcksoii nioney evcl.isively lor tlL: .l.ll ? Wer- n..t ih • CH.tradntorv plans of Van B iren and P..lk tr ed 1 Oul ih -v do more or I -ss lli in lOb lue li. and bd as Wri-ht1 hri?37, the Albany Reg ncv issued a minif .-to. tl.its and d clari .a that " th.y never ente tain, d tli<^ visionary project of an eve iisive nie.dliccinency ; hm t le (r.obe, by Itlair, had prnphesiid, in 1831, t'.ut "in sev«,i m nlhs f on. ihi. tini.', bank r.np will be abo i-hed, and the Jh 1.' cAu.itry will be ovr.s .re.-.d with gold." In ISJt. Sda,. Wrgh. al.liorred the b.nK and s ated v .rce, and "had the n...st entire c.Mifi.lenc- in tue lull and cornel le sn.:c.-s.- of th- [p^t bmk] experim.'ni, ' b ni an. of which a few hn.idr.vl gimbling leaders pill.iaed the us^ fnl cl.nsse^ of s-ciety to Hie .-.vti-nt oi iw.aiiy noli .ns ot dollars. In 18 t7, we find W.iiht .xcla.ming, •' What, then, can Congr ss d- 7 We an=^w, r. uy the y.t unt i d ejt- "Ddient Iroducea perfect and entire separation betwe n the tinanc.-s ol tlienau.ai and a I me b.nks ..t i-sne, '• ..r disc 'uiil.tiowever, or hv what a'lthorty existing; b twee . t.i- naiional treas.irv and tli s- a.tincialcrea. " tions of le ■i-laiion npoi which we haves.) unforinnat-lv aifrnpt-d lo d p :n.l. Weh;ve in d the la tn ot " theoe soniless e\isl-nces, in all thei.' f.'.ms of bei ig, and lliat fai b has always faded ns m th ■ honr o(_utm..st "need Now Int u" try the lailh of luatnral persons, ..f in.>ral accou table agents, of I leenien L.ft tamgr-SJ " trust the sale keeping of tlnr public treasu e wiih ciiize.is, a- sucli, .-•nd not as i.ai.k corporators : sviih ni. n lO- " =D nsible t.. iiself and not lo m.-neyed institutions." At ihis hour. (.Maich. 18!6.) the slate ot N.nv York, with VVri"ht at the h. ad of ii. a..il iln- Uni ed S ales government, wi;h P.> k at the helm, are irusimg t n m II oo.s ot nionev stea.lilv. to the arliticial cr a ions, ilie s..nll..s- e.xis euces, whi< h always tail, winle ihe admin s;rauon is hold n" up as "••th.r "real salvation." Hie old subtreii-uo' scliem. of l«-IO Are noi suoli m n ablo. in ih ■ naU .n- al -scutcheon 1 G neral Ha r'Son in his inanunral, said, '• if ihi-re i- on- measure he t. r rul iilat d tliiin au- " other to o. educe iimi state of iliinss, iiy which the rich are daily ad.ling lo tie ir hoa.ds. and iht pour .sinking "de. o.r inio pe.urv, ii is d.i excluM-e nietalli-. curr.aicv. Or if there i^ a pr..ce-s by -.vluch the i.haracter ,>t ihe " counirv for cenerositv and noble .ess "i filling may he destroy od by the gr. ai increas.a ..I nec.ss iry toleiati. ii •' of usury- it is an exc ill^ive meta lie currency." Now the stale a..d U. S. nov r.uiien c..niinaally .■,. i as il ihey really iieli'ved ti.is, while ihev conii .ue, nevertheless, Uusiily to vocif.rate in favor of u clmnge, in order mat they '"when v'!!! Bn.vn'''s Sub- I'r.as.iryc line into operation, in Nevv York, il made rare sport to the Wdl street wil< Tetibels a roa-^ervaiive blacksmith, hamm red out an iniiiieii.se Iron vault or safe, at a n.si of $^,000, to hold" not tl.fc sp. cie, but the bank not s, wh le t.ie specie was in Uie b oiks, or payi g fir Ame icin piirch .s.s in Cnini or J .p.in I'he ir.n vanli was all a drc-ption to bi »1 ihe real hakds till afte- the re el, ction ot Van B iren In tli.'se days. Hoy a d hi> ca hi.rs received in payment of dimes, i , I eu ol siene, the iiiereiian.'a ch ck iiDon a bank. . ndor.s.d "payalile m specie," with bank notes ol specie paying hanks. Toe checks and tne no.ts were occasi nnliy kept i . the i.on vault, b.ii ih.- co n rema.ne.l in the b mK vaults ; and il one we.i to SLpln-u Allen Uic r. ceiver general, lo get money lor a treisnry note, he loo paid m paper. The f'ollect.ir niide bis de- Dosits'in a bank, and ilie i reported lo AHen as r.c.eiv-r twice a week— the div.nce of bank and slate, iherelore, in New York cons.st d in pl.icing iherev nueiu banks, and receiving no peuie,or as lii;leol itaspo sible.lordu- ties • also in ivis in;: ih- paper dollars tliroufih the hamls of lloyl and Aden i.. stead of only one oi ihem. Ou Uia llth'of Senteiiibes 1837. Bennett said i)i bis Herald, thai Calhoun iniiiht be goin.j ulira with V.iii Buren in order to break him d.wn One ihing is clear, Butler, H..yt & Co., so manag. d ih^; larilT, the sui. treasure and th ■ col- lection of iherevinue. as to deceive the sou, h, bv appearing in foil. iw one line <.f p.dicy wlide im truth ihy were do ne ibeir verv utmost against ii. A Mae Mib treasury i^ talked of now at Albany, but it's all talk. Fligg does n .1 want il Roraci- Grei !■ y says, " the Manliatlan and Bank of ihe State here, the Farmeis and Mechanics at Alb my and two or tlireemdre pet 'monsters' have the handling, keeping, and nnr-strietrd lending .ii the Fouror Fue Milli .ns per annum, colL-.ted and disbursed bv our State, on terras fir mon; la.x than those accorded by the F. d. ral Gover»m. nt. AH this vast am .iim is regularly collected and disp is d in Bank Noe.s— not a sii\er of coin about ihe business— and our Compiroiler and the Banks are always playing mlo e^ch other's hands, tor niiiiual advaniage." , j ^ o Van Bur.n wrote RovernorR»ynolds, March Cih, 1841, praising ''a mixed curreticy, cotnposed of a well balanced and harmonious co operation of the standard of value and its paper represeniaiive. 'Benlon canvassed for Van Bureo, in 1830, as beiog " a teal hard money man." Jackson says, in his letter lo ftl-«ue of thj suite paper money, called assio-nats, caused fearful havoc ; Britain, during the war. when the Bank Re^triclion Act thouth giving, in the first instance, an unnatural expansion of trade, and a ficliiious prosperitv entailed re, a terrible master— as a river carefully held within emhankinents, it may serve as a convenient medium of transit, but when it rises as a flood, it sweeps everythinc vaUuible away, if exposed to its resistless fur Imndred years ago, that wln^n it lessened the quantity of its notes in circulation it r- ctiried the exchance^ Puuer vwTiey must be convertible into coin at the will of the holder, and there must be some clieck to prevent' the results which unlimilcd competition and the absence of control liad brought on the r„ii,,,,| Smtes, ihrongli excess of issues. When prices rise and speculation is active the country banker issues more notes. At such a time he ough to lessen hi.s issues. Sir Robert thought that a single bank issuing bank notes for the whole kingdom „,u„_ 1 . i '. .1 t" I • .' |..i>^, ■-■■>,.■. 113 i.v>K-B «uiiiu ue u lawiui leiKier, inns secuieu, 5 other places but the b.ink, where they must be always convertible into gold .,f .standard v ilu.' on demand. No new hank to be cr.ated, with the pow.r to issue paper as money, but exi.-ting banks might issue notes equal to the average of their previous circulation, subject to a weekly puhlicaiioii of nil th.ir liabiliii. <: Joint ftock iMiiks to be bound by the acts of their ilir. clors, but iheir shareholders arc to be mnde free from being liable for the nets r,l Individual shareholder.s, as now, under the Kngli.h law of partnership. /\ll banks ol issue to 1?m„V,''1m".i"'"' I'"'^'"^'"'"'' of 'h« """"«■'' "<■ "I" 1'" ir partners, th:.t the public mnv know who are respon- •ibie for all (heir transactions. Lvery new bank must have the sanction of gowrmmnt, in orderio Ksgisira. VAX buren's penal laws not made for great rogues. 141 ed that should the deposltes not be restored to the U. S Bank he would (as he a e wards did ) o-o for a prohibition of bank notes m all the dealings of the iovexine^, the lider will at once perceive that the leaders of the democracy oTZ north betrayed their trust-that, knowing that the pet banks were unsafe ^rrespors ble, they leagued themselves with them ; and that their after conduct n e^eavori,;. to' give the people the infeinor currency and the c^^^^^^^ the superior -^Buffalo Bank rags to the farmer, golden eagles to W rig h , Folk, Van Buren and the rest of the lawmakers; they betrayed the peop e, and showed to all men, that sordid, selfish, and meanly ambitious motives had guided their whole conduct. . , , i« General Jackson condemned the sub-treasury in toto, and removed Duane from his high office for advocating a bank and state divorce. It is considered against theVnius of our free institutions," said Jackson, 'to lock up in the yfults the-tR^asure of the nation ; such a treasure would doubtless oe emplo>^d at some time, as it has been in other countries when opportunity tempted am- bition " " Individual agents would probably be found less responsible sate convenient, and economical " than the banks, quoth Woodbury ; Mvartwout and* Hoyt did all they could to prove him in the right. "If Gen. Jackson had suc^cested such a .system [the Sub-Treasury] ^vhat peals ot painotic mduj- natUm would have burst from eloquent senators against the usurper and Ujront ~~UU a .ienned torm of trust deod, aud a r^uUr audit o^ ^^--^ J-^Z^,^!^;^,:^ ^:^^^ should think fit to circulate more btink notes than G9 " •rln^ '™„^"' :; ^''t ^"« ^ ^y„ ,0, of .^[dy onniaMc to iiue l^nk notes in tl.e Kingdom ^ Nu notes me r=^ed ^^^^^^^^^^^^l^^S^^, i received '-^ ' f^V ^i^;;^^^- u'la v ;y vo . n^ s b'^.t 1 have lost it!' Hor.,ce Binr^.y argu.d ably !ri93^"[n Co e^ tint a S'raS-od n 'eLjis a p!ai" violation of the constitutional pledge, that the ob h- to pay than sin: law here, but is susceptible of great improvement. * DT..HONHST Lawgivers.-Foi- a Collector of Cu.stoms to take a .solemn oath to do his duty faithfallv, his chief dutv bein^ to receive the revenue levied from the people by law and pay Uover for the national uses, for him to take this oath, and then rob the treasury of ^220,000, as Tie Ho t did, is foul perjurv added to a worse crime than theft. The thiet hungers, or is hi lis and he steals. We did" not trust him. We take precautions agatns^t all such But Ho\™ trusted-made not less than S-10,000 to 50,000 a year by his ofhce-had h^^ [^l^tion in wlaces of emolument-and had therefore no temptation to betray his country as he did. Van Bu?en Wright, and their friends either framed the sub-treasurv act so that it would i^nish ro-nes like Ho ft, or thev pretended to do so. I know, by a year of close imprisonment, that if a "tran-er true a:s steel to liberty and democracy, land ou these shores to-day, ignorant of 3-our kws, some old act, that had never been enforced against a native, wi 1 be toimd, to pun.sh him stve 'elv if he goes a hair's breadth beyond the line of strict neutrahty. When the udiig dis- nict attorney and the secretarv of the treasury ordered Hoyt to be cnminally prosecuted fot his eSezSeraent his old friend Judge Betts f.und that the law did not apply to cases like 5Sse'sH™ So, too. Senator Breese; of Illinois, in Congress, Jan. 1844 moved for an mqmiy S Ae law pa4ed by the whig Congre.ss, August 13, 18H, continuing the pumshmg clauses ot iues was charged with embezzling the people's cash. The fellow was f'X-^'^^^^^^'^l'^ -but the quibble that cleared him was, he had been removed from ot^ce. In McNultv s case his m iscoSduct was evident. Would a House of Congress, the majontj' of the member.s ot which were composed of his political friends, havo turned him off so discreditably had not his offence been mo?e" clear and unquestionable'' tban Polk's 54-10' 1 \ et he got clear through Sie dishonesty of the svstem. How did Price, Swartwout, and hundreds like them get c ear 1 Bennei °hall tell vou. ' His eight years of intimacy with Van Buren qualifies him as a wttness. In the N Y Herlld Dec. 10, 1838 (long before Jes,se's explosion), Bcnnet savs : "When wil JeSe Hoyt run awav 1 Defalcations are no crime. Mr. Van Buren, m his Message, propost; to mal- defalcaiions of the public money felony, and punishable in the State Prison Ksense ! Neither party will agree to such an absurdity ! Never." I am sorry to see such things said; still more so when I find that they cannot be disproved. 142 POLK FOR THE PETS MARCY AND WALKER SHAVING. who desired to get the millions of the treasury into the very hands of his par- tisans and parasites." This is from Van Buren's echo, the Washington Globe. Mr. Thomas Ritchie, too, chimed in with the chorus of official indignatioa against the sub-treasury. Listen to Thomas as he talks to ' Old Virginia ' through the columns of the Richmond Enquirer : " We have objected to the Sub-Trea.sury scheme, (so called,) that, in the fii'st place, it will enlarge the Executive power, already too great for a Republic; '3dly, that it contributes to endanger the security of tlie public funds ; and thirdh^, that it is calculated to produce two cur- rencies — a br.ser one for the people, and a better one for tlie government. Tlie more we reflect upon the matter, the more we read the speeches of the orators on both sides, the more fumly we are satisfied of the .strength of these objections." " It is certainly subject to very strong objec- tions, not the least of vvliich is the very great increase of patronage to which it must give rise, and a patronage of the most dangerous influence, as being so immediately connected with the public money." " But I can see no advantage, and on the contrary, a fruiiful source of mischief, m making government oliicers the keepers of the cash. Place about them what guards you may, in tlie shape of com.nissioners. iiispectors, or whatever else, pc^tdation will be endless. TiLcre is no security in it, jind it will involve heavy and unnecessary expense. The chief and overruling objection, however, is th; endless source of paffonage to which it would give rise. Make the machinery as simple as you may, and open to view, wherever money is, u.*mptatioa will creep in, and corncption in e-venj form fuUows at the heels." In 1S34-, James K Polk was the organ of the U . S. Treasury in the House of Rc^presentatives. Listen for a moment to iMr. Ciiancellor Folk:* " A corporation may be safer than any individual agent, however responsible he may be, because it con.sifts of an association of individuals who have thrown together their aggregated wealta, and who are bound in their corporate character to the extent ol' their whole capital stock for deposits. In addition to this the iSecretary of the 'Treasury may require as heavy col- latjral security in addition to their cjipital stock paid in, fronr .such a corporation, as he could from an individual collector or receiver, which makes the government deposit safer in the hands of a bank, than it could be with an individual. It may be well que.'-tiontd whether the he.vie.'^t security the most wealthy individual could give, could make the public deposits safe, at thi point of large collection. In the city of New York, half the revenue is collcacd. Seve- r; 1 millions of public money may be in the hands of a receiver at o ;e lime, and, if he be cor- rupt, or shall engage in speculation or trade, and meet with a reverse of fortime, the loss sustained by the goverimaent would be inevitable." ♦ K>fowi.EDGE IS Power. — To show what chances there are, through otir gambling system of politics, to defraud the millions, I state the f)llowing case from the Courier and ii^nquirerof Dec. 10, 1832, where it rppears, headed " Stockjobl.iing — Stupendous Fraud." It is possible enough that John Van Buren may have made money by his lather's and Jaclcson's Me.ssage.s, as well : s bv Marcy's, but whether Webb and Noah had good grounds for what they aflirm as to Mumfard anl Cambrelen^ I knjw not They .say, that on Nov. 2[). the price o; a share of U. S. Bank stock at the bjnra of brokers was lloi — and that Jarlcson's message lowered It in two days to l04i — iliat 14,500 shares uere sold mi tivu:. bctwei n Wed. Nov. 29, ; nd next Wed- mjrning; equal to S1,G35. 00), leaving a n:Xt profit to the Wall street s:ock|ob; ers, of S80,000 nearly. The C. & E. asserts tlrat Cambreleng and Mumford knew what would be said in the misstig '. — that Miimfjrd had boa.sted tliat Jacl^'son gave him a copy of his ine--sr.ge on Satur- day night at 11 ; aai if so, tw.) dj3's were left clear to tiie g.unblers in tlie .secret, for the mes- sage appear ?d on the We-lne.r of whf)m, with Mc Diifiie though reHdy to cut the connection with the U. S., to set rid nf tiix;,tion ;it the Charleston Cil-itom House and although Mcknowiedijed in the London Times to be Eiigl:in(l's finiie>t f.iend in thi-; repuhlic, iirffed hiinexation because if English influence were to prevail in Texas it would interfere with our tariff! ! ! Eng land sees a proud and angiy spirit in the western stales which the potiticiil rascals In Washington wi-h to use for electioneering purp-oses next election. I am sorry thut her long misgovernment of O'.nadM, the wanton cru- elties her agents practised on so many worthv and true-hearted men, the manly sons of Ireedoin who were sent Jc the aall.iws by her commands, have roused feelings in the west which I coald now desire to see allayed, for the past is bevond recall. , Orrsles A. Brownson. of JilassachuaeUs, to H'. L. Mnckenzie, when m Hnchesttr Pnson. Boston, Ajiril ^2, 1840. Dear Sir : Though personally a stranger to you, I have yet for sonie time been wishin" to' express to you my sympathy with your attachment to the cause of Freedom for the Canadas, and niv sincere regret that your attachment to that cause should have met in this land of professed Freedom, no belter reward than a .tail. I have a fellow feelini: with, I was about to say, all Rebels ; at least with all who struggle against power and seek to secure for the people a portion of their long lost liberty. All goyerniiients which have hitherto exi^ts-d have been founded in oppression and mairiiaincd by fraud and force.— They have been based on injustice, and opposition to them is the cause of God and Man. Our own government, in theory is based on the rights of man, founded on justice ; but it has hitherto been administered in all its departments, quite too nmch in accordance with the maxims of the governments founded on the opposite tlic.iry. lu forming our government we acted from ourselves, and vi-ere original, but in managing it we Ixirrow from the practice of the Old World. We read its literature, study its politics, its jurisprudence, its philosopljy, and lose sight of our own principles. Hence it is, that there is a striking discrepancy Ijelween our theory and our practice, be- tween the encouragements we hold out to the friends of liberty abroad and the actual reception we give them. This Is not all. We have never achieved our independence on England. We are scarcely less dei)€ndent on 144 F. p. BLAIR. VAN BUREn's STANDARD OP STYLE AND DECORUM. wards the Florida Indians, and the people of IMexico and Texas, is elsewhere briefly noticed. It would be impossible for any candid writer to praise it. Is'o man could be more obsequious than Van Buren was to the south while in power, yet they deserted him in 1S40 ; and in }844 when his name came up for a third trial, they condescended to give him §t^ twelve -votes. In truth, they distrusted him ; all parties have done so in turn. No man professed to agree more cordially than he did with Jackson, in 1828, in favor of one term only ; but in that also the result proved that he was insincere. Jackson left office with 30 or 40 millions in the banks of Van Buren's selection — be left the country out of debt. Although the banks suspended cash pay- ments, yet most of them paid in uiTcurrent paper. The revenue was enormous, but Van Buren expended it all* and left a public debt, March 4, 1841, ot ihe British Empire now than we were before the revolution of '76. We dare not assume in regard to the Bri- tish Government the tone of equals. We could menace France and obtain justice, hut we dare not cl-.im ex- cept in an iipolo(:elic tone, even our riihts of Enfiland. The treaty of '83 has never been carried into clTect, and never will be. Great Britiiin his claimed a portion of our territory which she wants for the purpose of con- nectins her North American dilonies, and which if obtained would give her, in case of war with this country, an equivalent for thirty thousand men. And, sir, this territory she will obtain unless 1 am greatly deceived. 'I'he matter will lie settled by a compromise, and we shall surrender to her the important advanuifreshe desires. The reason of this is to be found in our close conunercial relations with Great Britain. 'J'he commercial Inter- est (if this country is controlled by En;;land, and we cap have no controversy with her without arming the whole business part of our community against our own government. This our gnvernment feels, and hence its tame submission to British arrogance. Here, sir, is the secret of your imprisonment. It is not, sir, that we ilo not love Freed(jm. that we do not know how to appreciate its defenders, but that we are afraid of ofTending England We barier national lionor and make (mrselves a bye-word in the Etrtli to please the trading portion of our cotnmunity. I am sorry that it is so, nut I almost jr Calhoun. Jackson and Van Buren put a million of dollars, or more, in his way, ani he is now very wealthy. In Kentucky, Blair was a strong C/(?//man ; but when he thought, like Ken- dall, that Jackson would succeed, he, in 1 825, wheeled round to the winning side. He hi\A be2n a speculator, stockjobber, &c., and his last otiice in Kentucky was that of a state bank president, [the CominH-! wealth Bank,] at Frankfort. A son of his is or was not long since Unitei States District Attorney for Missouri. Theophilus Fisk, in the Old Doininimi of Nov. 11, 1843, exposed Blair's claims to the public printing, thus: " He came I'rom Kentucky reeking with ban^ corruption, his hands unwashed trom the infamous transaction thit cheated General Jackson out of his election in 1821. He came to Washington poor and despised, but thi unboun.lel popularity of Jackson, tne defection of DutT Green, and the necessity of an organ at the seat of Governin:nt, brought this unlicked cab into notice, and gave him import- ance and power, raising up a brutal pan-enu, whose touch was contaminatii/U.'' If printing and banking could be settled permanently, it would be a blessing to America, for more than half the legislation of the UniteA States is devoted e.\:clus!vely to these two subjects. Bribed presses and bribed agents were the means whereby Van Buren compelled the people to har- ness themselves to his car, and support men and measures, they would have nobly spurned had the truth been told. But what really in-lependent press could live in Washington? Whence would it find support 1 The villainy of Blair, Ritchie, Croswell, and these Harris- burgh rascals, would never have become known to me, had they not fallen out. Hill's expose of Blair was complete. The petty thiei' whom the Recorder .sends to Blackwell's Island to break stones or pick oakum is an angel compared to the hired tool of a partv at Washington. No lawyer in the Centre Street Sessions ever lied more for his R'e than Blair has done for his fortune. His old ma.ster, Van Buren, approves it all. No doubt of it. Be it bank, or anti-bank, sub-treasury or treasury notes, war or peace, Texas or Oregjn, tariff" or anti-tarili; land sales for cash, or land sales for credit, good Calhoun or bad Calhoun, good Swartwout or bad Swartwout, anything or nothing — 3-OiU- hireling is ever ready. All he cares lor is his tithe of the current plunder. Hill showed that Blair and Rives got enormous prices; and Blair and Rives, in the Globe, expended columns to prove that their predece.ssors had cheated still more steadily. Hill names one job that will cost $5.j3,000, or S33,4b0 per volume, and affirms that Blair had got over §200,000 since Van Buren left Washington, for printing, at prices higher than was charged in any odier city in the Union ; as also $400 lor every work- ing day of the four years that Van Buren was president, or over jjoO 1,000. I am but an adopted citizen, and therefore liable to be slighted here, for the act of God in fixing my birth place in Scotland. Besides, I am poor, with a large family struijgling tor a humble livelihood, and in the evening of life — but were I young, a native, and possessed of the means of making myself heard, 1 would raise such a dust about the ears of these mock democrats as might end in' improving the whole sj-.stem. Blair may have cleared $150,000 of prolits in one single year of Van Buren's term — I mean 1S,38, in which vear his receipts from the public exceeded ■«:300000. *TiiE 200,000 MiMTiA SniRMK. — In December, 183P, Van Bnren, in his message to Congress, reconinn'iiiled Joel U. roiiiseU's plan for a new militia organization, in these words : "The present contlilmn ot the defences '• of our principal sea-ports and navy yards, as represented by the accompanying report of the secretary (if War, " calls fcr tlie early and serious attention of Congress ; and as connecting itself intimately with this subject, I " cannot recommend too strongly to your consideration 'I'lli; TLAN submitted by that officer for the re-organi- 'zation of the miiitia of the United States." The plan was to divide the United States into eigirt militarv dis- tricts ; in Slime cases three or four states to form a district, and in others, sucli as New York, only one state : to organize the militia so as to have a body of 1-J.5U0 men in each district in active service, and as many nmre in reserve ; altogellier yuO,000 men were to he armed, equipped, drilled, and ready for war ; the presideni might call for and assemble such nuiiLbers as he pleased, twice a year, at such places as he chose within each dis- trict ; and when on service these men were to be " subject to the same rules and articles of wnr as troops of the U. S." This plan was very unpopular. N. V. stale was required to furnish 18,000 active men, and the0,000— publishing contracts, &c. from post-office $10,000. (Benjamin F. Butler, besides his private practice, extracted from the merchants of this city and the executive, fees equal to about STO.OOO in a little over two years!) Croswell is not very popular, and finding he could not keep his office longer, he joined the ■vv'higs and a part of the democrats, last March, in recommending that evcr}^hing printed offi- cially mav be henceforth done by contracts. If these who give out the contr;icts are honest and capnhlc,\\\eve v{\\\he a saving by this ; if not, not. CroswcllisaA«7(^fr in slate politics ; goes for Texas, slavery, Polk, Marcy, and Canada. Oregon, plunder, war; anything to make money. A hard money loco-foco is his detestation. He expressed a deep regret thrit such (i.scrcditable candidates as Slamm, of the Globe, and R. Townsend, had been nominated by Tammany Hall for the Assembly, in Oct. 1837, and turned up his nasal organ at ''the fric- tion,'' as he called some very worthy, honest friends of equal rights in this city. " New.spapers (says Hammond) are to political parties what working tools are to mechan- ics" — and Col. Duane, in I8l0, asked, " Why .should we censure the National Intelligencer for adapting itself to the style and temper of its congressional patrons'? Its exi.stence depends upon its obedience to the temporising and tricking schemes of the influential members of Congress. A paper published at Wa.shington is as much dependent on tlie inlluence of the leading members as the newspapers of London on the court ; and there are as strung inclina- tions to control and render the press sub.servient to views not purely public at the capitol, as at St. Stephen's." Some years ago, a democratic corporation of New York gave a S14,000 advertisement, be- tween the Evening Post and Nevr Era. The same information could have been better spread for $1,000, but it was a fee. So, too, the public administrator's three weeks' notice lately in the Globe daily, at a large expense, and many more such. The Custom-house here has its favorite presses. Unclaimed goods are advertised once in nine months, and sold. The notice of sale, if published thrice in the papers of large*;t cir- culation, might be useful. Hoyt made it politically u.seful. In the fall of 1840, Mumford'.s Standard, Bell's New Era, the Evening Post, and the Journal of Commerce, each adverlfsed these unclaimed packages for ONE MONTH, and received for so doing over $1800. When Hoyt was tried for embezzlement, the Post and Journal disposed of his case, interesting as ii was to merchants, in a very few lines. Is it not clear and evident that a convention, and ajl the manly intelligence and .sterling honesty of the commonwealth are wanted, to secure, if it be possible, permanent peace without overwhelming corruption, as its accompanymeiit '? John "Van Buren is, like Croswell, fond of money, but tie has the art of a seeming frank. 146 JOHN .VAN BT_-i m.vK ec V an^mi ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ S-tSingras v^^Iuc. A fie prcUtction on the tittoi tains more trutli than poetry : _ ^.^^ j^^^,,^^^._^ ,„^. ,,,j.,, What : c,-.n'M tl..m luuse, ..ml sbull it tbm !■ v or "i .„ li uu hire, but cmul ,to ll.r n.;ui Tho.i lire not worthy of ihv l;.t|>or's lolri : u |,., mV, •- to lie. or loiifh thr liowinL' r.iii. Korlml it. tail John, provo .hy>-lf thy >'r. ^. )\ «,<■ ihv liailts ; -n.l i.u.^t 1 .i-l.l, that pla- riK! worl.l I. l.r..e''iirl. «ii my concerns, and yoiirt-'mieavori to promote my interest and happiness. Your several l< tteis were perused with miicli pleasure. I shall e.xpect them to be continued, but at the SHme lime hope you will not im. pose toi) great ;i tax upon your time for the sake of keeping me advised of the various occurrences of the age. You know whit I mean precisely. Men of busim ss have not the leisure to be very constant correspondents, nor can it be expected from them. You have really a fine state of po- litical confusion at Albany. 1 think the situation of the Governor [Clinton] is daily becoming mure d. sperate. I think that I am not unmindful of the advantages of the situation in which I am placed, nor altogether destitute of gratitude for the ble.ssings which Providence has conferred on me. I ac- kn iwledge that the Bo^mty is great and the return small — But such is man — unworthy of any thing, and owing all that he possessc s to the goodness of his Creator ; he despises w hile he enjoys, and loiirets while he receives, fie expects the sun to rise and his wants to be supplied, but ho seldom asks for either, much le.=s frequently thanks HIM froiTi whom proceeds " every good and every perfect gift." And were it not that he causes the sun to shine on the " evil as well as on the good," gives to all " their meat in due season," and cares for those who care not and think not of him, there would be nothing to cheer and sustain a great portion of the human race. I am more and more pleased with my duties. They require industry and attention, but they give me more leisure than I had while in Albany, and furnish me more easily with sufficient to provide for my household. T/ie only difficidiy here is THE WANT OF the stated PREACHING OF THE GOSPf- L. Had we n failhjul and respectable minister, and were the people more anxious for and ut'eniite to religion, I -should have nothing to ask for, but the continuance nf health, to make this place delight- ful. The contrast between Albany and Sandy Hill in this particular is gieat. You do not at all estimate as y(iu ought, the peculiar privileges you enjoy. They are remarkably jrreaf — they are perhaps superior to those of any other place of its size — to the Christian — the Scholar — the Phi- lanthropist, their value is inestimable. But there are deeper and more solemn con-iderations con- hecffd with them. The Gospel is cither a " savor of life unto life," or of "death unto death." And how can those " escape who neglect so great salvation V Remember me to Morton and Birchard. Tell them I s-hould like to hear from them. What a bungling piece of work Mr. Loomis has made of my speech. It has mortified me ex- cessively to see so many stupid blundeis issued to the world rcith my name prefixed. Pray tell my friends that 1 lav no claims to the bantling in its present dress. Yours truly, BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. {To J. Iloyt) — Banking — Elections — Van Baren — Rural Life at Sandy Hill. [No. 3] Sajcdy Hir.L, May 4th. I8lf). De ir friend : T received yours of the Ist to-dny, and seize this moment of writing vou BEC.'^USE I CAN DO IT [N MY PRIVATE CAPACITY, and xoithnut reference to my official character. For the last fortnii/ht I have had various concerns to attend to, which have rendered it impossible for me to say more in my epistles than necessity required — such as Gardening and Banking — Working about the d .or-yard and Paying Specie— Mending Fences, and SIGNING NOTES, &c., &c., interspersid occasionally with Law and Politics. In the meantime I have received several cominunicafions from you for which you are entitled to my thanks, altho' some of thein took me considerable time to decipher. Pray write inore legibly for the future. Were it not that I have long known your " pothooks and trammells," I should be obliged to send some of them to the Delphic Oracle for his learned investigation. The Election Returns are so far unfavorable to the hopes of Mr. Clinton and his friends, and J presume his destiny is fixed. The federalists here put no candidates of their own in nomina. tion ; and with the exception of some intelligent men in the western part of this county, sup- ported the Clintonian ticket and carried the election. I voted for Senators, and offered to vote for members of Assetnbly, but after a long discussion of my and various arguments and opinions from lawyers and electioneerers, the board very gravely decided that I was not yet naturalized — in which I think it probable they were right. The Chancellor has really assumed i great deal in deciding against me. Please obtain a copy of the decretal order — not of his opinion, for I suppose that woidd take you a week to copy— and send by some perscm at your convenience. Upon what ground did he admit yon — as of rieht, or ex gratia ? I am glad that he has done it, and hope you may find it the harbinger of good fortune. What think you of the New Insolvent Law? Do you intend to proceed under it ? Or have you not philosophy enough to live poor all your life, with a millstone on your neck ? Did I understand you that A. H. V. B. was to remove to Albany ? If so, when docs he come, and how will it affect you "^ Hr can do no business of consequence at Hudson, neither is BUTLER ON BAKKIjN'G AKD RUKAL LIFE. 153 he qualified for that of the Attorney General's department. How does the business get along, and what is the state, generally, of yoar ejectaieat suits? Are any of them to be tried ul these Cir- cuits or not '! I sometimes wished after my removal, that I could take a peep for a moment in the Registers, and engage again in the service of the Sovereign People — and so long had I been accustomed to the management of the Attorney GeneraV\}il. Van Bmen]'f! affairs ]iuhlic, privntc, and domestic, that i often thought that no one could attend to them but myself. 3Iij new avocations, however, have now become familiar and pleasant, and I can attend to them without troubling my. self about the bonds, mortgages, or ejectments of the Slate. I want very much to see yo i up here. The warm weather has brought on vegetation, and ren- dered the country quite inviting. Here we have " Flowers in tlie valley, siileiidor in the lieam, Health in the gale, and freshness in the streain." Here are pleasant walks and shady groves — rivers and cataracts — larks, robins, and grasshop- pers — fine blooming damsels and healthy yeomen. Our place is delightfully romantic — you may stroll on the banks of the Hudson — view the mountains where it takes its rise — and listen to the incessant roar of Baker's Fall's. In all the month of June, I shall look for you, and hope my expectations will not be fruitless. There are a dozen or more of my young friends whom I should be happy to see in the course of the summer, and if anything on my part can induce them to (^esert the sultry streets of Albany for a week or two, I shall hope fir the pleasure of their society at Sandy Hill. There is but little Law Business doing here. If I was dependant on that I should have had the horrors long ago. Peihaps, however, it may be as good here as at Albany, or at any other place. I read more than 1 did while with you, and shall continue in the professi'in even if 1 neglect the practice. [Here fallow instructions about Mr. Van Buren and his matters.] I believe I have never told ytiu that Porter discharged Van Rensselare without my knowledge, agency or interference, directly or indirectly, and I knew nothing of it until he told me what he bad done. You can't say this is not long enough. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. To Jesse Hnyi, on Banking, Specie, Law, S^c. [No 4.] Washington and Warren Bank, Sandy Hill, May 8ih, 1819. Dear Sir: I send by Mr Skinner a pnck;ige and letter for Mr. Barker, which send as usual. I hear that he has had a demonstration {us Packenham and Co. would have said,) made upon him this week, which was m inlully rep' lied. My secretary being otherwise engaged, deprives you of the pleasure of receiving thjs interesting epistle in her "own proper handwiiting." Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. Washington and Warren Bank, Sandy Hili, May 15th 1819. Dear Sir: I .'end by Mr. Baird, in current and uncurrent notes, $1100 — J. &, F. Baird's check, $1 100 — which litter please c illect, ad. I to the c ish, and send all to Mr. Jacob B;irker. I wrote yesterday per Mr. B;iker, and forw irded a package. Was it received ? The keg of specie was left by accident at Water- ford, but is expected to-day. I am in no want of it, and shall suffer no inconvenience from the delay. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER." [No. 5.] " I send you by Mr. Biin, $3500, in current notes, to be forwarded to Mr. Barker. I have no time to write him by this conveyance. Please drop a line mentioning that I have re- ceived the keg of specie and placed the amount to the credit of the E. Bank, and also advising him of this remittance." [No. 6.] M^iy 29 — '' I sued S. S. L * * * by bill, sometime since. He persuaded me by variou", repeater), and pressing solicitations, to give him time till 1st of May. He has not paid, and will not. Please draw a cognovit f(,r $63,50, the amount, obtain his signature, and let the judgment be forthwith entered. 1 send narr. and note, and Charles will do the labor under your dirtction. B, p. BUTLER." To Jesse Hoyt, on Banking, and various kinds of Currency. [No. 7.1 WASHiwTo>r ANn Warren Bank, Sandy Hill, June 2 I, 1819— Dear Sir: T seni you by Mr. S. M. Hitchcock two sealed packages containing in the two. Current Notes $5150 —Do. checks on Bank of Albany $495— Uncurrent notes $1750.— $7325. Please collect the checks, make np cnsh in a package, and send all to Mr. Barker. Perhnps it would he b'-st to put the whole into one envelope without disturbing the pfickases that I have arranged. The largest. 1 had on hand a week ago, hut have not been able to send it till mw. One of the checks U no! pay.-ible until the 5ih, but perhaps ygu can get the money in time for the Boat which le'.ve» Albany on that day. Yours very truly, B. F. BUTLER, 154 I HAVE NO MONEY BUT WHAT IS TOO GOOD FOR THEM — JACOB BARKER. [No. 8.] Sandv Hill, June 3d, 1819. — fear Sir: I send you $96,25 to be applied as fol- lows— N R bal. of my ate. $33,28 — E. & E. E. do. $10,06. [Ne.\t he names. " Stafford &. Spencer, bal. of my ate. $40 — L. & L. Vankleeck &. Co. $40" — which two last sums he erases, and remarks — " These I believe I shall not send till nex^- week, as I have no money but ivhat is TOO GOOD FOR THEM."] Draw accounts in full for ever and ever from the begiiming of the world to this day, and 1 will pay no more debts of its contracting, 9,91. The Attorney General for costs received 3d May (capias not served) §43. Please take receipts from all the above creditors of mine. B. F. B. To J. Hoyt, on Law, Charles Butler, Col. Pitcher, Barker, the Niagara Bank, and Van Burcn. [No. 9.] Sandy Hill, June 5th, 1819. Dear Sir : I have yours of the 31st ult., 1st inst., and also one by Mr. Gifford. I shall en- deavor as soon as possible to send you some papers in these Chancery causes. I do regret that I did not know that Mr. V. B. was about attending the June term of the Court of Chancery. I might have had all my business in train for it. I wish you to tell Judge Beekman that the logs are nearly all sawed, and will be probably carried off by Hitchcock next week. If he wishes any thing done now it must be directed by the Tuesday mail, or there will be no hold on the property. Is it your opinion that the writ de proprietate probanda cannot issue until the alias plaint, or that it may issue upon the first writ in replevin, or the first plaint ? I suppose, as I wrote you before, by my Books, that it issues forthwith on the plaint before the plaint is returna- ble, but not until the alias writ of Replevin? Please look at Fitzherbert's Nat. Brev., Dalton'a Sheriff, &c., 1 am sure your library will tell. I shall send a witness and only one, for I can find no more, in the cause, viz: John Sheldon, next week, if they can examine liim in Mr. Van Buren's absence, * * * * I have not been in court but little, either Common Pleas, or Circuit — having had a great deal to do in the Bank, and in my Law Business. I want a clerk very much, and as soon as Charles's company will be convenient shall send for him. If he gets over his foolish, hair brained projects, I shall keep him with me, for I think he ought to be under the eye of some person who can manage him. He has some talents, but is rather overcharged with false pride, squeamish sensibility and ill guided ambition. I have been obliged to tell him very plainly what I thought of his style of writing and modes of thought — the first, like the latter, is frothy and bombastic — indeed, precisely like a boy of 18 of some genius, but that untutored and misdirected. I hope you got my package by Hitchcock. I have now $3000 in current notes, received since Wednesday, which I would send by Colonel Pitcher, 7cho conveys this, but he starts from here on foot, qnd goes on a raftirom Fort Miller, and though an honest man might be robbed or knocked overboard. I shall keep it till ne.xt week Send the enclosed letter to Jacob Barker by first mail — to my father put in the P. 0., Monday evening. I forgot it to-day. That to Goodenow send by a private hand. / am unable to say anything now ABOUT THE NIAGARA BANK— onZ?/ that if Mr. B., [meaning Jacob Barker], could be sure of life, he could make it a profitable concern — but has, in my opinion, irons enough in the fire, already, for one man. But then he's A HOST himself. // he gets the stock, you 7nust stand ready to interpose a claim for the management of the bust, ness — that is — if you would be willing to accept such a place. He would require some one that he could repose confidence in to take charge of it. Though I have no idea that he will get it. " Double, double — toil and trouble," appears to be the order of the day in the commercial and financial world — where it will land us 1 am unable to say. * « * * You say my Chancery business is attended to. How ? Can you tell me whether Mr. or Mr. has seen the Attorney General about the Factory cause, and what was the Attor- ney General's opinion as to their issuing e.\ecution ? I am so much perplexed with anxiety and apprehension about my unfinished business, that I would gladly resign the whole. The Attorney General [Mr. M. Vanburen] is never at home — and when he is, I am so far from him, that I cannot have that direct and constant communication which the interests of our clients demand. One thing I most earnestly desire of you, and that is to forward me all notices, papers, ifcc, that may be served on Mr. V. B. [Van Buren] as my agent. He would never think of it him- self, and my clients might be kicked out of court before I knew it. 1 shall make no more com- plaints about your bad writing, tliough your scrawls are most infamous, after the capers I have cut in this epistle. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. To Jesse Hoyt, on a Banker^s Ways and Means. [No. 10. 1 WASHiMiToN .\.\i) W.\KRE.v Bank, Sandy Hill, Juuc 9th, 1819. Dear Sir : I am almost wholly destitute of Washington and Warren notes, and shall un- doubtedly have occasion for some before I can be furnished with a supply from New York by BUTLER, BAKKEK, IIOYT AND VAN BUREN S OLD BUFFALO BANK. 155 Mr. Barker. If you have authority from him to obtain from the Mechanics and Farmers' Bank the packages from those Bank? which draw on I\Ir. Barker, which I presume is the case, for the purpose of forwarding to New York, you will please send me by first safe conveyaiice One thousand five hundred dollars in the common notes of this Bank, which will answer me for ex- changing until 1 can hear from Mr. B., of all which you will advise him. If, however, you should receii'e from New York a supply of our notes, in sheets, or otherwise, for this Bank,' you will not interfere with the packages at the M. & F. Bank. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. P. S. If I send any papers by Mrs. Coffin and her son, I shall direct them, if they do not see you, to be left at Wiswall's store. They will stop at Troy for the night and may not be at Al- bany but a tew minutes. I hear that a Mr. Clark from this villai,'e starts for Albany lo.day ; if he does I shall send by him, and he would be a good person to send me the W. and W notes by. Upon reflection, I enclose a check on the M. & F. Bank, for $450, drawn by Abraham Marthnar, endorsed by Uriah Marvin and Jeremy Rockwell, and also made payable by me to your order. Please present and collect it, and keep the amount until vou receive a packac^e Irom me, when yon will forward it to Mr. Barker. ' ^ If the check is not paid, please give notice thereof by mail instanter to all the parties. Mart- Img I do not know — neither can I learn his residence, Marvin you ktiow — Rockwell lives at Hadley, Saratoga County, I intended to have sent the check to-day by a private hand, but to guard against accident, think it safest to forward by mail, being the first post after its receipt. B. F. B. To Jesse Hoyt, at Albany, on his fitness to be Cashier of the Buffalo Bank. [No. 11.] [per Mr. Thurman, from Sandy Hir.L,] June 11, 1819 Aof D mJ received a letter from Mr, Barker, m'-ntioniug the subject of the N[AG. AKA BANK, and requesting my opinion of a certain friend of mine, for CASHIER provi- ded he should conclude to purchase the stock— <« which I have replied as follows •— ' " I am happy to hear, by your letter, that in the event of your engaging in the Niaa-ara Rank you have thought of MY FRIEND l(OYT,fo,- Cashier, I kno,v of no person within the cl^i:- oj my acquaintance whom I could recommend with equal confidence for that situntinv HJ^ INTEGRITY ZEAL AND INDUSTRY, would, I am confident, insure hhn j'^m a'p'obadof and esteem. There can be no doubt of his being amply qualified for the task. His acquain" tance with business is general, and extensive, and for perseverance and activity I know of no one who surpasses him. His experience in Mercantile business, would alone have qualified him for the place, but in additition to that he hns the advantage of some considerable acquaintance with the business of banking, from his employment last year in the Mechanics and Farmers' Bank 1 have known him lor several years ; intimately, for about three. After the unfortunate ter mination of his Mercantile concerns, instead of spending his time in idleness, or gimri'r wav t'„ despair or dissipation, which is commonly the case in SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES he^resolved lorthwith to enter into employment of some kind or other ; and, as nothing offered by which he could do better, he commenced the study of the law. All his friends, (and I amon<^sf the rest > thought this a very Jorlorn hope, for such had been his previous active life, and so long was his term ofstuay, that I considered it absolutely impossible for him to confine himself to so irksomP an employment as a clerkship in a law oflice, without any prospect of a speedy admission either o the practice or the profits of the profession. He was for nearly three years in mv office and tor fidelity and attention, perseverance and application, the very best clerk I ever met with T consider him perjectly competent to examine {a) into the affairs of the Bank of Buffalo and ^Ivp you an accurate and judicious account of every thing that relates to it. It is needless for me fo say that I ieel a deep interest in his prosperity, and that nothing would give me - s If w th the hope that she will come up to Sandy IltH, and see h- country lo^k.h^e^ ^^e have a plenty ot^o.k and soon shall have ^^^^^^^^ ^ZJS^ th^-iequeS' ru^ anxiety to have the Albany Banker s wile up at Sandy Hill is e.xpiameu uy h by Olcott on Butler, and their angry correspondence.— W. U. IM.J To Hoyt, shewing his plan of meeting a run for Specie. rxT_ 141 Washington and Warren Bank, Sandy Hill, Junt 21. 1810 Dp ,r Sir- Mv letter of ve^^terday informed you that I was engaged in a rnnmng H^X with a scua 1 on rom Commodore'wiswnll's fleet. I send you by Mr. B. Win,, ^900 m Troy. Lan- BiSr. and Albanv bills, which I wish you if possihle to convert .nto specie 1 do nor know that I shall need it, but it" will be sufficient with wh ,t I have, to teaze the enemy for the whole week. f he hould m .intain his ground for so long a time. Mr. Wing wUl wan for .he spece. Ichould suppose .lu,t so small a sum could easily be procured, pspecially if yu divide the amount ay $/oO for Mechanics and Farmers' Bank and 82U0 for ,he o.her« I do no, wish , n.r.bat^l tm in want of it to meet a demand on the Bank. 7 wish you to say 1 Po^ N»«. V.,rk 1 Dear Sir »" * * * 1 have re.ieemed in the whole $iS\), [ToJacobBarker Eq NewY^^^^^^^^ i„ ,^,„ ehnnge. 1";^ '^%7 ^ndCTrancs anfw in gold. With this force I ran wi.h certainty sus,»in Sf :n;n s/^nSfy't^orn^nTand bf iatT no doubt I shall have a further supply o. "'Tinir y^;'n"°opy o^ Mr.^Olcmi', letter. Thia is a new proof of the wavcrin, policy o^ .hnt B m' andol he iSe r< linncc to be plnced on Mr Olcotfs professions or e.igng.ments for he •flii a «f i^ «wa acwrU ;o m im .priag. iha; 1 might at any time draw «o yuu at af.u> rf«i. BUTLER REBUKES THE AVARICIOUS BILL-liOLDERS— ' WE PAY IN SPECIE.' 157 ifht if I chose so to do ***** I have this morning had two small sums of our notes presented, the one for 875-the other for !S91-both from Albany ; and both enclosed to Mr Raird with a request that he would present them immediately, and that the credit of the hanic was completely down, which lous (he cause of their sending them up. I shall pay these, because the money will go down by the mail to-day and may quiet the apprehe-«^;;^ b..cM;e ? " ;^^J J^^ '' ,^ ' J^^- for any one friend or foe-. I have told Mr. Gilchrist that I w^s READ\ TO I A'* bi l^Ldt., tor any one, mniu u, .u ^,tiv|p^ nTlPTNG RVNKING HOURS ; and that [ wouldpaii and would pay specie at AhU 1 IMtiib UUniiMU L..i.iMviiMj iiwiji>- , , ,^-, ,,;//■ nothing else. W'hethcr he will remain or not I do not \,no^. If he does, he '««•'« 7'' ''f/ 1 through with Wiswall. I send ^250, in ciureut bills by ^^ «';^'^-^, ;;, ^^^^^^^^ ^^ "i " the specie for the 81150 is not already on the was- ^^^^'^l^Pf^ff^^lT'^T. \^^^ \LL PERSONS THAT THE BANK HAS NOT STOPPED. AND \\ILL NOl blOf PAYMENT AND THAT WE PAY IN SPECIE. I presume the rumour oi the ailureof our Bank in Albany must have arisen from the reports of Wiswall. Let no one know the * His letter wa. written on Tue.Uy evenin,~four davs of the -'^^^J^ ^^^^^^'^^^^l^^X^ cldFa^ Gilchrist s.,,ecie. nn.i ' n.thin? eke '-tho' he hud '-^"^^ V '>".^„';': 1'?,^; .""l'^' „f tH Ic -n t ""d other, that ho w«. ofsmnll chnnjetocrryhiin safely through the week. .^^'^'••°"^-^«:^'\?;~"l^ '., ^e'c m^ I hrheve. He tell., nhle to pav mid would d.) so, w.is untrue. Mr Gilchrist is -..ow n Psew \ .)ri., •'i""'=" '".'■; ,,g i^ft Snr.dy th't o f r' wan Mv Itntler froni pnyins that he threatened to put ^^^XVlTti- tutiun, whohc iiiites he >iiiii'd ami |)^ollli^Cll to )iay. If it was di.shonoralile to decrive hi.« friend Iloyd on 'I'lmrsday, us iibr>ve, wus it honorable or honest to a'-snre liaird on ."Saturday "that the Hank can ami will continue its re ileinptionii." Was it honest to dei-civu the Youn-: I'ntroon on Tnesclny, or lo get Mr. Iloyt to place in the .\lbnny Daily .\dvertiser the tissue ofartful untruths dati'd iil Sandy Hill on thnt day, anil which Mr. Butler niiplands Uoy't fir pnbliihin?, as bring " well tniiiil V I cannot conceive the idea of more direct, clear, systematic and well un- derstuuii friiud Ihiin i» exhibited unblushiujjly by Messrs Uutler and lloyt's transactions recorded on tlieso page*. BUTLER, VAN BCREN-LIKE, GULLS THE PEOPLE THROUGH THE PRESS. i59 exoect the ■specie on Thureduy, yuu may perhaps ask Caleb Baker to stay for it. If not tell him SeLlvZnJri. A LOAD until next week. HE AND EVERY BODY ELSE Hunks I have TONS OF IT on the way. Hoyt and Butler's pious but well-timed falsehood. Mr. Hoyt got his friend Butler's letters published as puffs at Albany. " Your extract was well timed," says Butler, (July 3d.) Here is the extract. From the Albany Daily Admrtiser. [Washington and Warren Bank.]-Wednesday, 30th June 1819. Me^rs. Websters & Skin- ners • The following is an extract from a letter dated 0= Sandy Hill, .Tunc 29, 1819 If you tlmik its publication will b°e of any service to community, you will please to give it a place m your iiaper. rj^jj 05 1 Sakdy Hill, June, 29, 1819. The run~upon tlie bank still continues, but the alarm in this part of the country is wholly sub- sided The appearance nf Blr. Barker in good health and .spirits among vs, satispd the people that the Wnshln^lon and Warren BanJi loould sustain no loss by his temporary suspension. All are delighted with the accommodating disposition of Mr. Butler the Frcsident. When there were more calls than he could satisfy with his own hands, he called m his neighbors to assist hira in payino- And when there were more than all could attend to, he requested these persons that came wuth the bills, to lay them down and take as many dollars in specie as they lett m bills, and retire to crive room for others. Many came and saw the counter loaded down with gold and silver and went away satisfied that all was well, and that Sandy Hi7Z was not without its ■ grama of -old ' You may tell your Albany banks that they had better be a little more sparing of their denmiciations, for their own vaults may have to atone for the sins ot their keepers. Sell all the goods you can for these notes. But you had better not send up until the alarm has proved ground- les- as you may be trod on in the crowd. When you do send, however, you will always have the preference over brokers in being waited upon, for we do not much admire those leeches upon the ' body politic ' in this part of the country." [No, 25, a ] Steam Boat Richmond, June 28, 1819.— Sir : I left Sandy Hill yesterday. The Bank has not stopped payment— /< will not stop payment ; which please promulgate to prevent the brokers from speculating on the fears of the holders of the bank of Waehmgton and Warren. I shall commence discounting again (at the Exchange Bank,) within 60 days trotri the 23d oi j^jjjg JACOB BARKER. [No. 26.] 30, June, 1819.— Dear Hoyt : If the original arrives in time for the mail, this need not go.' ^"1 shall want the specie for Schuyler's note if paid. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. President Butler deceives the People, and denounces Chartered Monopolies. [No. 27.] [Per Mr. L. Clark.] Sandy Hill, July 1, 1819. To Jesse'lloyt.— Dear Sir : The enclosed you will send by the first boat, after reading it, &c. I send you 25 Times. You see how boldly we come out. I have deliberated long before I ventured it— but, as it's a part of my " budget of ways and means," have at length concluded to run the hazard.* If the specie for Schuyler's note could be obtained, you could send it by the bearer. Send the papers on Saturday. Tell me what you think of my bulletin Yours truly, B. r. BL ILER. ♦President Butler's Manifesto, referreil to in the above letter, as a part of his "budget of ways and means," and issued after Mr. Barker's visit, was as fullows : \ From the Handij Hill Times, .Tuly% 18)0.] ,,„^..- The followine communication on the subject of the Bank at this place, may be rehed uj.on as coming I ROM AN OFFICLAL .SOURCE. I For the Times.] Washington and Warrkn BANK.-The excitement in relation to the paper ot the Wash- ington and Warren Bank, beginnin- to subside, perhaps it may not be ill timed to request the attention of the publu: to°a few prominent points, connected with the operations and character ot that institution. The sudden and unex- pected suspension of payment at the Excliange Bank, together with other causes |>roduced, very natiirally, stroiig suspicions ..f the solvency of the Washington and Warren Bank, which were greatly increased by the malicious prophecies and slanderous reports of persons who regarded its success with jealousy and hatred. The consequence was, the rapid and vexatious return of its notes, accompanied with demands tor sjiecie, or tor such bank paper as is equivalent thereto. Mr. Barker, foreseeing this result, and fearing that the bank might not he aole to withstand the first shock, although confident of ultimate success, very fairly assured the pubhc, in his address to them, hat the Washin>'ton and Warren notes would all he paid within sixttf days, without promising that the bank would not be compelled to suspend, for a short period, the payment of its notes. It was found, however, that a course so un- pleasant and distressing was unnecessary, and that the hank, by rcsortaifr to its legal ri^nUs, so Jar as U respects brokers and other hanks, would be able to ride out the gale, and thnt too without (iressing i";^e that owe the oank It has continued and mil continue its redemptions, and is abundantly able to pay all its debts, to the. utter- most farthinc" The debts due to the bank, amount to more than double their notes in circulation, and those debts are perfectly scciirc-'M^rs is perhaps scarcely one that will not ultimately be collected. How then can any one be a loser by the brink ! ., , , . . ■ . •• 1 It is true that the Bank has not extended to speculators and bank aj^cnt-j. that prompt a'commodation which, under nourishing circumstances, would probably have been afforded • an.! it i.s al.v, true ih-it .t lias bon e.igiged, and 160 SUTLER SADGERS BaOKERS, BULLIES THE BANKS, AND OBEYS BARKER. To Hoyt, on his preparaliona to badger the Board of Brokers. [X„. 28.] Sandy EIill, July 3J, 1819—11 A. M. DtAK Hoyt: All goes on well. Caleb arrived lust night, with the reiiiforcenitnt. Your "extract" tens well timed. I wi?h you wuuld keep the Albany merchants back. It's rather bad iiiendship to get our bills together, and post them up here, say 30 days sooner than they would otherwise covne. At the worst they would go into Brokers' hands, WHICH IS THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD FOR ME. I have received a very begging, coaxing letter fiom Mr. Olcott, but as IVistcnirs money is not half paid, I don't trouble myself about it. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. Tu Hoyt, at Albany. — Ought not the Public to wait awhile ? [No. 29.J [Sent per Mr. Hand.] Sandy Hill, July 7, 1819. Private and .Secret. — Dear Hoyt: I have paid since the Run commenced 8^000 and over. You know how much I had then. I HAVE A GREAT DEAL MORE NOW, and am in every respect better off. The reinforcement from Jacob Barker puts me out [of] danger. Have paid vpry liberally SINCE IT ARRIVED, BUT SHALL NOW HOLD UP. The public hMve been p.id over Si600U-the Brokers ,$3000. OUGHT NOT THE PUBLIC TO WAIT AWHILE? IVe have CROWED full enough for the present, therefore had better write no more for the papers. I shall add a note to " Equal Rights," which will gall the Mechanics' and Fi^rmcrs' Bank to the quick.* Finished last Saturday night by trying the replevin, at Glen's Falls— got home 1 o'clock, Sunday morning. Jury equally divided, 6 and 6 — Sheriff in our favor. Skinner and me both enmmcdup; suited zHyss// and everybody else. Noticed anew for Tuesday, 13— c'ear case ; f-hall certainly succeed— want the lease from Van Rensselaer ti> Caldwell, as they gave parol evident-e of it. Send it up in time. Paid Saturday, the 3d, 901 ; on Monday, 379 though the Bank was shut ; on Tuesday, 817. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. To Hoyt, on Law, Chancery, and suffering the People " to fret a little.''' [Ko. 30.] Sandy Hill, July 10th, 1819. Dear Sir : My present business is chancery. The enclosed bill I drew in great haste last night and this mornins-. I want it presented on Monday, and the motion made and urged on the {ground of the great injury to the Bank if those notes should be put in circulation. Whether Barker's assignment to this Bank is good or not, wc are entitled to the injunction. Whether the bills are his or ours, the Farmers' Bank have no right to use them; and if they do, we suffer ns> well as J. B. [Jacob Barker.] I want the bill copied, and a copy sent to Mr. Barker for Mr. Welli exnmin ition. If you get the injunction, show it first to the State Bank, and tell they follow next— then serve it on Farmers' BanK— then show to Lansingbnrgh, and tell thern they shall have the same, and had better keep the hills. That is, if you think it best to inform the others before I have made out bill? against thern. The M business I have neglected, and never can attend to it. Serve the petition — give the notice— fill up the proper dny— make the motion. You and the Attorney General [Mr. Van Buren,] draw the interrogatories and examine the witnesses. / cannot, and must rely " The Bank i3 safe, and I mean to keep it so. I WILL RATHER SUFFER THE PUB- LIC TO FRET A LITTLE, than hazard the safety of THE INSTITUTIO.N by paying out TOO FAST. 1 have paid this week $2500— $G00 of which was Walker. Yours truly. B. F. BUTLER. res- is ■now tn^aired in the pmjmmt of smnll spfcie. J::^ to persons of that description ; but it must nlwsys be re- inemhered. that tlit Farmcr.i. Mechanics. Travellers, and Tradesmen, who hare presented tts hills, have been paid in th' vwnl prompt and libn-nl manner. U miiiit ulso tje borne in mind, tliiil llie pressure nf the limes wmilil ol itself lie n fcntiic cn( excuse Inr tnariv tliin-rs. which, ot n more propitious moment, w mid be deemed inconsistent with the rules of niir und honorable business ; and above all. tlmt the course pursued in ibis p .rtu-iilnr '"''""Jlf; i^ iidoi ted for the express purpose, not of injurinif, but of indeninifyinfr the publ c. TME BANK IS ARM'-TJ I'.AY. mid intends tvt, Filzprcene H. lle.k. nnd tt. V- Butler Leinir still connected with it < n ihoSPlh ol DocemUr IK'', Mr. C, R. H rlier, rushier, *Mle from the Hank to Mr. IJutlcr. as f.. Hows :— Hear t-ir— Th» w.ll hehnnriel vm l.y.l. P a drill who eoes to Albonv fur the purpi.se of pr..curin2 some t|ic;cie. I want 1.3100. and ,(.nd vou that n.nount in ln!l<.. Vr [.lucobj nnrkersavs he has written Mr. (■|<-olt nntbe subject. I jhoiild 'M t trouble j/oj/, hot want the bus ness done currcrtlv. nnd feui to trust it iibme with >,r. ..-blrriil. 1 send n dr^n r r l!^'300:i; w"hi'-h. if Mr. O. preferi, T .u will pleitta hand him— hut I should prefer h s taVing the notes. If you haT« to pive him the draft yau will pldn>e depeiil* the notes in the M. and f . Bant, to ">" "edit, wl.icli wiU iuak* a !seci« depoiit «f thot amount m Albuay. ^- K- UAUKSfi, Cas/utr BUTLER S PIETY, PASSION AND PEnPLEXITV—KENT AND CLINTON. 161 P. S. — If Schuyler's note was payable here, I would take Washington and Warren gladly, but by his own act he has made it p lyable in Albany. Now let him pay what they will take, ex- cept I will take it in j Plattsburg and i current — ^ Burlington, J current. If he has our notes let him present them. It" not pnid, write Baird that it must be done forthwith, or he will be SUED — Baird will make him pay it. Chancellor Kent scolded — Clinton declared to be raving mad — " Fair and Proper calls" [No. 31.] Sandy Hill, July 14, 1819. To J. Hoyt. — Dear Sir : Send the enclosed by the boat to-morrow — all goes well. The Chancellor's decision, in my opinion is disgraceful, partial, unjustifiable — (inter nos.) I pay from $700 to $1000 daily— chiefly in specie— satisfying all FAIR AND PROPER calls. I yesterday tried the Replevin over again, and after a prodigious hard conflict obtained the inquisition. This secures the estate. The lease did not arrive in time for the trial, as I had it at Lake George. Got through summing up at 11 o'clock — Jury out till after 1, A. M. — tough business I can assure you. After Bank hours, rode through sun and dust to Lake George — 12 miles — tried the cause — up till 2, A. M. — up again at ^ past 4 — home before bank hours. CLINTON IS RAVING MAD, BESIDE BEING A FOOL, But I have no time for more. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. Capt, Coffin's letter contains cash. Let me know whether the Comptroller found the account of public monies received by the Attorney General [M. V. Buren] during my agency, correct. I furnished it last mail. (Sent by Mr. Bacon.) "From Grave to Gay— from Lively to Severe." — " Orator Puff had two tones to his roice." [No. 32.] Jesse Hoyt, Esq., care of Jacob Barker, Esq., New York.* Sandy Hill, July 21, 1819. My Dear Sir: I condole with yuu most sincerely, I commend you to Him v\ho is able to bind up the broken heart — who alone can give you consolatii)n in your distress — whose will is righteous, and whose mercy is unbounded. I HAVE NO TIME FOR MORE. Yours most truly, B. F. BUTLER. Postscript. I have of this date written to Jacob Barker, Esq., stating my situation and pres- ■ing him to furnish me one thousand dollars at least in specie, to reach me by the SOih inst. If my letters are not received, please inform him of this postscript, and add that it is absolutely necessary. To Hoyt, on paying in a slow way ! [No. 33.] Saratoga Springs, Ang. 24th, 1819. Dear Sir: » » » « # Your brother [Lorenzo Hoyt,] has charge of the Bink during my absence — Mr. BMrker left us this morning for the south. * * * » « The Bank will go on,paying daily, IN A SLOW WAY, until Mr. B. [Birker] i.'; able to give me some liberal assistance — and in the meantime I shall take it slow and easy for the future, without laboring as I have done for the two months past, which have been in every respect the most la- borious and perplexing of my life. I felicitate myself, however, with the reflection, that I have reliev"d MANY HUNDREDS of persons who v.'ould have been almost ruined if we had siopt as Mr. Barker advised me — that I have kept vp PARTIALLY the credit of ike paper [EF in the vicinity of the Bank, which in the event of stopping would have been at 50 or 60 par cent discount — and, that in all that I have done, I have been actuated by a sincere desire to promote the interests of my employer, and the welfare and preservation of the community. * * * * In haste, your friend, B. F. BUTLER. Preserve the Bank .'—Butler's character lowered — Hoyt exhorted to repentance — Sabbath Keeping — Wisdom's Ways. [Xo. 34.] [To Jesse Hoyt, Esq.] Sandy Hill, Nov. 16, 1819. My Dear Sir: Yours of the 11th is just received — I enclose a power of attorney which I pre- sume will answer. Your letter of the 5th was received last week ; but being called away for the two next days, and considerably engaged since my return, I had not found it convenient to acknowledge its receipt. I shall not pretend to deny your right to complain of my silence, but at the same time, I must retort the charge ; and I presume you will admit thnt there is full as much ground tor it in one case as in the other. I have no doubt of the multiplicity of your con. cerns, nor of your industry and perseverance ; and I hope most sincerely they will be rewarded by that success to which they are justly entitled ; but I believe you cannot have had so perplexing and arduous a tour of duty as mine has been for the last six months. Indeed, I am certain that no poor wight ever labored more sincerely for the public good, or received more of public censure ♦When it became evident that Mr.Bnrker would neither purchase the "goodwill " of the broken Bonlj of Niagara, at BiifTalo, nor sustain the Washington and Warren Bank, Mr. Hoyt removed from Albany to New York to pran- iiM law, biiviDg tii&ea out UcsnceS) &s an attoro«y-at-Iaw, and as a soUcitor-in-dtancery. 162 ins GAME OF PILLAGE GAINED, BUTLEU PREACHES TO B^OtHER 3ESSE. and abuse. For the last seven or eight weeks, however, we have had comparatively quiet times, and I have had some leisure for law reading and law labor. , . , , , . . i \ You are ri^ht in supposing that the late catastrophe (for I consider it the end oi that drama) in the Exchange Bank, is a common misfortune. To me especially it is a great one. I had cheerfully suffered the deprecmtion of OUR PAPER, that Mr. B. [Barker] might in the mean- time bend all his efforts to the Exchange Bank, and in the resumption of paymen there hoped for the most auspicious results. The matter is past mending, and no doubt it is all tor the best. We continue paying daily ui a small way. more to relieve the sufferings of communiiy than tor any other purpose. The credit of the paper is very low in this country-hardly any one takes it at par— and were it not for the small payments of which I spoke, no one of my neighbors would have any confidence in the ultimate solvency of the ^"^.'""'i^'l- |^"7,(^,7' '"'^'"^ %vhat has been done and what is now doing, that the intention is TO PREbERVL THE BAMi. are rather disposed to think favorably of the concern ; but their numbers are not great, tortu- natelv, however, by our redemptions and collections, we have got in nearly all the paper in cir- culation in this part of the State, and there is now buthttle more than half as nuich out as there was when the troubles commenced. The most interesting and gratifying part of your letter, was that in which you gave us reason to look for you here in December. We shall rely with cer- tainty on your coming up ; and if a cordial reception can make your visit a pleasant one, you will most assuredly find it so. Indeed, I can say most truly, there is no one ot my quovda7n friends that I am more anxious to see than yourself. By the bye, my character is so depreciated at Albany (according to report) that but few of my old acquaintances would acknowledge or le- ceive me. Some of them, I hear, have the kindness and condescension to compassionate and pity me, while others consider me full as bad as Jacob Barker, «hich in these days is considered a pretty severe specuiien of invective and reproach. So be it. They cannot rob me of free nature's grace, They cannot shut the windows of the sky, They cannot bar my constant feet to trace The woods and lawns, by living stream at eve ; Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave. I am sorry to observe that you are obliged to turn casuist in order to reconcile your Sunday labors to your own sense of duty. You may remember what Sir Mathew Hale said on that subject " That he tried both plans, and from experience could say, that no man ever gamed any- thinc' in the end, or furthered his busine.'^s, by attending to it on the Sabbath." I know that you have had many and severe misfortunes to contend with ; but I think there 13 a better method of consolation to be found than the one you have adopted. No doubt the poig- nancy of distress is often lessened and destroyed by the hurry of business and the active employ, ment of the mind, and therefore those remedies should frequently be adopted— but no true con- solation can ever be derived from anything that requires the neglect of a religious duty. 1 he ways of wisdom, and of wisdom only, " are ways of pleasantness"— her paths, and hers only, " are paths of peace." Mrs. Butler .joins in affectionate remembrance. „ ,. n ' Truly yours, B.r.b. Pious exhortations to Jesse Hoyt— Trouble at the Bank— The Attorney 7nakes his debut. [No 3.5 1 SANnv Hill, Dec. 17, 1819. My Dear Sir: * * [a private paragraph omit- led 1 * ' *' lam sensible you have had manv difficulties to contend with— many privations to endure-many afflictions to submit to-but that all has been right and jusl ho^^cver severe and Jamfulit may have seemed, is no less the acknowledgment of REASON than the dictate o REVELATION The former assures us that the BEING who formed and upholds the natural world, so full of order, regularity, aud excellence— who supports his creatures with every good ot Hfe-" who makes all nature beauty to the eye and music to the ear," must be Righteous and Benevolent ; while the latter represents him as vindicating the mysteries of His Providence by saving " What I do now thou knowest not, but thou shah know hcrcajter. ' „, ^ . , We have been much troubled by visitors at the Bank for the 10 days past. The Court of Common Pleas, which sat in the village a part of two weeks, has just adjourned You can hard- Iv conceive how much I was vexed and molested. Every man who owned a dollar ot our paper made a point of bringing it along. I made my debut as an attorney-was employed m two causes which I tried and argued, and had very good success. There is but little Inw business do^ng in this county. Such complaints you never heard from lawyers, of the dul ness of the tunes and the scarcity of money. Most truly yo urs, B. t . BU 1 Lti^ti. Butlers Pious Sympathy— JIallcck initiated in W. Jj W. Banking. rfjQ 36 1 Sandy Hill, Jan. 3, 1820. Dear Hoyt': Wc regret very much that Mr. Hallcck has made his visit, and is returriing with. out you ; * * * • • and our hopes that He " who tempers the wind to the THE JULIUS CESAR OF SANDV HILL MIGHT BE COCK ROBIN ' IN NEW-YORK. 163 w.,h us . week, ana I „„., ,e.l|y ,.y ,h„ „, ,,„, b„„ gre.lly de thted wS, L m. tell you all aoout our Banking concern s.* 'kost trul y yours, R F BUTLER TnoTt f ^'-^"^'^'- ""'"^^ *^ '^'^ -^"^-^ C-- 0/ '^^-'^2/ //f«-/. « Bucktail-Self. Dear Friend : The release for Mr. Youle is enclosed IV. f. ^udso-v Feb. 7th, 1820. lage (the men ft for it being chifly BacltJL T.nd iTt, T i "u ^"»"«/*«'««er a< o„r viU * * * I am mi.rh r.hlioL^ f^ r , '"^ ^ therefore brought it with me. ***** Mr. Van W'stsfilf ;Xht Cfror;"' '''f.rf^'^\ O- ''V^^ l-'^r Isawat that burn" it is almost withouTarivIl ^uVT ^ {■ • .^^^ ^""g^ts that breathe and words have been guilty TcoTiideraWeneilL^'^^ pubhcations. I must confess that I THE ONLY PFRSONT /! A "5^''^*^"'^^.' ^"^^ ^^equent violations of punctuality. You are Not that I dis Ike tf e empCmlt oTh^ve Z£:^^:7^::^^:-Zl ^L''.:.:^^^^^""'^"^^- person. I have taken his office^Eut whe herl s3 fill his ni;."^ ^"^' ™T ^'' '"'''' ^^^er teen urged to hold myself in reservTunUlsltfa3 M ^ 'fTr '° t' ''"""• ^ *«"« friend of ours (M. vfn B^en) ^uU pS TemfinTnf wtrel'^ '" aTo1-£^' ,"''' "V"* frriir^^ttnti ^;si\::p'iiraist -hr ^-^ r-^ Haf /to- 'Xt^^ ^erAap. ."^ ^ay „o< be too pre.mmpt.ourtoa^ireot^^^ ^ '^f^^"'^>' "'"J does not wish to have it known that he remove^to Nef York in fh. i,^^.''^^\Mr. Van Buren have not already heard of it. you will please^oLider wh J T ™ , Spring, therefore, if you Mr. Barker's misfortunes will preven yorfom SSn^ all the ^.' Vn T ""'' ■ I T ^'■^"' '^^' last saw you. Pray inform m'e all abLt ir\Tu'kToit ^i^reStTyl^^^ "'^" ' fKi-:rrsfr;^--s^^^^^ Hep S^tlSnpl^^^^^ Sm/ir i^pr-S Sl^^^^f^^ -^- strp:u;rcaVr:tLf ^^^' ^"' '^^^ ^""-^-^ -^^'^ ----^-^^^^ Education, habit, inclination and principle all conspire to inake me A BUCKTATT T t, anister views to gratify_„o resentments to satiate--«o other oVecthrTttt^n^' ■ T "" 5?aie-therefore my endeavors shall be to confine mTself within the "1 ' f f "^. "^ ^^^ others what I would have them do to me •' ^ ^'^*'" '■"^''' °^ '^oing to .om« »• /or I have advanced for . Were I troubCwirh nnh. poomy, owing to the large amoimt les^aboutit. .Stilllthinklcanhrtil^i^^'/l^rvlliS^^^^^^^^^ ^^ «- ^ ^'^-'^ care JS^- lfS:^r £t^- -S^^ Wn.ble proof of ego- Please present to Mr. Halleckmy best respects, and bSev^Te, deSr;Vou;s sL^rdy"'' ""'^^ ' - B. F. BUTLER. [i\0. OO.J My Dear Friend : I have been here for thr^^ «r s':;™. .„. ,.., .»« » »»-«^ ,n-* Si., ■« .-./..d ».» '-""/ '"'^|"^7M°„2f i have consijered il important that I should have bee,, preparing for tl».ja»n,»t,» j,'J;;Z^,^ril^i;SJ^, ,„ i, , believe he doe. I do , tot re. precisely kn.>vv»l..t are M^ ,h/„,„me, ,n set.line „p hi. alTaira ,n himself. '•'?™7P"''7"„7'|°!,;]"'^''j,, Edmonds, who is now with him, ha. had some :;;;:vStiltl^hTm'o"„^l;L'°!;"."f »"-»« New Y.rk, »„, /*..» «, .,pr..».io.. any o.her P-'^'^^j-^..^ '^^J^J^'^^^;*^,^^^^^ in our county-many of .hem grct ^o./cr.-s.me increases. We ha e a greai nijuy '" > „nnnl«r nrpiiu'lpc asinnst the plofe^slon is ^n^is^:::^^:^';^^:^::^;'::^.:'^::^^. si.^'. ;hin.< ^ ..rospeds .. - ,tHtne;^;;r.';;.U Vo'X"'"--" ^"w -" -"^-e »Vpr 'S' •- Bleeth.n vvil hfa erv Xr?onT The accounts from all p.rts are very favorabe n. the eU-o.j..n of ToLkins I c. pi^e i very certain. T.e ohi Lieutenant Goveruor. a. I und^st.jnd b.gm, "^?;ii=:; f-^:;=dt^:;;n n!::^-: Kt^ v.n ^e. h. ., y. dti nrrw at a del;!d ng^ it will be for the judiciiil character of our State It w 0^ o^r p ide JkI or,rament-but how are th. confidence and respect of ,he puh >c to be ^^^reduh'n its me„.bers are suspected, tnuch less whea they are «-"|,-^^f-LER ' crimes and misdemeanors?" In truth, your very nncere fnend. 13. t. BU 1 LbK. To T Hovt Van Buren and Butler, Coumdlors and Attorneys at Law-Alhany-Providence ^ " ' —Worth's Poema—Vander Heyden. .„ „„, Albany. May 27, 1820. AIv D^ar Sir: I have been here two or three days for the purpose of seeing Mr. Van Buren You may have heard that it was my intention to remove forthwith to Albany : .i not, I take ^is occ i.m to inform you that / have agreed to resume the lara business J>.tk 3Ir. Van Buren and sh dl locate mvself in this place as speedily as possible alter the loth of ne.x month. I Jhink I have elery prospect I could desire. Mr. Van Buren says he w.U not abandon his pro- £L ; and f he remains in it he can get as much business as we can attend to He offers meoneholf of the Chancery, as well as the o'her busn,ess, whchyoa mil recollect is much ZZ' than our former term.; and as our Chancery Suits tcdlbe ihe v^st numerovsand pMle, it appears to me that I cannot but succeed. My adm.sston a« Counsellor w.l also S em; to attend to small motions in term, inquests at circm.s &c. 6.c. which, as my acmtainTarce is very general throughout the state, will be somethmg towards the current exoers sTihe yJr WUh the ntscstance of PROVIDENCE, / am fully resolved never nsZtoabalnor withdraw from my profession, and to pursue --^ a cou.se of s'udy mdus ry and perseverance >,e .hMl make me a lawyer in thne. ,. it is possible to "'"'^^^^ '^^, ""^ ,?! Buch materials as 1 am composed of. It is wi.h great reluctance that I leave S.mdy H.ll , ,ha situ t of that most ch.nn.n. v.lla.e, the kinJne.ss of its in^^'"^'' '^"'^;/;-\„tA:.': J '7/, received every attention, and ABOVE ALL a sincere d.sire to comply with the icshes of our fder^M Biker, nil induced mo t. reu.nin. but I am satisfied that I at.ht not to p:,ss by he presVn oppor.uni.; of e.t.Voli.hmg myself in the profession. I wrote M. Bavker fo-m Sandy m but have not had the pUaeurc of hearing from him. FUatt inform hm that J wwA BUTLER TO QUIT SANDY HILL BANKING AND POLITICS FOH LAW. 165 to resign on the l5tJ, June, and to leave the next day !/ I can. Every clay I procrastinate is an injury. We have so little lime allotted us in this world, and that little is so uncertain, that it becomes important to take it by the "forelock." I have just seen a poem by G. A. Worth, entitled "American Bards," which I have skimmed over with deep rearet. There is not a line of merit in the whole book. It would seem that genius declines a7id degenerates in tiie woods, for Worth, when in New York, was a fine writer— brilliant in prose, and more than tolerable in poetry. Even in the notes there is nothing of that vivacity and elegance which distinguished the Correctors. Our friend Van Der Heyden is looking out for the Clerk's OiSce, for the next Assembly. Do give him all the help you can. Horace Merchant is to be his deputy, so that the objection of Clark, that he is a raw hand, &.c. &c., is wholly obviated. Clark reports him as a federalist. Please contradict that falsehood. Van Der Heyden is a fine fellow and a man oi talents— and deserves encouragement, not only on that account but also for his filial and fraternal affection. I shall get to Albany in time to take the " laboring oar' in the Hart cause, and also in the Platiier suit, in both of which I shall probably be solicitor. And as for politics, I give you notice that I intend to leave you and the other champions to fight it out, having neither time nor inclination to buckle on the armor, though I may possibly always cany a small sword about me. Present my best respects to your sister and brother. Yours affeciionafely, B. F. BUTLER. To J. Hoyt. — Van Buren b; his Clerks— Lorenzo Hoyl— Barker's last cffer. [No. 40.] Alba.\y, June 24, 1820. Dear Friend : I thank you for your kindness in attending to my Bouck cause. The letter en- closing the [wrong or wing] bill and the decree, came to me charged §1 11 postage I mention this for no other reason, than that you may be informed of the carelessness of the person by whom you sent it. The letter to Judge Piatt I will deliver. He is on the tour of the Northern circuit — holds the Washington circuit this week — the Troy circuit next v,-eek, and I shall ver>' probably see him on hi.i return. I have been here three or four days — found every thing in an elegant state of confusion, but have got pretty much arranged for business. Take it all together, we have the pleasantest establishment in the city, if not in the state. We occupy the whole lower door of the Secretary's house. Mr. Van Buren has the front room, with the library. I keep my office in the back room, which is cool and pleasant, besides being better adapted for study tiian the other. We have two students besides Loren/.o. A youns; man, a brother of Caldwell (Gourlay'sson-in-iaw) who has been IS months in our office, and is a sedate, attentive, and, I expect, useful clerk — and a son of the loud talking Pugsl^^y. who is a v.ild iVUow, and whom I keep on condition of good behaviour. So far, he has not {i:»rfeited his engagements. If Lorenzo remains with Mr. Van Buren, I will, with great pleasure, pay particular attention to him. He is digging away at Blackstone, which I shall permit him to continue until I get my books from Sandy Hill ; then I shall set him about reading a coarse of history, and studying the latin grammar. At his asje, a knowledge of general history may be easily acquired. The mem- ory, which is the principal faculty ooncarned in its acquisition, is tlien vigorous and unburdened by the various knowledse and the di.stracting cares of riper yer.rs. He ift a very fine hoy, and I think will do well. He has not the genius nor the energy of his brother, but at the same age is much his superior, i' You may thinlc this no great compliment to yourspli', hut prax remember that you are one of those whoso talents were buried in bales of cotton and hogsheads of rum, until dragged from obscurity by the " strong arm of the law.") Whan Mr. Barker tnas at Sandy Hill, he offered to accede to the t-^rms I proposed wlien at New Yi;rk, or even to double them if vecessani — hut I was not at liberty to recrire the hunejlt of his good wishes. I now consider myself pretty permanently settled ar Albany ; and I think, a£ all events, I shall never leave the law for Banking or any other pursuit. I nov/ feel the same ardor and fondness for my profession that a lover does towards his mistrfiss, af'ter having been sep- arated from her society. (By the bye, they say you can understand the force of this simile, and feel it too, when absent from New York. How is this?) Do let me see yon this summer. And believe me, most sincerely your friend, E. F. BUTLER. To Hoyt. Law — Chancery Practice — Mr. Van Buren and his mortgage — the Albany folkn. 'No. 41.] Alban'Y July 19, 1820. Dear Friend, «f * s ^ « We are boarding at Mr .Tones,' directly opposite our ofiioe, .Gilbert Stewart's hous2,) where v,^e have very pleasant lodgings. Our departure from Sandy Hill was so sudden, that v/e left all our furnitura in the house, and for the present shall continue to beard out. As to businesB, I have enough to keen me very busy — chiefly in Chancery — old and new. It would be well enough were it not so long before the cash was realised. But it must come some day or other. I thin.!; my expectations will not be disappointed. At all events, as I told you before, I am for the Law and nothing else— and I regret now that Mr. Van Buren ever thought sat 166 THE AMIiniCAN ERSKIM', MOHEST LAWVEU, AND MILD JUDGE — ALBANV. of leaving his profession, whioli you know was what put it into my head to leave him I think I shall make my ilfbut at Au'fust term in tho ar^'umcnt of some motions and cases. Though as to the bst 1 am rather acjueamish. Mr. V. B. is certainly very desirous to assist me. He has several heavy causes in which he insists on my speaking. Ilik( Albany about as Uttleas you do — and, with the exception of a few persons who are wor- thy of esteem, have very little to .say to the yoodly inhabitants of this renowned metropolis. I tliink the eastern junto the n)ost disagreeable of them. They arc generally bigots in [jolitics, and eery full uf prejudice and envy. Lorenzo is a very line youth. 1 have i^ot him at the Latin Grammar, in which he makes tol- erable progress. I shall pay particular attention to him. I have paid .$L25 for the order to the Register, so that you ov.-e me 25 cents. My compliments to Mr. Barker, &.c. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. [No. 42.] To the same. Albany July 2G, 1820. Dear Friend : 1 am about tiling a bill to foreclose the mortgage held by Mr. Van Bnren against the Kane projjerty, to which Judge Livingston and Messrs. Blackwell and McFarlane must be parties. To avoid costs in case they should disclaim, it is necessary to tender them re- leases. I herewith send you the releases, and if it is not too nmch trouble must call on you to present them to the gentlemen above named, with an explanation of the object for which they were prepared. I do not believe they will execute them, tho' they would save trouble if they should. They will never get anything from the mortgaged premises, nor from any other of Kane's property, and rni^ht as well release it. Notliing new. Yours most cordially, B. F. BUTLER. To Hoyt, on utruggUng at the Bar — Judges like to dine — Van Buren the Erskine of America. 1 No. 43 ] " Albany, August 9, 1820. Dear Sir — Yours of the 5tli went round by the v-,ay of Troy, so that I did not receive it until this day — but, as I had no opportunity to make the motion on Monday, no iiarm results. I took my place in FUeh a position as 1 supposed would ensure me a hearing, but unforlunntely there were some tedious fello\ss ahead of me who took up so nuich tinietliat when my neighbour next above me was reached it was just on the stroke of three ; and yoa know how eager our Judges are for the comforts nt a good dinner. If I had not received yours I should have pro- cured an order to stay proceedings. I hope you will not fail to stay with us at Jones's while at Albany. I shall not be able to accompany you to the Springs — neither time nor funds would permit. The truth is, I am poor, and I mean to economize, and ****** I should like to join on a tour anywhere except to the ^jn'ings,of which I had enough last year. There is a great deal of business this term, but a great part of it is small business such as Certioraris', &,c. Your New York classmen are a troublesome race — perfect snarlers and marplots. Jlr. Van Buren stands higher throughout the State than he ever did — witness the toasts at the various celebrations. But it I were in his place I would trouble myself but little about the carpines of Buch men as you name — they can do nothing without him. What would have become of ihe opposition if it had not been for him .' I will say more — if I was Van Buren. I would let politics alone. He can be and will be the Erskine of the State, which is an ambition more laudable than the desire of political preferment. Hf! yesterday opened a cause in the Supreme Court in the most concise, elegant, and convincing argument I almost ever heard. Believe me. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. To Hoyt. — Late tedious — Judge Spencer uvcourtcous — Butler too forward. [No. 44.1 Thursday, 17th August, 1820. My Dear Friend ; ' * * < -« The Court gets along very slowly with the Calendar. There are 4U0 causes, and they begin this morning at 71. I have done nothing more than oppose a motion, in which I was succes.sful — but to-morrow expect to make some provided lean get a hearing. I attempted it last week, but His Honor, the Chief, [meaning it if) presumed, Ambrose Spencer,] in his mild way, told me to wait until my .si:niors had been heard ; and as I was the youngest Counsellor at the Bar, perhaps tiiis was right ; but it excited a great deal of observation among the bar, and is generally spoken of as not rery liberal nor proper. I really don I know how it is; but I am considered, by sonic persons, ua possessed of a re- markable degree of forwardness, 4{c ifc, merely because I am unwilling to remain forever at the foot of the professional ladder. However, if my life is spared, I shall grow older every day, and therefore, sometime or other will be entitled to a hearing. My causes on the Calendar, which are three, will not be reached this term. • Most truly yours, B, F. BUTLER. Fifty Dollar Fees scarce — Judges Woodu-oi th j{ Spmcer talked about. [No. 45.] To Jesse Hoyt, Esq., Wall St. Albany, Oct. 12, 1820. Dear Sir— I am happy to hear of your success— and bopi it may continue — $50 and THE ORGANIZED CORFS, BUCKTAIL COUNCILS, AND ENVIOUS LAWYERS. 167 fees are not very plenty in this part of the country, at least not with young lawyers. Our circuit 6till continues. Judge Woodworth, in person and in business — " Like a wounded snake, drags his slow length along." He has given very general dissatisfaction this court. * * * * * * * The ciiy has heen full ol farmers, &.C., these two days — at a cattle show — but I have seen nothing of it myself Chief Justice Spencer delivered a speech on the occa- sion, by way, as I suppose, of preparation for the period when he trill be compelled to retire to the shades of private life. '■ * * In haste, yours, truly, B.F.BUTLER. [In another letter, April, 1819, Mr. Butler tells Mr. Iloyt, that " The appointment of Judge Woodworth is universally reprobated here ; without any exceptions, except the Clintonians."] [No. 4G.] To Iloyt, on Noah b; on Caucus Nominatious. Albanv, Nov. 7, 1820. Dear Sir : At the caucus last evening, G8 Republican members of Assembly were present. Two very staunch republicans absent — not yet arrived — so that we shall not lose a single man. Mr. Sharp agreed on for Speaker. Mr. Vanderheyden for Clerk, 45 — to 2.3 for A. [Aaron] Clark. The votes to-day will be unanimous, and every thing will go as it ought to. The Council did not meet yesterday. Mr. Noah will attend to your letter— he lakes great interest in it. I have not been able to see either Mr. B. or Mr. D. In haste, most truly, your.«, B. F. BUTLER. To Jesse Hoyt, Henry if; Campbell defeated — Van Buren 6f Butler mt very busy Clinton's abusine Message. [No. 47.] [per Counsellor Gaines.] Albanv; .January 18, 182L Dear Sir : * * * « * Wc have had a very tedious Session. The Court have been principally occupied with non-enumerated business, and have been able to reach oiilv No. 98, on the Calendar. There was no business of interest except some pretty important mo- tions — among others, a motion to quash all our scir. fa. proceedings in Otsego, which v.as fully argued by Mr. Campbell and Mr. Henry for, and myself against it. This was the first oau.se of any importance I ever argued in the Supreme Court, and this was the most interesting matter before the Court. I made out tolerably well, I believe, and was heard very patiently for near two hours. The motion will not be decided until next term. I v/as sorry to hear from you in so sombre a strain as that which pervaiicd one of your late let- ters. I hope, however, that with the new year your prospects will revive — and I have no doubt that industry and merit like yours will command, as it certainly deserves, success. We [Van Buren & Butler'l are doing hardly any business — what we have is in CHANCERY and THE EXPENSES ARE SO HEAVY AND THE PROCEEDS SO LONG LN COMINg', that my present hopes are confined to a bare subsistence. The only consolation is, that I ani making, as I think, some progress in professional knowledge, of which one day or other I mav reap the benefits. There is every prospect of a stormy session. The Governor [De Witt Clinton,] lias connnuni- cated the documents relative to THE ORGANIZED CORPS, accompanied WITH .V VERY ABUSIVE MESSAGE. This business will injure him greatly throughout the Union. I don't think I shall be an applicant for any thing this winter — certainly not if I can o-et a liv. ing without, which I hope may be the case. Mr. Esleeck is the most prominent candidate lor the office of District A ttorney, and feels confident of success, and will probably be appointed 1 hope to see you soon at Albany, when we shall expect you to stay with us. * * ' * With sincere regard, yours, B. F. BUTLER [2'o /. Hoyt]. The Bucktail Council very unpopular — Albany near a rebellion. [No. 48.] Albany, Feh'y 20, 1821. My Dear Friend — * ■ -^ * * I hope the Council will soon finish all they have to do as the excitement produced by their labors is very great, and the difficulty of pleasin"- evervbodv' very strildngly illustrated. You will have seen by the time this reaches you, that they have given me an office — without any trouble or exertion on my part — or much on the iiart of mv friends. The minor appointments for this city have given great dissarisfaction, and it is as much as we can do to keep the people from open rebellion. Of all this, however, say nothin"— as I hope a few days of reflection will compose the angry elements. To judge from the violent expressions of those who are disappointed, one would think that our prospects tor next Sprin" were rather blank — but you know it is the genius of Democracy always to be impetuous and sometimes to be rash. I have only time to say that you are always one of those for whose health, happiness, and future prosperity I feel the liveliest solicitude, &:c. &c. &.c. B. F. BUTLER. A close Election — the Chances stated — Disaffection to the Buck'.ails. [No. 49.] To Jesse Hoyt. Albany, March 3, 1821. Dear Hoyt : Having been engaged in a long and tedious Court of Sessions, I have been unable to write you sooner. Notwithstanding the dissatisfaction which prevails in many parts 163 'THE ONLY IMPORTANT BUSINESS OF OUR LIVES' HPMBUG. of the state, I think we have a fair chance of success. Dutchess is not yet to be abandbned — Saratoga is cfrtaia — Eisex diito — Cayutra may be hoped for — Generiee and Niagara promise favorably — Ulster and Sullivan may perhaps be lost by the noiiiinat.on of Sudani. There is afidiif prospect of success in the new counties erected from Ontario. The other counties may &t.ind as they did last year, except Montgomery and (Queens. In the former we have strong hopes of electing our whole ticket. As to the latter, you have better means ot information than 1 have. For my own part I set it down as against us. It is not to be denied that disoffcction prevails in some counties, and indifference in others — and as our adversaries will strain every nerve to the utmost, they may secure the state. In the Eastern District we shall elect our Senator, having a must noble ticket, while the Clintonians have a wretched one. Probably Seymour may be elected in the Western, tho' there is not much hope of it. The election will be close, and some of our friends give it up, though without sufficient reason. * * '^ ■ In haste, truly yours, B. F. BUTLER. 7'o Jesse Hwjt, on Law, Ileligion, Belcnssc, the Court of Errors, fr the latter. While these man are iDilling to abide by a CONGRESSIO.\AL NOMINATION, it is useless to advocate the claims of Mr. Crawford to such n nominHtion, it be'u" CKUT.VI.'V that if any is made it must fall on him. Besides, by pressing the claims of that gi-nileman ym incur the risk of alarming the feelings and encountcrinLr ilie opposition of those firm and honest men who have gone with us nobly so far, and arc willing to go with us lo the Old, hut who are yet un^iecountably wedded to Mr. Clay or Mr. AdnmB. And ihousih F do not believe thev could be driven from the resolutions thoy have concurred in, in favor of a Caucuu ttt Washington, they may yet be induced to give a warm euppon to the Electoral Law, SUTLER HOODWINKS THE BUCKTAILS=— SETS UP YOUNG— UPSETS HOSACK. 169 if they become satisfied, either that their candidates have no chance of a Caucus Nomination, or that we are determined to furce the claims of Mr. Crawford. Stick to principles; advocaie the ncCL'Ssity of adhering to the old forms and esioblished doctrine^ of the party — and txprees the utmost readiness to submit individujj preferences to the decision of the Caucus. It will be time enough after the nomination, to defend and maintain the character and claims of the successful candidate. ******/ should think it injudicious to call meetings on this ticklish subject, especially in the country, where the meetings from necessity would be more general than with you, and lohcre our opponents would inevitably oulmanage and out- number us. In your city, hoiDecer, the line, is so distinctly drawn, AND YOUR FORCES ARE SO WELL ORGANIZED, that you have nothing of that sort to apprehend. If the meeting about to take place should not be more formidable than I think it will be, it will not be misunderstood here. Its proceedings will be considered as the voice, not of the republican party, but of the supporters of Mr. Wheaton and his colleagues, who arc now very well understood by the country members — and instead of injuring I think it would render us a service if it should stand alone. # * « * » Still it seems to me that we have nothmg to gain, and much to hazard by giving to this subject any farther excitement of a popular char- acter — but as Mr. Bowne knows perfectly the state of things here, your Committee should con- ler with him fully before they adopt any course definitely. I omitted to make another suggestion for Mr. Noah. It is not very serviceable to talk much of Burrites, Lewisites, or the High minded. Several of the two former classes are here among our best friends ; and as to the latter, Sudani, Bronson, and Wheeler, are as true as steel, in the Senate — and Whiting, Hosmer and several others in the Assembly arc among our best and most hopeful supporters in that House. I have .not wVitten to Mr. Barker about his proposition as to voters for Electors. It has been mentioned to several, but we doubt the power of the Legislature to pass it, and if they have it, we are still more apprehensive of its policy, for reasons which on reflection I think will occur to you. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. I opened this letter to show to Judge S. [Skinner.] Young nominated — the Governor's folly in going for the people — the Argus ajloat — Barker's Conspiracy Trial. [^0. 52.] To Jesse Hoyi. Albany, April 13, 1824. Dear Hoyt — Political affairs stand well. The nomination of Young has defeated the plans of the opposition; and though I did what I could TO PREVENT ITS NECESSITY, / am yet persuaded, that, under all circumstances, it is the best thing that could be done. You will see the two arldresses. To ours we have more than two-thirds of both Houses — and though it does not speak directly of the presidential question, I tnink its tendency, &c., can hardly be misunderstood. If matters go as we expect, there will be a large majority for Mr. Crawford at the next session. Indeed it is very certain that he has received a majority of both branches. Rely upon it every thing will go well. Yours truly, B. F. BUTLER. [No, 53.] To Jesse Hoyt. Albany, June 5, 1824. My Dear Sir— You have by this time heard the consummation of the Governor's folly by the issuing of his proclamation You will see that the Jrgits business has been at last ac- complished. I was obliged to become responsible for the moderation of the New York paper, and to execute a Bond of Indemnity, &,c. I have written to Hamilton for it. Do see that it is sent soon. Yours ever, B. F. B. [No. .54.] To Lorenzo Hoyt, Esq., Albany. New York, Oct. 1, 1826. Degv Sir — Mr. Henry has gone home with an intention of preparing himself in the case of the Bams of Plattsburg against Levi Piatt, Wells, and others, (the account cause; ) I wish you would therefore * * * » « I have but a moment and few details ol the trial, [Jacob Barker and oth- ers for a conspiracy to defraud,] must refer you to the papers. They bring down the details to yesteiday at one o'clock. In the afternoon and evening we had a fine time of it, and when the court adjourned last night the cause was left remarkably well for us. I send a paper for Mrs, Butler. Mr. Barker has done wonders. Truly yours, B. F. BUTLER. To Hoyt, on the Law Revisers— Dr Hosack upset — a succee.ior to Talcoit. [No. 5.5.] _ Albany, Dec. 11, 1827. My Dear Sir — I cannot send you copies of the chapters that are to commence on the first of January, as pnssed, as there are but a few extra copies in print. ***** There is nothing in them, however, that can interest or afiVct you, in New York, except Chap. 14, •' Of Public Health," which mitigates the Quanmtine Laws and upsets Br. Hosack. Chap. 16 cuti; up some OPERATIONS that used to be in vogue, hut it v.as so altered by the Legislature as to be entirely confined to Corporations hereafter created or rcneioed. Incessant occnpati.m has rendered it impossible for ms ^r, answer your kind letter. My situa. tion as a member of the Assembly wili render ms ineligible to the oflice you epeak of, in case 170 MALE AND FEMALE POLITICIANS INTRIGUING ABOUT OFFICES. Talcott [Attorney Genenil] should resign. [See the Constitution :] And even if not disquali- fied by that circumstance, 1 should be unwilling to withdraw my attention from the remainder of the Revision [of the laws of N. Y.,] which will require all my efforts fur some months to come. I must gi;t that concern off my hands before I set up for any thing else, especially if it requires labor. There is, however, little probability that the good people will suffer for want of cai'.di- dates. In a case so prominent there are generally enough to grasp for it. In haste, Very sincerely yours, B. F. BUTLER. [No. 56.] To J. Hoyt, on his claims on him over Duer. Albany, March I9tli, 18:29. My Dear Sir — I have not been able to furnish Chancellor Walworth with a copy of 's answer, my original copy h;iving got into that celebrated receptacle of Ciiancery papers, from which nothing is ever to be withdrawn — the draw or bushel basket, (I don't know which,) of his venerable predecessor I wish I had time to say something of your last letter, but as the hour for closing the mail is at hand I must defer, and if I defer the whole matter will tumble into Limbo, for I never can undertake to answer an old letter. You do me injustice in your mode of stating the case As between you and John Duer I never can hesitate. You are not only the oldest friend, i!/^ most assuredly HAVE THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE CLAIMS UPON ME — claims which I hope io convince you I have not forgotten, and can never forget. Mrs. B. continues to think illy not only of the Washington people, but of your arguments in its favor. I shall submit the matter wholly to her decision, though my judgment, not less than my inclination, tells me she is wrong in some of her objections — if not in all. Most truly yours, B. F. BUTLER. JSIaher (like Marcy) to be saved from ruin, and made respectable. [No. 57.] Waterford, July 2G, 1 830. To Lorenzo Hoyt, Esq., Counsellor at Law, State Street, Albany. My Dear Sir — When I left this morning, I could not ascertain whether Mr. Reynolds had re- turned or not. If he has not returned, I must get my cause postponed, and return to assist Mr. Ostrander before the Vice Chancellor to-morrow. Let me know by the first stage or mail for Ballston. Notice should be given at the Post office to send Mr. Van Buren's letters to Saratoga Springs. Those you sent yesterday to my house are yet there. Will you see them sent back to the Post Office properly directed '.' Once more. Just as we left this morning, I heard that our excellent friend Malicr was dead. It occurred to me instantly that I. H. Strong was very well qualified for the place of State Libra- rian. IT WOULD SAVE HIM FROM RUIN, and make him a respectable living ; and hav- ing that, he would be a respectable man. I beg you to call on Mr. Flagg, and name him as a candidate for whom I feel a deep interest ; also speak to Mr. Croswell and .Mr. Phelps and oth- ers. If it can be done, it will be a great affair for Strong. Doii't omit seein2 Mr. Flacrg. Yours, B. F. BUTLER. Noah — Judge Sutherland — D. B. Tallmadge a Successor to Duer. [No. 58.] [Mrs. B. F. Butler to Mr. .Tesse Hoyt.] Albany, December 4ih, 1830. My dear Sir: I am greatly obliged to you for sending me the paper containing the article " Albany Institute." I am very much inclined to believe th;\t the author of the address merited the rebuke, not because our friend Croswell is mentioned in an honorable manner, but because the whole editorial corps were not ingrafted in the note. If I had written the note, I siiould not have forgotten Noali — I would have given him a high place, for he is certainly entitled to rank, being King and High Priest, &.c. Slc, of the Jews. In his literary store-house, he has ammunition of all sorts ; and altho' he is too fomi of amu-sing U3 with squibs, he can, and does occasionally, send up a sky-rocket. I write in great haste, and have only time to add that I am a lone widdow yet — and tiiat the very elements seem to conspire to keep my loving lord awa\'. Did you ever know such a continued spell of unpleasant weath r? Yours, very sincerely, HARRIET B. [No. 59.] [private.] [Mrs. B. F. Butler to Mr. Jesse Hoyt.] Washixgto.v, 18ih February-, 1834. My Dear Sir — You must eitlier work for Judge S. [Sutherland] or your.^elf, if you do not wish Tallmadge to ^et the office of D. A. [District Attorney.] His broihiT works like a Cart-Horf^e in the matter, and things are working well for liini. Mr. B. ; Butli-rl only yielded to .lud<.'e S's claims over yours, on account uf his (the Judge's) pvcidiarly uuplcasaut situation in a pecnniani point uf view. Do lielp the Judge. The decision of the matter is to bo left to the N. Y. Members — Repre- sentatives and Senators — and they are all pretty nvich to a man, committed to Tallmadge. Great haste, sincerely yours, H. B. A SHE FED. IN THE CABINET— AN ARTFTL PARASITE L'NCLOAKED. 171 Judge Edmonds and Pauperism — Price to get the Office — Hoyt's troubles. [No. 60.] [Mrs. B. F. Butler to Mr. Jesse Hoyt.] Washingtox, Feb. 24, 1834. My Dear Sir — I can only say in relation to the office which was the subject of a former letter, that you have become a candidate too late in the day for any hopes of success. If Tallmadge and Sutherland are &et aside, as is very likely tiiey will be, if the matter is re- ferred to the Delesjation, / think Jlr. Edmonds will succeed. So far as PAUPERISM is a qualification and recommendation to the favor of party, surely you will give in to THE LAST NAMED PERSON. But it is a pity, if you really want the office, that you did not say so at the commencement of the session. You may as well, however, write to Cambreleng, who I hear is committed for you, and he will be able to tell you all the difficulties about the affair. PRICE, it is thought by Mr. B. [Butler] will be the person the delegation will unite upon, if they cannot agree not to disagree upon either of tlie first named perso.ns — but I am of opinion Edmonds will be the man. I am happy that you can talk so cheerfully of your misfortunes. I hope that you will yet see brighter days though. I perceive by one of your letters you are getting to be quite an old man. Mr. Butler still continues strong in the faith (Jacksonism) and thinks that all the political troubles of the day are necessary to the purification of the body politick. That lessons of wis- dom will be learned now (and learned by heart) that will do men good. [Here four lines of the lady's MS. are carefully erased. She adds — ] * Don't be curious to know the above — it only showed a little of the old leaven of Federalism, which my admission to the Cabinet cannot or has not yet, covered. The mail will close and I must haste. Sincerely yours, H. B. [HARRIET BUTLER.J Down with the United States Bank, but we may want another. [No. 61.] Private, [To Jesse Hoyt, Esq.] February 24th, [1834.] My Dear Sir — I thank you for all the news 'bad enough most of it) in your several letters— and most heartily concur with you in all the censures and three-fourths of the abstract notions you utter in them. As for supposing that Newbold, George Griswold, Stephen Whitney, or any of the old federal commercial men, were with us on this occasion, for any other reason than be- cause they found it for their interest to go with us, I never for one single instant had such an unwarrantable idea. As for myself, / Aare NEVER doubted that THE PRESENT 5a«it ought ID= BY ALL MEANS .re to be put down — but, on the other hand, / have never been perfectly satisfied that we could get on with the business of the country withottt SOME SUCH AGENT. But Mr. Taney thinks we can, and 'SJ'he is the judge. Mr. Gallatin also once told me we could — and I am desirous TO TRY IT ; because if we can get on without any of this machinery, I think it best to dispense with it, for it always has been, and always will be, abused, no matter who controls it, we or our enemies. Come what will, ire must adhere to the Pres't policy FOR THE PRESENT, even if it sends us all into the minority. It would be better to go ten years into the minority than to recharter THE Bank, or make a new one ITNOW. Truly yours, B. F. BUTLER. Jackson's Proclamation and Protest — American difficulties with France.. [No, tjr3.] — Extract of a letter, B. F. Butler to Jesse Hoyt — dated Albany, Dec. 14, 1832. " The President's Proclamation has electriiied our whole community. Next to the Declaration of Independence, it is the most p state paper our country's have produced." [The words left out are torn off the original.] [No. 63.] — E.^tract of a letter from Butler to Hoyt, dated Washington, June 29, 1834. " Mr. Taney and myself were nominated this morning ; Mr. Stevenson is also yet under con- sideration. They are very furious in their attacks on Stevenson, and it is by no means certain they may not call for information about MY SUPPORT OF THE PRESIDENT IN HIS PROTEST, &c., in which event Mr. Wright is authorized by me to speak strongly." [No. 64] Same to same. SrtJYVESANT, October 1st. ]«34. My Dear Sir : I have just received your letter of the 27th, which I found at my father's, on my return to-day from Hudson, where I have been for the purpose of aiding our friend Bluiit ia his arbitration. I had noticed the information from France, this morning at Hudson, and it had occurred to me that the article in the Times., was a judicious comment upon it. Indeed I think it very certain, 172 mOURLES WITH FRANCK-, ACKSON FIKED AT-BUTLER ON BANKING, -, • u 1 = pvi.t.d in this country against tlie administration, for the last eight that the clamor which has existed in this coumy g ^ ^ ^ jg ^s little reason to months, has really had its >nduence ^^^^^^^^^^^iJ^,^ President may recommend, doubt, that the opposition will oppose any <="^^^';f "'^ ^ ^^^^^^i^,, ^s to produce very serious and by their facuous course P^^^^'iaTlconhdnc hat the subject will be well ^ve.ghed by the 5^;rr hisi]^:::r:nSal":L:::::i^S may determine on will meet the approbatioa "1 ^Sr;j!^S}:^-as I ou,u ;o ^ave do. .r ^-^-^^-^^T:^..^ receiving it, 1 wrute h.m, telhng '''" ^J ^ij^'l^^i e ,o send the balance in a lew weeks. !$15U0f.om him, with a ^'^^V ^; J ,.'Xe to-day Tto morrow for Washington, but Mrs. B. is it was my m.ention to have left ^ ^^P'^^^ "^ft)ehind. I shall therefore remain .ill ne.xt week neither well enough to go with me, nor ° ^^/^J' ^^J^' .^ ^.e.) Mrs B. will accompany me. if when, If she is sufHcieuiiy '■^■<;'^^^'-^^^',^'„VmvwS down, and at all events on my return about practicable, I shall enoVavor to ^^^/^"^^"^JJ.'/h.ve taken a course which doe. them infinite the 22J nf October. The Democracy f /f.'^;^ "J /^J^'J^ V^ t, y,rs. H., 1 am, .s always. honor, and must secure them success. W ah kindest '^§;'»'^^^^^;'^/, ^^^^^ ^ p_ t3L]i j,eR. l,au>—Offict— Jackson's escape. [No. G5 ] [Tu Lorenzo Hoy.. Ksq., Counseaor at W. Albnny.] ^^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^_ n- 1 u. Inn^ ^inee to hive acknowledged the receipt of your ieiieis on the My Dear S,r: j^""g^„l. J^^^ s J ,^ or I5 h of 'inrch, 1 :h.li be incessantly ..ccupied-and even Rail Road ca-e, &c. .^'".''^V. 'n^coud not prepare the ansvsering brief. But it you will if i hail Mr.\on Vecmen s opening, could not prp ^^ are entitled to, as they get and send me the points a„d »"f «'^"^, ^^ /"^f^^^/^JnTs I ^ out of the Supreme Court. I Semur, J -iU Prepare the ^'-^^'ff '^^'"".P'ScSt as ms altered to April. pie-uu.e 1 .h.U be able to attend the ^'^'".ly Oncu t as js a i ^^,^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ' Our friend Chadden is rather ai-d - J". "^^^^ f^ ^ ^^^SJbia county, as the other one J^r.lw:rysVe::'j:e'n'?o G^^e^rcr-'ity." \ have also received a letter .rom h.m; and. as soon as I can gel time, will write him. ,>romdei>tlnl. I was walkina with Major You may v.ell say that the 1''"''^^'".%"^^^P^ ^^^^fj^ Kavy J^ who were ne-xt^to the Presi- Donnelsun, and ju.t behind Governor Dickenson m^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ dent and Mr. Woodbury-borsy h and Ca*. be ng b..^^^^^^^^^^ .^p.es.iontat the moment, w«s, sions, did not see the po.-r wreicii i U ^'^J'^'''''^^^^^^^^ J^i^e loud-and for an instant. I f.area SV^E;^;:^ r w:::^fi:iri^.^d£^:3\A ^ a mistake. U ... as you may well Cn'c'we, a moment of great excitement. We^are aU^well.^^^^^ ^ ^ ^^^^^^ rNo fi.^ 1 Ta J Hovt on Jackson's Caution and Forbearance. Washington, Nov. 26 1836 tl£l-S^entcont.ues.^^^ ' Though we have not the P-ck- ret"rns of any on «' ^ -^^^^jj^^^j^ ^,^.,,,, jone nobly? to doubl the election ol Mr. Van Buren. Have not ^i^f;,';'^^,^''^^^^^^^ B. F. BUTLER. To .noyi,onBankingandBarher-Opumns change. Wasiiington, January 25, 1837. M^^^Sir : I thank you fbr the loan of your P-Pj;:^;^>^;;i:irT£X:^^SS to th'e public. The performance, ^^^-^ll^S.'" '"^ ^^^ n ucl mi ed up witli Mr. Barker's af- through it-was a very jejune one ; and besides ^J^f /J, ^^^i'^^^^^J'^.^l^, for them ; and as they fairs, a. to prevent it f-'^^P.-^^.^E^f ^^^^lut ' lal tl elctrine of the writer must have went by the board, the pubhcwa^^^ .^ ^^ to modify, and iti others been bad. In some refapeets, aUo. I '^ ^"^^ "° " ^ , gjr. who is there that, on subjects of perhaps, to change altogether the -"--f^Xm" and similar Banks, it is pre.=umed,] does thi. sort, [Washington and W "/-^'^^'\'^;,^f'".^'J *„";,,',,,,,,, year.-especially if they come be- ♦ Or Biley fU&S COEHCINft THE ELECTOTIS-SELDEN, V. BtJREM k THE Ot!) HSRO. 173 Flagg to J. Hoyt. on Speaker Croliui. Genl Tallmage, and the Electoral Dm °° Ai.BANV, January II th, lb24. DiaJ^s'^-Vour letter was handed to t.e ^^ --|f " :^:; ^r^n.is I^.^^^S anticipated its contents ui the course taken ^^^ f;"^"^",^ J"„^ f ,^,^" da ce but we gave .he.n were to take the country democrats by the h.nd and lead "'' ^ ^^^ ^^4"^; re'^ular cUarance an mtnnation, tliat iausmuch as they came from a ^^f^l'^l^^^'' I, X Caucus, Mr Tall- from the den.ocra.s or that port ot-^eregard^^^ ^^^h c not bear tS see h.s 'aged, grey mage, assummg the ground f ^^^^^V^f'J'^" J walked together iu the refurm path, &c. 1 re- headed mend, (Croly ) turned °f J'^^J ^aj ;fjf "j^ \^^ , Uiy for his old fnend, and phed that he spoke fcelmg y-U ^ ^^^ ;'^"^f ,^ ' V^.^^S ,to/ci !pon\h^s floor upon the same .hoald be -"--- --'^^"^^ ,:V^e a o tt lact, and said he did not by any means sta.,d upon £ s'ame 'ooti^wUhtie gentleman from New York. A pretty con.phment to hts Irtends, " S: lil ^^0. MY KBso.t:xio., THE " PEOPLE"' h.ve been as «- YVlaGG Yours, &C.S ■^' ^' ^ ■""■»-■^• P. S. Drop us a few tender lines n ow and then. Flagg to J. Hoyt, on Young, Butler and the Elections. Ai.BA.vY, 4 o'clock, November 7, 1827. SiJt. 'canvass of the 5th ward gtves Butler 75 ma.orny. the other two .,f our Assen.bly '^^A'lett. f^ WarvlS;'e:t:.da-y. says 200 votes polled that day. and two to one for our 'tpe^on who leftSar.to,a Springs yesterday, says it j^^P-^^t u " Jl^oo^'"" ''^'^^ ...11 ,/e elected ; Sa.nuel Y.cmg upposn.g the r g^ - "-^ ^ ^/j 'he r 1 vv l' be g.ven in siho^o?.-?;,;.;:irm::.^^^ Flagg to Hoyt, on S.lden. Van Buren and the ^-^^«^^^^^ ^^^ ^^3.^^ [No. 70.] . r ,v ronvention, and will, 1 doubt not, be Dear Sir: You will have seen ^l^e proceedings of the Con ~ fo, ; gt.ie delegate gratified with the general results Bowne had b en the prommem m .^ ^^^_ faerurc the N. Y. delegation arrived, and a majon y f '^e "'j^g^ on . 1 ^|. ^^^^ ,,_^^^_ tied that matter at once. Your city ^-^ '^f !;-,;^^ j^^P .'^^^'.^^.^Irong'vour members, of the ing of the Cunventmn-and belden ^^ .^/f \'~^^^^^^ adverse to the city were House, indued y.ur delegation ^« '^^l'^^^ '^ J,;:" e, forScl upon .hem who would not be agreed u^.o,, here, -"^that they would have dd^^^^^^ the Convention into confusion, agreeable to them-and :=elden did all mh^^^^^^^ . * . » ^:::::::^'fi£v:::e.:^ ^f^^fz^^^ ^u th^gs went o^ with the most ^l^x^^;S'^£i"^e?srir£^=i^-a^^ — -^--^^^ the interests of Mr. V. B. a««Z the Old Hero diversity of opinion as to Ln »d Van B„,,„ Will ge, a .„„mph.„t v... and b.av .'ow^y-JWpo^'"'"- ,^ (.. FLAGG. chances. 1 [No. 71.] Dudley S.lden Esq., to ^'''' ^^ifn^'^^^^^^^ as soon as he thinks ' My Dear Hoyt: My friend's letters have not, perhaps, been '^^^'J^^^^^^-^^^^ entitled to be they oa.ht, but I have not been able to read ^^^ Y;';"^3'so „ ^^ "'^^ P^'"^^'^ ''• piaised for his punntu-.lity who makes h,s return to a '^"" ^^f^J^"^'^ ^^ Livingston or Stilwell ; ^ You need not endorse " confidential" 0. any "/ '^e ^omn^^m at^ons U^^ ^. ^^^ ^ ^^^^^ they are both m mv room as soon as ihey break your ^^a-y^' '^^ P ."^ ^1,^ mysterious marks understanding of the contents. They canno ^l--g^\l^ll^l'l^Zr for you as I go along, of and signs with such rapidity : the »™^\;,ttiic trc;me fwm a man of your understanding. If such capacity and merit as would eeem suitable to come uom * w*" 3 174 CALHOUN DUPED — THE LOBBY — FLAGG &: PHELPS ON FREE BANKING. you cannot read this you may do the same thing. My time has been very much occupied in the committee ; you shall have a report if you will engage to read it ; and let me say to you that it is spoken very vv'ell of. On reading Calhoun's correspondence, I made up my mind very soon that he had been the dupe of some poor devil behind the curtain, and had exhibited most egregious folly in being caught. Your successful competitor for a high place, seems to have been the most conspicuous man in bringing up this by.gone transaction ; and I am glad that Mr. Van Buren, like the high- spirited horse, has shaken the dew from his mane and exposed the rogue to be taken. No news here. Your kind efforts in favor of D. D. & H. are duly appreciated. I felt satisfied that in sending me the little pamphlet your whole object was the public good. So is mine, and I will if I can give the rascally speculators upon time a thrust under the short ribs. Yours, truly DUDLEY SELDEN. McCoun hangs heavy in the Senate. I know not why. As soon as withdrew (and so I read his letter to the Chancellor) I have aided him all I could. Cutting to Hoyt, on Bank measures and the " Lobby Whores." [No. 72.] , Albany, January 5, 1836. My Dear Jesse : I send you [an] extract from the Albany Argus. You will perceive that our friend Charles takes the true stand ; and, svith his invincible popularity, will add strength and currency to Democratic measures, in contradistinction to the federal views of certain leaders at Old Tammany. Get the Post to republish them ; and, if you can, let them say a word or two for Charley. I suppose the Times will not republish, but as it is a matter of general interest just now, the Courier might copy it, in order to inform its readers that ic is probably a useless ex- pense to keep any Lobby Whores this winter. Yours, in haste, F. B. CUTTING. Thad. Phelps on Free Banking — Swearing on paper. [No. 73.] Mr. Thaddeus Phelps, (of Park Place. New York,) at Albany, to Mr. Jesse Hoyt, at New York, [April 29, 183G.] " Dear Hoyt : We arrived this morning and have already accomplished wonders. Our in. fiuence has already made six Banks in the House, (no fear of the Senate,) and by to-niorroW night there is very little doubt we shall have made twenty or thirty more. You fellows who are in tavor of the Repealers, may all now go to Hell in your own way. Consider your restraining law repealed. Consider me a partner in a Banking Company— I put in 2,000,000— Call on John Ward for the money. No more at present — your loving triend, . . , ^, , . " ^THADDEUS PHELPS. Arrived on Monday mornmg. 29 \nril Monroe has sent in his allegiance— and the Native American party ^fav go to the D— 1. Boat off. T P " Flagg on Free Banking, addressed to J. Hoyt. r.^^^'^H, . , , ,, , Albany, Jul V 27, 1836. Dear Sir : I have received your letter of the 15tb, and fully appreciate the importance of taking hold ot the Restrainmg Law, as you mention. Your letter came while I was attending a meet inn- of the Canal Board at Utica, and I have this afternoon returned from a meeting of the Trus- tees of Union College. I have thus been prevented from answermg your letter, or attendincr lo Its suggestions. In due time I will have something done. The quarrels about the Banks of last session, will aid in pushing forward this just measure, if taken in proper time The c^reat mass ot the Democratic papers in the state are sound on this point, and will co-operate with zeal and efficiency. With much respect, your obedient servant, A. C. FLAGG. Flagg to J. Hoyt, on Banks, Paper Dollars and Log Rolling. [No. 75.1 , r , . . , Albany, October 3, 1836. Dear Sir: i he repeal of the restraining law, so far as to allow offices of Discount and De poBite, IS universally assented to by town, county, district, and state conventions. To this extent S:,';;7:;t^;TMi^rc;ii^..^— •• ■^'■"»->^'"^ 175 TLAGG, HOYT & MARGY WHEEL ROUND TO A BANK SYSTEM— HARD MONEY. a law can be passed with little opposition. If the issuing of Bills is added, so as to multiply without limit the manufactories of paper money, a new aspect will be given to the whole matter, and those who are opposed to any change may be enabled to keep thinys as they now are. If we can open the way, and build up a class ot Banks which not issue paper, these will co-operate in ma- king the currency more sound than at present ; if they have noiliing to make by the issue of small bills, they will not be aggrieved by seeing gold and silver take the place of the small bills. After the fetters are knocked otf, and the new class of money changers are " in the full tide of successful experiment," such other modifications may be made as experience may recommend, and as " the business wants of the community may require." Repeal the restraining law, refuse all banks, unless their stock is sold at auction, and those who trade upon legislation, ^the hon'ble the lobby) vvill be blown "sky high :" and the scenes of log rolling and corruption would be re- placed by a decent regard to moral and official purity, and a reasonable attention to the public business and the general welfare. Truly yours, A. C. FLAGG. 2Iarcy to Hoyt, on Illumination in Banlcing. [No. 76.] [To Jesse Hoyt, Esq., N. Y.] Albany, 24th November, 1836. My Dear Sir: You promised me some illumination on the subject of the restraining law or rather the repeal of it. I am informed that there is a. prohabiliiy that I am elected, and if so, it will be expected that I send to the legislature a message. If you have any publications or other matters too cumbersome for the mail, you can, if you choose, put them in the charge of one of the electors from your city. If you are extravagant in your notions, they will not be adopted — you expect, as a matter of course, they will be modified.* I will not ask you to get svhat you write yourself copied, because it is possible that some one may be found in this city or vicinity who will be able to decypher your hand writing. I am, with great respect, your to be obliged and humble servant, W. L. MARCY. Flagg on Free, Private, and Privileged Banks — General Maison and. the Restraining Act— Flagg on the Usury Laws, [No. 77.] Albany, December 4th, 1836. To Jesse Hoyt, Esq.— My Dear Sir : I have received your letter of the 2d instant. I have not seen the pamphlet of Mr. Hammond, and therefore cannot speak of its contents. The re- peal of that part of the Restraining Law which prohibits offices of discounts and deposites, I wish to see achieved, and I believe to make the object certain, no private Banking System should be connected with this measure. After this is done, if there is a press for paper manufacturing Banks, then a system of private banking, to issue 50 dollars, and over, may be brought forward and discussed as a substitute tor the present mode of dealing out charters. It has been pretty well settled, that a siould fan- running bank charters cannot be made con- stitutionally : that there must be a distinct vote of the Legislature upon every moneyed Cor- poration. A general law for establishing a system of private banking, and conferring corporate ♦Governor Marcy had signed very many bank charters, or contracts bestowing special privileges on the share holders of banks, as such — so had Governor Throop. Mr. Van Buren had, in his safety fund message, recnin- mended orsranized wholesale restraints. Governor Blarcy, in his message to the Legislature, Jan. 3, 1837, [whether through ilr Hoyt's illumination or not, I cannot say,] advises a partial repeal of the privileges of the chartered banks, in the following words ; [From Marcy's Message, Jan. 1837.] — "In every country where banks, with the exclusive privilege of furnishing the circulating medium, are numerous, and particularly where the business of loaning money is embarrassed by restraints imposed on other associations, and on individuals, it is reasonable to expect that pecuniary pressures will be frequent and severe ; and if not more frequent, they will probably be more severe, and continue longer than in countries where all sources of relief are left entirely open, and comjietition is permitted to operate in adjusting the relation of equality between demand and supply. In this respect, the operation of the statute usually called the restraining law;%o far at least as it denies to individuals and associations the right of receiving deposites and niak ing discounts, is un(|uestionai)ly injurious. It is the essential characteristic of private jiroperty, that the owner should not only have the right of exclusive possession, but the liberty of free use, modified only by the equal rights of others to enjoy their own property, and the public right to provide for the general welfare. The reasons, therefore, that should induce the legislature to enact or continue any law circumscribing the rights of individuals in relation to their private projierty, must arise from a strong and clear necessity of providing for the well-being of society. I have not been able to convince my- self that any such consideration can be adduced in support of that part of the restraining law, which interdicts to the community at large the right of receiving deposites and making discounts. If it originated, as is generally be- lieved, in a desire to give this kind of business exclusively to incorporated banks, and subserves no better purpose than to carry out this design, 1 anticipate a ready disposition on your part to repeal it. There is nothing, I believe, in the history of the times when this law was first enacted, which is calculated to in sjiire a high degree of respect for it, or from which sound arguments for its continuance can.be fairly deduced. The restraint in respect to deposites and discounts, being regarded as injurious to the public, ,Hud devised as a spe- cial favor to the banks, the law that inii)oses it is not efficiently sustained by tiie moral sense of tlie community, and is constantly evaded with impunity. The efficacy of laws depend, in igreat degree, upon the concurrence of pub- lic opinion in their favor ; and when, for the want of this sanction, particular enactments are in a great degree ino perative, they should be repealed, that the evil example of disregarding them may not weaken the force of the sal- utary sentiment which all should feel — that obedience to laws, withott regard to individual ojiinions as to their ex pediency, is a high moral duty." 176 MAISON, LIVINGSTON, FLAGG U HUNTER ON FREE BANKS— HOYT'I Bltt. nowcrs is not attainable. If the fetters arc knocked off by the repeal of the Restraining Law, Private' b.niiin- associatio, s may be formed, and these may be regulated by law, and ,h,s law be general The -eneral laws lor incorpoiatmg manufactories and church s^^cieties. « ere passed before the'constitution was adopted : these laws were not revised and re-enacted, but mserted in the 31 vuluuie as they sti od. . r i • u #^ i The Senate referred the matter of the Restraining Lsw to a committee, of which General Maison is Chairman, and Mr. Hunter is one- of the members. I suppose General Maison will be prepared with a bill. Mr. Cutting, I presume, will renew his bill in the Assembly ; and the provisions of his bill I am in favor of. This bill breaks the chains, except as to issuing bills To allow all the world to manufacture paper currency might do more evil than good. At all events before this is done, a well devised system of guards should be matured to protect bill- holders and other creditors. The demolition of the Usury laws, in relation to commercial paper, such as vou mention, is probably desirable ; and certainly worth an " experiment:^ But, as you mention; this measure should stand by itself; and in the same way, the system of private bank- ina, if one is presented, may as well be discussed and settled separate from the repeal ot the Restraining Law. . . , , u .t, 1 do not think it politic or proper, to make special war upon existing banks, as may be the case with Mr. Hammond. We have taxed the Safety Fund banks three per cent on their capi- tal for the protection of their creditors, and we hold them to strict regulations, wmch they some, tiroes break over : vet give them fair play even though they do not in all cases extend U to the business communitv. Those who insist upon an unlimited repeal of the Restraining Law, if they accomplish their object, will do enough towards disciphning the banks without bringing any other artillery to bear upon them : Truly yours, A. C. i^ l^AUl? . Ex-Speaker Litlngston to Jesse Hoyt, on Free Banking— Young, Maison, l^c. INo 78 1 Albany, Dec. 30ih, 1836. My Dear Sir- I have just received the draft of the law prepared under the directions of your committee, acompanied with your private letter of advice as to the mode of procedure. The pn'po-ed amendments are well enough— but you must not expect that the legislature will adopt them in the hasty manner suggested. In modifying so important a provision m our laws a variety of thoughts will necessarily engage the mind, and no little time will be consumec. m discussing them before the Senate can arrive at a final decision. This is unavoidable, however desirable it may be to hasten the accomplishment of your objects. Gen 1 Muison, the chairman of the committee which has this matter in charge, has, for the last month been so cnnsiantly occimied in maturing opinions for the Court of Errors, that we have not yet had the opportUMity of comparing our views ; and it would be indelicate in me, whatever ambition I might feel to become the father of the measurer to press your bill without his sanction. Be patient and all will go well. , , .... r , .,, Young I am informed, intends to urge an unconditional repeal— to permit the issuing of bills if adequate security can be given lor their redemption. Such a measure can be sustained upon principle, and I shall not hesitate to give it my support— not, however, if I should think such a course would hazard the m-in chance. That pan of yiur bill which contemplates an altersition in the usury laws 1 propose to erase altogether— not because I ;im hostile (as at present ndvised) to the change, but 1 prefer for many reasons to consider the usury laws a separate question. So soon as our committee arrive at any definite conclusion I will inform you o* '*• ^_^^^ Yours truly, CHAS. L. LIVINGSTON. Ex Speaker Livingston on Free Bunks — Hunter's scheme to limit capital. fNo. 79.1 Albany, Jan. 3d, 1837. Dear Hoyt : The anti-reBtraint committee met this evening and our chairman (Maison) sub- miit. d his bill, the main provlMons of which are .is follows — " \st. Removes the prohibition agninai offices of discount and deposit — restrains all associniions formed under the law from engaginz in the purchase or snle of real estate, or dealing in merchan- dizp, hu •uihorises them to hold" real estate in payment of antecedent debts, and so much as may he necessary for the transocii ^n of their business— prohibits the agents or officers of foreign cor- ponlion* esi'.bli.shinff assoeiatiooR for the purpose of the net within this smte — certificates to be filed wiih connry clerks, selling f irih \he names of the co-pirinershipand amount of cnpital em- ploved— prohihiis all corporations from rnttring into the business authorized by the act, except such as are (xpres-^ly pi rmitied bv law." Hunter will probably off. r, when the bill comes before the Scn.nte, hi-; darlin? o-'rndmcnts, limiiinfi the amount of capital. This I imnuine will be offered moref ir the purpose of disphiyin? his consistency ih:m wiih the expectation of its being adopted. When the bill shall he printed I will send you n copy, from which you will be able to judge more correctly of its provi-ions than you can from this sketch of them. CHAS. L. LIVINGSTON. etTTTINS WELL NAMED — BANK DEMOCRATS ABUSING BANKS— S. YOtfNO. l77 Counsellor Cutting on Banks, Edward Livingston, Ogden, Postmaster Graham, tie. [No. 80.] Albany, Janunry 6, 1837. 3Iy Dear Hoyt : Charles Livingston has sent you a copy of tlie bill to repeal the restiaining law, reported by Maison in the Senate. The first section is all that ou^lit to pass, but I suppose that bein^ in the hands of the Philistines we must be thankful for any favors, no matter how small. Edward Livingtson, O" I am afraid has turned a sharp angle, and will come out Bank. See his vote to-day. To-morrow he will be biought to the bull ring, and stamped as he deserves, if we should go into committee of the whole and he should participate in the debate. We beat them to-day elegantly. Do you see who compose the committee on the repeal of the restraining law in our House ? Ogden, Chairman ! the violent opponent of the measure last year ! the aaent of the Farmers' Trust and Loan Company I the intimate of John L. Graham, Seymour & Co. I the cuest of the former last spring in New York, and his lobby friend at the Syracuse Convention i 0° But we will defeat the gang. The restraining law will be modified — the usury laws partially repealed, and no Banks chartered. F. B. C. Ex-SjKakcr Livingston on 'Chartered Nuisances' Free Banking, the free use of Capital, and Young's Usury Bill. Cutting's queer postscript. [No. 81.] Albany, Jan. 9th, 1837. Dear Hoyt : The mail of last evening brought me two letters from you. Since f last wrotp, nothing new has transpired, except the introduction of Maison's bill, a copy of which I forwarded to you for critical examination. I am sensible that many of its provisions will be regarded as unnecessarily severe — indeed, it has already been characterised as a restraint upon the restrain- ing law ; but it should be understood as having been offered in its present form, now, for the pur- pose of aflibrding an opportunity lo bring under consideration all the advantages as well as inju. rious consequences of the proposed restrictions, rather than with any hope of their being adopted. So far as I can discern, the legislature have sound views on the subject ; and before long, you will be in the enjoyment of all the benefits which are expected to flow from the free use of a natural riaht to deal in money. But after all, and you may rely upon it, the repeal will be found to be of little importance, so long as persons are restrained from issuing notes to be put in circu- lation as money. Baiik petitions begin to shew their ugly faces from all quarters ; and unless their fate be decided at the threshold of the session, the friends of these chartered nuisances will struggle desperarely fbr another shuffle of the pack. If they dared, they ivould put a stop to all decent legislation till their jnonopoiizing appefitrs were gorged with special privileges. But there arc some good fellows in the assembly, with Catting, King and Clinch to lead them, who will hold on to their grasp without mercy. Young has introduced his promised bill to repeal the usury law. He goes the whole figure ; but I doubt if he can persuade the Legislature to go with him. If we succeed in exempting from its penalties all commercial paper having six months to run, an important point will be gained, and perhaps it is better to stop here for the present. If this experiment works well in practire, the law may then be extended to all contracts. Cutting desires me to leave a space for him in' this l*^"er. Yours, CHAS. L. LIVINGSTON. On the same sheet, us a Postscript. Take care how you write too freely to the Speaker*. Time will show whether he goes with the bank-men or not. As to his disp'isition to do so, I have a strong belief. The assem- bly WIS engagfd this morning on the resolution to instruct the hank comminee. To-morrow the discussion will be resumed. The final vote will not shew the full anti-hank strength, hut I think it will speak strong enough to satisfy the most sceptical, that all expectations for b^nk- this year will be disappointed. F. B. CUTTING. Ex.Speaker Litinsston on Maison's Bill, Frntection to Safety Fund Banks, Fnre'gn Corpora, lions, C'ipital, Currency, Free Trade in Mnncy, the United States Bank, Thaddeus Phelps's views, and picking the feathers from our Pilots. [No. 82] Albany, .Tanuary 12'h, 1837. Dear Hoyt: Yorur las?, received this evening, expresses astonishment that I should have as- sented to MwisDn's bill I have, in a former letter, attempted to explain the reasons for this course. It ihe.se reasons are feeble and unsatisfactory, then I n)usf subniit to the cons- quencea of my error. I could endure any punishment, no matter how severe, thai the people should choose lo inflict upon mc ; but I confess it would make my ht^nrt bleed to think that I had by any /a!/x pa? iicurred your displeasure. But in truth, my good friend, you seem to entertain ground, less fear of the designs fif the Legislature. Believe me, there is no serious intention to transfer the government of the State to banks—our sympatkiea are with the people, and their rights will *SdVrard iJringston of Albany, 178 HOPES AKD FEARS FROM FREE TRADE IN BANKING-EXPEDIENCY. , 1 Look at our proceedings for the last ten days-they will satisfy you of the truth be respected. Look at our P™^=^" ^ probable result of this whole matter, of this ren.ark. and they n.ay al o >' f '"l^^^^'^-.^,'^^^^^^^^ has been adopted hi committee of the I think I sent you a copy of the b'"- J '^^J^'^' ^^ird. This pmvides that the bili.s of -I't- / '^^^T^""?^o £ ;S? c? cu^r/L ^o... by private Innkers. Such a restraint ike banhs uj this ^^'"'^ J^ ™, i^//^^ oiAnion) to protect our citizens from an unsound and Z^S:^ cSrSS ' To ir::':;:^nu':m' prepared I believe you would .o in i..pos.n, res- tdctions. condition we know nothing, and over which the Legislature It foreign corporations ^^J^^f .f°"^ J^^^^ijerate and dangerous issues of a sickly currency, has no control are not ^h«^^,«^d n the.r "^^""^ J;/";^/,^ ^„^tj ,„,,e their representatives lor to be circulated as "-f >; ''I'^Sfj^^^.f^f i\ " ^Th regulation of the currency has always Buffering such -y^'!^ ^^^"^^iSl con ol ; and there is, as the Governor [Marcy] says • : y;:!::^S" ma^^S^ei^e Sween free t;ade in money and free trade in .he hctitious representatives of money. . , , i ,„.„ (i,o Killa nf thiq State • thev will always have rs■'L:;l:l^tr.pu:,:i!y1T.m"Mua,,e„^ ... .u, ...i. yo„r »„„.,.„ p»„,»s p<,„ of pr..ecm,g .I.e.r ™'"'«- J,*\ rf t no t^S^p .^^^ '''''> «f talher w mo.c-e .1 I » »PI»»'"™« ^Jt,, „', bu" »1«. se?.M w exl.ibitll.e ojiouj diarac ir„MS tw^r "s °^' h ' :„M ;:°j:,;c i"-„'„ eiab„„,.e ^..y ,.p„„ ... »«»«. p,e. ifo^Ui^rre^Tt. ,„„T,La .ay .b.. I w™;*-"^' '■"cl^rsT-UVINGSTOK. feathers from our pilots. ^ E..SpeaJ.er Livinsston on the Eanlc Bill-Bank ChnH^-sflljo, root and hranck-thc M^x ^pcuhu » Senate— Mote the Press and tell Phelps. fNo 83.1 To Jesse Iloyt. N. Y. Ai.banv, Jan. 12, 1837 ,. T^ U vt- - wrote vou a letter last evening just by way of filling up an interval before My Dear Hoyt x ^"-o'^ y°uji ''^""^ has been continued this moniinn; upon the all bed time. The discussion on the '^^^'; " "''j;/, !^X,n rejected, an.l an animated debate nroae engrossing topic. The third section of the J'^^ ^'^^^^^^ jj ,^f i, , ,„„ ^^u believe that it on the fourth, ^^l-t dispos, lon^ o^o^ hiid^^^.^^ ^^ ^^^^.J^^ l.y our einzens has bee,, adopted? and ye sue i '^^'^:^- , ^^ -^ .^e introduction nn.l use of capital, with indignation and c.mtempt. It a, is « * '^ ''^''^yhat will be the consequence of pro- und may result in the rum ot many ot our '"^^ ;h. n'^- W 1^^^ ^ ^^^^,.^^,^ i^ rnpprasJtill nil bnnk charters are destroyed ;-;'''''.--;■ J ^^^ 'y^^;. Us U AMiTous. but T -";;; '-- ; -■i';^:'i^ :^, \ ^:; :, ;on:m:;nd ;:iai.,st%iie .ection, ""':;■' *TTy ^u ' ''^nd T a. V Th.s "uemen deserve the thanks of our city [New York] for us did also Youttg an.l 1 ra< y >. ' . ,,,j„ ■^^^,^^, j^ done to them. It n-onld be well li:^:;^m'v^7;mV:?KR^ - •< - ayi,ate-iagitnte-n.i.ate_and the country will ^[i,^];^lJx:.;;rffepre.n..desp.. Ifaniu.^ r:a;;^^t;T;rw-e^t;r;:rm^:..:irre;tle:V\Lx: . poH,.cal economy. USEFUL SERVATV'TS MAY EECOME DANGEROUS MASTERS. Hg K^--i- ---^;-^^^ let .0 eoneU.e w..He .„- You nK.y con.nunicate .his Scrawl to Pl.eips. ' C. L. LIVmCSTON. Ccnrtroller Fla.s to Hoyton Free Bar,U.,-il,e causes of HoyVs nero lorn ~.enl for tke re ^■^^ g^ , l''"'^ "f reslrauits on dealers in Currency. '^^ Dear Sir: I have received your letter in rpln.inn t^ n/r • - Albany, Jan. 15, 1837. Law. Bv this time you will have een tlnMhe s!?-., I °" '. '"f'T"^' ^*' "^^ Restraining hnd been two or three votes ,no" oftl! f e tndc ; l ,7' "" N t'" '" '" ^'"'''- ^'' '^"^ but the first, which was a simple reped 5 1 e re nL non offi7'' I" > ''' '"' T ^^^'^''^ '''''^'^' is, they have only retained tie 4t;, with modifi 1? ^f , e' ot,tr°"^,:" ,tP'-^^= - i' opinion, 7s r/ftflui j/V^^ I think fm-^i.rr. ^,. .■ '=• '"'" ""e otnei. ihc bill now, m mv here : we have tro^ihle eno S w^h oJi 2 ": Z.,^^ ""' !"' 'f """' '" '""'''' ''^-' and Connecticut. M.ison showed me I is bill 3 r ',7?'"^ ''f '"'"^ " ^'"°'' *''^'^ J^'-^^y the fetters upon capitnl, and allo^'p hVl^ Ba Ve s t H f' ''""t' r^'" ^"^^ '" ''^'■•''^'' "^ now do, *e:rcepl toissiJe Mil.. We a, lid him his nil ''"■' "Tj "'^''J' '"^^Porated Banks the committee as an opponent of the reS ^ th restrir^n J''' H "°' k" '' ''"' ^'' ^'"^ "^''^'^d expected from an opponent of the meast 1 rel ef Mr Mnek t'"^,;'"'?;"'^ ^''"' ""'''^ Tnevh:"'T'^=,^"'^''''°^'^^^''''' °'''--''-tsupp''o:.;?:.!;pf,::/'^ ^^"^^ ^-^^ ^g-nst bills'to be^l^eStftS^S— r^'^ll'liir^ ^'"f ^^ ^'-'-^^ 'r'-^- ""owing is not a prospect ofLy Ban Jthis winteT! of anyTinl, lots^ue' tZeT' "' '"' '"" '''^^ ^^ Truly yours, A. C. FLAGG. ^ &/m^or izm-r7^s;o» o« 5««i Bills and ' the Devil'. John B. Yates.i My Dear'ffoyt: The repeal of the much tilk^,? .f i ^^'^any .lanunry 16th, 1837. without any material chan.'e of the rm i w| If , sto ;'!."%,' f''''"'"^ t'^'' "^"^"-^ now under discussion contemplates a re^^^^l of 1 ' ' fnt , f TT- ^''" P'-opo'^iticn bills thnt may be issued, however to S Th. n ' PO" Hulividual issues ; limiting the and Youn£:_and if I m stnke no ' said i T P''^"^'""" Ii'\« been ably supported hy Tracy Bubsequenr reflection h s 1 n ^y o fn ^ ^™f nm ',• ll " • ' r'" t' ''"'''' '*' ''"» ^ -"^^- privilege mi^ht be extensively abused ?d1n'v' J ••■«"«'• >nclmed to go against it. Such a by fe.rs than realities-hut mvobiecUnwir^^ ^"T ^"''' P^'^'^''^ ^' ^"""enced rather consisienc^ in my vote with a to me '""."""§ f ^" ^plam what mny seem to you to be an in. it is always prudJnt to co menc by IZZ^J'^'tf T ^'^'"^^./'^"-'^ «^ -rrectin^ evils, aims at too much in the onset i.eistLlnrofSs't. ^'^^^f /^"^''^''-V »»ends a reformer if he Ie.s.ativeeontrol_andtfweeaI';:e;::^^^ii^^^r:Sr:^^^^ lieved, at the l)rokeiV bonrd, that Mr Hovt wn« I.V i V"''^'' f* '*«^ Commissioners, in 1841, whether it was be- Trust and Rnnkinjr Company, an were "that M^ ' 'f!r' .nterested ,n purchasinff the sf.ck of the North Ame ica,. largely interested in operating in tTe^tock of f|' r fA ,^ "n'..!-''''"^"'''" '*'"°"" "'« '""^^'^ t'"" Mr. H' vt wa" that he was strongly n^dicted t ^s oc\ s, e.nfa itV .'n', 'I^ZV. Tf-'^'-l-ressionprohably arose from the know ed"e who, from tl>e connection an,i the conti'lence^n 'in i^'^'-'" "'■!" ''^'""" ^"'""^ ''«"" '"eely "' that stock to be operating for him. or that he was infP^l, "i • '"/''""'•y ^"1'^'^*"'? hetween then, and Mr. Hovt, iere sunnosed lions were extremely nm/ro table " ]V r Rnr l^H ''',,'?''f:''''''"-^-, ,^"''' fi'rther.that he " hel e -es the e opera in that bank were co";,..;,,,!;' soM in wl i ^,r ^Vat a li 'c n [TV''"^''' ^-"r'^:]' "''■" '•'^-^»'fientesof de;;Z creasmg until certificates on time were s Id fn soL. , commenced at 3 to .5 percent., and went in in should not have considered it Ts^frSit on in w , m"!'''''' I "? "'^ of 5 per cent, per month discount I Beers s Bank, while the Snb-Treasury wa open/tio: W5 H?0 to "t ^nf 'nf'n ','' til' ''' ,^'^«'«"'^y- Hovt lent aeposites altected tbe value of the sto'ck, which 'fr:c[rt;dftomfertin'itgot^ ""^''^ un^erS-l^'m^i;;:^^;^:;^::';:^;^;;^;:^^^^ resttictions on bankin, ^ law, and the privileges sold hv t ^le- sh to s . , 1 ^ T- '""' '^^^" confined to chartered companies, privileged hi the other side till after his elect on as Pre Z? "^''''''^'e oncers. (Of course. Van Bnren and his friln.Is were on who ably aided the friendfof ^d rc^ro:b;'h;"\ n':";de" "'" ? '^ ''T' ' ^'^- I^-^'on T^nT took the same course, as ,lid Colonel Youn.^^ Mr Vale: was wm, ''/ '"• ^"""'^'^ »» get cheap postage established nal .mprovements. I was a director tlr l?e co ony i f tlTe We Hnd' r^^ I r "'"'' "" ■"'"'''^ ""'^ *■■""' "^ i"'«'- (♦«ve.norYates,andothersofhisfamily, hadeSked«;Wnm. nniV 1 f^""'!'""''' '" ^^ich he, his brother nor Vates was as sincere a friend onJ^o.:^':'!:^:'^:^^'l^^^^^Z^--^^^^^^ all BanK petiuons was taken ^"-^-y' ' ^d men and true, and will ue co I,te ,hn„ enough ,„ ,e„J« »" "'TJd rtl. P i ""• *" »"" » ""' °'' "■" ""Tr^d'l'i ;r,r -i'T^'e' Sr,Mi-^-r ;- ..,4...a ..a. we. >,a.e „i„e.^. .n.n.p.-.^^ ^, ,. ;;! t"e;>S -7-' »7i «; p„ „„, eo.„ ground c„o,.,„ . The ^^'^^tZ ;rea,.,,t au.y. a, " "■■' f-SiY; ^"v I n„f.h,i„k f^im ;vb.t I Wieve .. be «'-;»■ ,^^. irSwe wo,«f. . k-«;lXJ:onroTr,r a'llia Di^o,o=racy >h. *am,ng and Bant. Comnuttee ? Let the vctcs be ">=^f^ P^^'^'^^i/win-s in tlieir true position, hand in h.. d S,»»,«r a.ing.*'^;;;;^;^^^^^^'^^^""' "•' "■"' "To les« Hoy... . f^-- ''ji 21 I837.-I am Wined .0 .hinW n,y ^'f^^J^l ;:^^''i'^^^ j.fce the x^rth -<»n'fi"»,rr'!;''i r„ THE REPEAL OF BANK RESTRICTION — A PRECURSOR OP StTSPEWStiN. 181 poration, but the spell is nearly broken, and another night's reflection may metamorpho«« me into an inflexible advocate of shin-plasters. Some limitations and i^ecurities are indispensable w guard against abuses, for I cannot admit your theory to its full extent, that the people are under all circumstances cap;ible of managing their own affairs. In some cases they must be protected against themselves. My distrust of their intelligence commenced when they elected such a poor devil as myself, and until they choo-e agents who will respect their feelings and their interests, I will dispute their capacity to govern themselves. Don't disclose this heresy, and above all don't let me see it in the Evening Post in the form of "an extract from a letter from Albany." Do you understand ? In a few days v.e shall have under consideration a general plan for pri- vate banking, provided there is sense enough in Albany to mature one. It is designed to keep this subject distinct from the restraining law. Cutting has just called in to say that he has re- ceived some letters from you, and desires me to siy that you must work harder and talk less. What impertinent language for a servant of the People to hold to one of his masters ! Yours, &c., CHAS. L. LIVINGSTON. All the World may become Stock-jobbers — even Beers's Trust Co, [No. 89 ] The same to the same. Ai.banv, January 25, If 37. My Dear Hoyt : After a well co:it(sted fight we succeeded this morning in rejCiting the 4th section, 13 to 12 — a su''stitiite was Jifierwards offered and adopted, to whicli tiiere c in be no very serious objection. It simply re-en icts the e.xisting Law as it is f mnd in page 712, sec. 6, Vol. 1, R. S. which restrains incorporatiois in their cnrporute capacity from estMblishing them- selves in our State, and circu'a'ing bills, I'ic, but agencies may be estal)lished to loan funds. M'rris Robinson, Louis McLane, et id nmne genus, may now pursue their lawful business with- out subjecting themselves to a fine of $1000, or the fear of going to the StMte Pris n. I have only time to congratulate you on this htt>pv result. Phelps will participate with you in the yra- tificatiun you experience in witnes-iing the progress i)f reason and common sense in our Senate.* All yet seems well ; and if it end so meet, The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet. Mv room is full n( loafers tormenting me to denth about a si.vpenny Canal claim, and compel me to close this so abruptly. Gutting is in New York ; he will give you s .me interHsii"g news from this place. Yours, C. L. LIVINGSTON. Freedom to Banking — Arkansas, Michigan, India, and Illinois Stocks, our next Sureties ! [No. 90.] [To Jesse Iloyt] Albany, .January 27th. 1837. Dear Hnyt : Restraints are removed — the people may walk abroad, disenibMrrassed of the chains they once hobbled with. The bill passed this morning with a unanimous vote, after hav- ing altered the character of the 4th section, as I pointed out in my last. If you want to snap any other bolts, you had better indicate your wishes while we are in the humor. The bill will doubtless pass the Assembly ; and, if with any alteration, I trust ic may be, if possible, for the better. Yours, G. L. LIVINGSTON. Comptroller Flagg to J, Hoyt, on the Multiplication of Paper Credits. [No. 90r7.] Albany, January 29th, 1837. Dear Sir : The repeal of the Restraining Law, after substantially striking out the 4th section, has received a unanimous vote of the Senate. The prohibition against non resident monopo- lies remains as in the Revised Statutes. The prospect is, that the vote will be equally unani- mous in the House. Maison's bill, therefore, has been entirely demolished, except the first sec- tion. Offices of discount and deposite can do every thing which Banks now do, e.xcept to issue bills. There were some phrases in Maison's 4th section, which I had not particularly noticed when I wrote ynu. and which caused its rejection. Maison's original bill was such a bill as the Banks would desire to have passed ; it tied up the free use of money with nutnerous cords which were not used in the old Restraining Law. But the good sense of the Senate has set the matter right. There is considerable discussion going on in various sections of the State, in relation to a general Banking Law. Onondasa has taken the field on this side. After the passage of the Restraining Law repeal, there will be a fair field between the safety fund incorporations, and a law applying the Safety Fund restraints to simple banking associations. The multiplication of paper credits in either mode, I apprehend, will produce more evil than good. But ibtre must be ♦The f illnwin? is p. dr;ift nf n resofutMin driwn up !)V .Tesse Hiivt nt New York, nnd sent to Colonel Voun? nnd F. B. t;attin2 nt'A!i)inv, to be nroposed ti) the Leiiis|:itiire.— " Rpsnlveil, th:it tiie lt;inks in the city of New Vork vvh ch d 1 buiiness under the Siifety Fiiml net, do report without delay the iimmint of monev tney respectively have bud on deposit from Corporations out of this Stiiteonthe 1st diiy of every inonth, viz: from tbslst of DfC. 1835 tolst «f JttaU(U;t 1S37, upvB which dspositt i&tcr«st bAi bsto p&id'w sgresd to he paid." 182 ELECT WRIGHT ANP THEN QUARREL — PENNSYLVANIA POLITICS a change as to the mode of dispensing stock, and perhaps a general law would do this in the vtost acceptable manner, and secure the location of Banks where there was business to support them. Truly yours, A. C. J'LAGG Let us have no Quarrelling about Free Banks, till after Wright's Election. [No. 91.] [To .lesse Hoyt.] Albany, Sunday Evening, Feb. 21, 1837. My Dear Hoyt : I arrived this evening, and have seen certain publications in the Albany Ar- gus, relating to myself and my course in regard to the Committee of Investigation. I am too much fatigued to prepare an ansvi'erlhis evening ; but in the course of to-morrow, will place the subject in its correct light, and will endeavor to have it published on Tuesday, unless it is deemed advisable to avoid all collisions until after the election of Silas Wright, as to whom there has been a strong opposition — indeed it is said, that ou Friday last, there was a majority of the Legislature against him. If, therefore, my observations do not appear on Tuesday, they will be Inserted on Wednesday. Request Mr. Bryant to copy them, in case he has inserted the articles from the Argus, and see that the Times does me the same justice. Yours, F. B. CUTTING. [No. 92.] [Favored by Gapt. Stoddard.— Sunday.] My Dear Hoyt : I sent you yesterday, a Bank Commissioners' Report. How is money and real estate? Could a sale at public auction be effected at fair prices, of good property to the amount of $100,000, on accommodating terms? Without mentioning my name, call upon Bleecker, and Jenkins, and make the necessary inquiries, and write me. I send you a little public opinion.* The stage is starting. Yours, F. B. CUTTING. The true Van Buren School — have principle in proportion to your interest — be all for self [No. 93] Dr. Joel B. Sutherland, to Joseph McCoy, New Market, Philadelphia. Lazaretto, June 27, 1816.— t Dear i\I : When I received your letter last night, I immediately took a chair to my front door, and commenced reading it — I was much pleased with your notions of buying out Peacock, but the difficulty that will have to be encountered, will not, I think, be of a trivial nature ; I may perhaps make the arrangement with Boileau, in relation to the adjutant-generalship, but whether he would be willing to endorse a note to raise the wind is another question. I am told he is avaricious. However, on this point I would *From the Onondnga Chief, a Van Buren Paper.— We are glad lo see so many sound democratic journals in different parts of tlie State, speaking in terms of decided reprobation of the conduct of Speaker [Edward] Liv- ingston, in regard to the formation of the committee of hank investigation. Wherever the judgment of men is not paralyzed hy bank influence, or its e.xpression restrained by motives of interest, there is but one sentiment of indignation in the mouths of the people. Even the Speaker himself has bowed before the omnipotence of public opinion, and has felt himself compelled to attempt a vindication of his conduct, over his own signature, in the col- umns of the Argus, but in our humble opinion, he has succeeded miserably. tJudge Sutherland is an old and a shrewd, cunning, good natured politician, of Scotch parent.ige, and Van Bu- ren principle. He is a regular Democrat; wns health othcer at Philadelphia when he wrote the above letter ; went for Jackson and the pet bank scheme ; ran for Speaker in Congre.ss, in opposition to Andrew Stevenson, who had the Van Buren presses to aid him ; went into Congress in 1838, for the 1st district of Pa., as a conservative, or un- changed democrat ; supported Harrison in 1840; and in 1841 was appointed Naval-Officer at the port of Philadel- phia, by Tyler, from which post he has since been removed by Polk. lie avows, in the above letter, the system on v\'hich Van Buren and the regency worked the ohl council of appointment, tlie press, ])atronage, and the safety fund hanks — namely : to blind, deceive, and plunder the millions, under any cloak, and by adopting whatever was uppermost in men's minds, that could he turned to party account. The sub-treasury, as Jesse Hoyt, Stephen Al- len, Joseiih D. Beers, Cornelius W, Lawrence, and their hanks, carried it out, would be a new means of cementing a powerful hand of cunning politicians, by giving them the spoils lo speculate on, Joel opposed that. Steve Al- len kept carefully nil the cash Je.sse gave him ; but Jesse allowed no more to pass into Stei-e's sub-treasury than the surplus beyond his own wants for speculation ; and as the Van Buren family went shares, Secretary Woodbury allovi'ed liini his own way. When the day of reckoning came, Jes eyes of the people the knowledge of truth, or the animadversions that are usual in a state of freedom on public measures. Those who considered the jiress ns free and vigilant, did not perceive that it might be placed in corrupt hands, or in the hands of ignorance ; and that freedom might be exercised as amply in the cause of villainy and fraud, as in the cause of virtue and justice ; that the activity and vigilance of iniquity niiglit employ it, with us much zeal and labor, as the friends of freedoin, of scicial ha])piness." Who will wonder that Colonel Uuane died poor, or that his son was unfit to be a member of a cabinet which Van Uuroii secretly conducted on the Biitberland principle ? How can the press guard the .American i)eoplo against the dangers arising from the Kubstitiition of secret corruption for the principles of free election "? the giiinn •if a rapacious bund of miilniglit conspirators for public oUice, and the control of the ntBte, for the welfare of the whoia society! VERY LITTLE OF TRUE PATKIOTISM WILL BE FOUND IN PAGE J 83 just say, that for the present, nothing can be effected in relation to our scheme till Mr. Boileau returns from the state of New York, which will be in about 4 or 5 weeks. The truth is, M'Coy, Boileau is but a child in pohtics, he is not half enough acquainted with the underhand work that marks the bold and discerning politician. I will tell you who I think will embrace this scheme much sooner than Boileau. I mean Win. Findlay. He is so full of schemes and notions, that he is literally running over with them. But there we cannot well go — we have unfurled the flag of discontent, and it would look cowardly to furl it up again, unless it should be thought better to surrender at discretion. While I write this about Findlay, do not suppose that I doubt Boileau. No, I am far from doubting this man's honesty, but, I frankly confess, I doubt his policy. When I see him I will read his heart. Findlay at this time stands the best chance of any man I know, if a few of us would become recruiting sergeants in his cause. Moreover, he will be hostile to Binns, who is going down fast. You may think me a damned strange creature to be vacillating be- tween Boileau and Findlay— BUT AS YOU AND I, AND ALL POLITICIANS, ARE MEN OF PRINCIPLE IN PROPORTION TO OUR INTEREST, I have written to you undis- guisedly upon this matter. If you have time to come down with Hart in the stage some after- noon, and have a long talk with me, you and I will understand each other more fully. I want to talk with you about our joining with Leib. I wish to know whether the democrats might not come in this way in the city, 1 know they would — I wish you to go on the ticket, at your leisure you could then make arrangements with Peacock, we would then be on the spot to join the man most likely to succeed. I would like to see you before I see Dr. Leib. I know I shall see him before the election — I see there is no chance for my success in the N. Liberties, except it be through the assistance of old schoolism — Bussier, if he is rejected, will quit the party ; but by that time the opposition will iiave their candidate. We ought to watch them well now, and be prepared for the worst. Re- member me to all our family — tell my dear parents that we are all well. Your friend, J. B. SUTHERLAND. A Secret Chapter in New Jersey Special Legislation. . [No. 94.] Dear Sir : I was too late to-day in my application to Council. They met, and immediately adjourned without doing any business, so as to get off in a coach that was waiting for them. But you need not despair. I have seen Halstcd the member from Essex — he would have offered the resolution if an opportunity had occurred. He is opposed to the Morris Canal and Banking Co., upon principle, and would have opposed their bill, if he had been in his seat ; but knowing his sentiments, they watched the opportunity, and passed it in his absence. James L. Green says he thinks they have done wrong in letting that bill pass, and he would avail himself, I think, of any chance of crippling them. Halsted will offer the ichole resolution and support it, whether the return is filed or not by Tuesday next, and I think I can induce Green to assist as a member of the committee. It requires some little management and trouble ; but Wm. Halsted and myself will engage to get it introduced notwithstanding any return they may jnake. The forfeiture of their banking privileges has accrued, and the return cannot restore it. We therefore will introduce it ; have it referred to Halsted as chairman of committee, with some other member (Green if we can get him appointed,) and will get a report of an unfavor- able character ; how far it will go we cannot tell — that depends upon the investigation and dis- closures made. We can raise such a dust about it as will bring the President back to defend himself. We propose to ask the committee to give us a fair hearing, which the chairman will readidly grant. As there are now two of us engaged, and this is the last plank upon which we can make a stand, you must tell your friends they must provide accordingly in case we succeed in our operation. I forgot to tell you to have the Evening Post sent to me as Editor, immediately, and if you think it necessary the Times. Yours, &c. [" What affair is this ? Who besides Hoyt can explain it?"— W. L. M.] Send my clothes to my Washerwoman, hire my lodgings, and get Duer to choose my Wines — Ought such services to have been paid with $50,000 a year, and a douceur of $220,000 at part- ing ' Wherein does the favoritism of Louis XIV. and of Martin I. differ ? r J'o. 95.] Martin Van Buren to Jesse Hoyt, Albany. C> skill, June 25. 1819. — Dear Sir: I arrived here last night from New York, and go to-day with General Root in his chaise [or chair] to Delhi. I hope to be in Albany on Friday next. I send by the boat my vaiice, containing some clothes which I wish you would send to my washer. woman. She is the same who washes for Mr. Bleecker. Yours in haste, M. V. BUREN. [No. 96.] Same to same. Nov. 17, 1819. — Dear Sir: I want about fifteen or twenty gal. Ions of table wine — say prime Sicily, Madeira, or some other pleasant, but light and low wine 184 BAISmS, FIGS, rT?ES OP WINE, POOR DEBTORS, AND LAW ril$. to drink with dinner. I wish you would get Mr. DcER, who takes thi?, to select it for me, and buv it and send it up.t Get me nhn a box of good raisins and a basket of good figs, and send them with the wine. There is yet $94 (I believe lhat is the sum) due me from Mr. George Gns- wold on my fee in the Washington [that seems to be tlie word] cause, which I wi^h you would get from him and pay for the above ariicles out of it, and remit the balance to me by Mr. Duer. it vou dont "et it, Commodore Wiswall will give you the money, and receive it here again from me. Excuse the trouble I give you. The report you mention of the Comptroller has not reached here. Your friend, M. V. iJUKbiN. [No. 97.] [Martin Van Buren to ' Jesse Iloight, E?q., Wall St. N. Y.' April 29 [1820 ] Dear Sir : I shall leave here with Tuesday's boat, and will stay in N. York some time.' I wish you wculd get for me, from Mrs. Henderson, the use of her little parlor and a bed-room— and if 'she cannotaccommodate me, get it elsewhere. I would, however, prefer altogether to stay with her, but can't do without a room other than a bed room. ^-^n_„ I. think the election is safe. Yours in haste, M. V. BUKLJN. 'No 98.] Martin Van Buren lends his Money by the $5 to the Poor, and huys Wine by the Pipe for the Kick. Attorney General Van Buren to Mr. Je?se Hoyt, N, York. June 21, 1820.— Dear Sir: .Tust as I was ening from New York, Abraham P. Van S— — who is a clerk in Jacob I. Barker's store, 456 Pearl Street, a nephew of John C. H -. bsq., borrowed $10 of me, under a promise to send it up, which he has not done ; and, from what Mr. Hogeboom tells me, I apprehend he did not intend to do it. I wish you would see him and mnke him pay it to you. Ask the Secretary about the enclosed. I have never hear,| any '^'n^J'bout itsince I paid my $10. Your friend, M. VAN BUREN. [No. 99.] The same to the same. ?i''^^"lP'''f H? rnv "I am afrriid you will besrin to think me a very troublesome friend— but 1 AM Utm- STANTLY THE VICTIM OF IMPOSITION— that man Plimpton who own the Abnbva, BORROWED FIVE DOLLARS! of me, when he went off, under a promise to send it up. If you happen to fall in with him [ wi?h vou would him— he is a graceless dog. It would iPcommoJe me veiv much if I should not have my carriage next week. The Governor is to be qualified to d^y, bu't Albany is as quiet as a church. It is said that efforts have been m-de to raise the wind, but in vain. Mr. Clinton is universallv considered here as pohtically rietunct. I will believe that there is nothiu- in the story I h.ard in Philadelphia [a part ,s 'o"' "f J '';•; o* courtesy, and will want them. I go from hence in a few days. M V. bUKblN. P. S. Mr. Hoyt will oblige me by presenting the above to Mr. Beekman, and transmitting me the money." [No inO.] Martin Van Buren to .Jesse Hoit, 40 Wall Street. NY. August 20 1820.— D. Sir: You will oblige me bv presenting the above draft to M. K^fufner, and thp within check at th<. Citv Bank, who will, of course, i^ive yon the money for it. which pav to Dnminiok Lynch. Esq. for a half pipe of IVine I bought of him sometime since. I have mislaid th*" bill, but I believe this is about the amount. If there is a ^^'n^'fence, pay .t^nnrl let me know what it is. M. V. BUREN. [No 101 1 August 23d.— D. Sir: I enclose vou a draft this moment received from Mr. Kauf". ner for Knufman]-be so good a<. to n«e it as before directed, and to call on Mr. Kaufniati. and say to him that I have received the $150— that his cause has not been reached on the Calendar —and of course goes ofT until the next term. My prospects of success are goo I G,ve \1 r K. the receipt on the other side. Your friend, M. V. BUREN. [No. 102.] § E. Livingston to J. Hoyt. on Butler's influence. Van Buren's young tribe, and NeiD Leaders — Jesse's Slock. At,hany, Feb. 24, 1P21.— Dear Hoyt: The Notary bill will not pns«, nor will any regulation be rr.ade concerning Commissioners or Masters in Chancery. Do you wish Ward appointed a t Mr. Hoyl wi nt the Frnnklin Honte, N'ew York. 1 nenneit dcrlnrps in his Hornld (Oct. X I'^i.')) t'mt hn<\ he known that S". or iSIO werff of no mii'-h '■'"n"''''";;^ to Mr V R nnd tl>nt Mr. V U. rr>n"ireil the en.h.rsempnt of C. r. rnmhreleng to ennt.le him to horrnw WnOO whiMi'he went i.i Washington at Juckson's lecretury of rtate, lie would never hnve atiempteJ to borri>w 82500 thro' his influence. 6 Rdwnrd Mvin^ston un? ele'-ted Tlerk of .Assemhlr in 1?22. nnd hehl the office n Innsj lime. JTnvin? removed fr""! New York to AUmnv he wiis clcried tn iho leiislriture imm tlinl roimtv. nn.l Mirrpedfd '^•^"'''■s H"mi.hrev a< P..Pnker in IPSV, hv PO v.lei. n?'iln»l 07 f t I.iilhcr Rrnrii«h. who wns fSipnker in the nes'inn of IP^H. He «••■» a l.rr.ihcr-i—liiw of .Indre fiitherhind. nnd wnj «tiprw>ded nsrior'' hv Ponnt-r pf-eer. who h-d hecn hiD depntv. Fhe Alh..nvPee"CV"rer.(i'd to h.ive heen do-^ir lis tnele.-t Mr. L. Clerk H oflt.. in Ccmsres'. Oec'r iPlf "Thehnnd qunrle'n of the m.mopolv demoprnti r«nirt I, .Tselt) is in the ritv of Alhinv ind Edwnrd [.ivmeston. whoie T,«ffiii..n. nnd tereiversntin? conduct, MSp«aket of tb« AwmWy, wintd fux bim U>«iconi oftrsr; trui atjaocrut, b la* of theii mouth piecei." ON Marriage— oFFicE-HUNTiNG — regency Pf)LiTics ii-j IS'll. 185 Matter? If you do, a line to Butler would fix it. There appears to be some discont<>nt in ihe Curnp — some sny that we must have new le iders, bat I believe all is safe, and that the pnuier of the pnriy will be permanent if ordinary discretion is used, t Peter R. t;ild me that if he collisions which have taken place since had happened before the New York appointments, that he w,.uld be d d if I should not have had m.y appointment. Sutherland did not want any thing for himself', but went away .quite in a huff. Van Buren's young tr;be, that he has been training f.^r the last 18 months, thougin they could rule the State, but he is too cunning for them. The party is in an unsettled state ; we w;int a firm leader. We must puff up some of our clan into a great man. Bowne is pressing the bill to divide the mayoralty as fast us possible, to ena- ble him to give us a mnyor, &c. But who they will be he keep< to himself Hatch writes me th^it he was much surprised at my sudden departure. I should like to know wiiether Noah has appointed his Att'y. I do not think he will give it to us. 1 should be very glad to be in New York, for I am tired of Albany ;**■** Believe me, dear friend, Yours most sincerely, EDWARD LIVINGSTON. [No. 103 ] Same to the same — Nov. 22, 1621. — Dear Hoyt: I suppose you will learn from Mr. Van Buren and other friends every thing new and interesting * * * Owing to the ri.-e of wheat I am fearful that United States Stock is lower, but God grant you a safe deliverance. « * » * « J think you had better try your hand at matrhuuny. On Marriage — advice tn Hoyi — Albany very dull. [No. 104.] Edward Livingston to Jesse Hoyt, at New York. Albany, December 3, 1821. My Dear Jesse : I presume that you have by this time returned from Rhode Island, Your visit to Hartford was, / ^«e«s, about a certam libel suit, which busi- ness may possibly cost you some money. You are begy:arly poor ; granted ; pretty senii.men- tal, &c. Now, in my opinion, if you get married on the spur oi the occasion, you stand a small chance of being taken in — as you are as apt as other folks to be deceived by first impres- sions. You are generous, and therefore the more danger. Your standing in society is very good, be careful or else you may be worse off. .\s Noah says. Prithee good Mr. Aothecary give me an ounce, not of civet, but of common prudence : But you will ask ' how the devil shall I take it V Taht is more than 1 know, I do a-sure you. It is a pity that there is no shop where such commodities can be bought, f jr 1 should like to take a pretty powerful dose, and would pre- scribe the same to my friend Hoyt. ****** as you dont appear to care what you take by frequenting No. 55, &c. If a woman that you should esteem should have too much money, get me to draw up the marriage articles, and I will rid yov of all difficulty upon tiie subject. You ask me to dispel the difficulties stated in your letter, but in the first branch of your argument you explicitly adinit that they are all of a "isionary character and complexion. My advice is, not to think of getting married ; it ap- pears like doing the busines; by the job Just keep quiet and you will be married soojj enough. Your poetry I have no doubt was very fine, but I did not e.xictly, as Lord Byron says, com- prehend it. The why, &c. You need not apologize for your letters, for they are always re- ceived with a cordial welcome. Sheriff Gansevoort is going to inake a rfsyeof it they say. There are no persons here with whom I associate but Denniston and King, and Henry Davis, conse- quently the town must be very dull to me. I think by present appearances that you will make money by your stock contract if you hold on. « « * * Yours most sincerely, E, LIVINGSTON. Speaker Livingston canvassing for the Clerkship of the Assembly. [No. 105.] Edward Livingston to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Albany, Dec. 21, 1821. — Dear Hoyt : I am fearful that Hatch is a snake in the grass, so be cautious. I have understood that Mat Davis is coming up to Albany with the members. I want to have him engaged in my favor. Judge [W. P.] Van Ness will do it for me, if you will mention it to him. * « * Benjamin Knower says he will not interest himself about the clerkship, but is committed to support Esleeck if he does any thing. Butler and Knower are Es'eeck's only friends, and [Judge] Skinner is alone in backing [Ephraim] Storr. * » * John Cramer has been very active in my behalf * * * James Burt, and every other man" who respects himself, will not vote for Vonderheyden. * * I wish that Gardiner would speak to Romaine for mo, and explain how things stand. I hope Hatch has written to Boston and spo- ken to Munson. I want you to have every member of the N. Y. delegation spoken with once more, and especially Mr. Verplanck, (by you,) who could, and I doubt not, will, do me much good, * * * I wish you would ask Butler, when he thinks that E. has no chance, if he would give me a lift. I was very sorry to learn that Mr. Ulshoeffer was determined to support Vonder- heyden. * * * E. LIVINGSTON. t Peter R. l.ivingston of Dutchess Co. was elected Speaker of the Assembly, by 117 out of 12.3 votes, in Jan. 1823. He was the most ultra of Governor Clinton's opponents In Jan. 1828, Mr. Livingston was elected President nf the Senate of N. Y., and has long been a most decided partisan of Henry Clay for the Presidency. Hammond describes him M " imaginatiTe and eloquent." 166 THE WAY THE DEMOCRATIC LEAtlERS MANAGE ABOUT OFFICES. Noah's malignity— Ulshoeffer's cunning— Tompkins, Yates, Spencer, Crolius, fijc. [No. 106.] Edward Livingston (Speaker, &c.) to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Albany, .Tan. 21, 1822. — Dear Hoyt. * * * Our people all seem disposed to be in good humor with each other, and ridicule Noah's attempt to interest the party in his personal squab, blea, and suy that he makes an unjustifiable use of his paper to gratify his personal malignity. * * « Ulshoeffer is ev^n more cunning than I supposed him, before the accurate inspection I have given him for the last three weeks. As to President of the U. S. our people dont know what the devil to think. Tompkins drinks too hard— so they say. I wish our people would back the Secretary of the Navy [Smith Thompson], but he appears to have a small body of friends. His conduct about the post office here has done him some service — and Adams's letter, together with his 4th of July oration, is enough to D n any common man. Governor. I should like to have Yates chosen for it, but they say he will keep Spencer on the bench, which some people do not like. * * * I keep my toungc as close as possible, and attend to my own business. * * * I will get the Examiner birth for Ward if possible — if not, I will get it for you. Tell S. Cambreleng that I am satisfied, and so are the people here, that our mem- bers of Congress were entrapped into signing for S. Van Rensselaer [to be P. M. at Albany.] Crolius and Hale electioneered for each other. Hale was to make Col. Crolius speaker, and the favor was to be returned. Crolius is a « * * *, and I hope you will find ways and means to keen him at home. Believe me, as ever, your true and sincere friend, ' E. LIVINGSTON. [No. 107.] Senator Van Buren to Jesse Hoit, Attorney-at-Law, N. Y. Georgetown, Col'a, Jan. 93, 1822. — Dear Sir : Be so good as to deliver the enclosed. We have nothing new here. The Bankrupt Bill is under discussion in the House— its fate is becom- ing more doubtful. Please to get and send me the American containing the numbers of 'the Federalist of 1789 ' published last summer. In haste, your friend, M. V. BUREN. [No. 108.] Senator Van Buren to Jesse Hoyt.— Washington, Jan. 28, 1822.— I have this moment received yours, for which I thank you, and beg of you as a favor to write me often on the .subject of the interesting concerns that agitate you. For the present, I have only to say that 1 never heard of the report that Mr. Sanford would not accept one of the vacant missions until the receipt of your letter. Mr. King, however, heard such a suggestion. I am however entirely con. fident that that report had no influence on the question. In haste, yours truly, M. V. BUREN. iVio Bucktail no Office — a singular Chancery sale — ' Stop my Newspaper.^ [No. 109.] Speaker Livingston, to Jesse Hoyt, N. York. Albany, March 26, [1822.] Dear Hoyt : I was unable to procure the appointment of W^ard as an E.Kaminer in Chancery, as they thought here that Hfi HAD NOT BEEN A BUCKTAIL LONG ENOUGH, and they would not let your merits count in his favor: I therefore changed my ground and had you appointed.! I hope this will be grateful to you and my friend Ward. Let Ward act as your sworn clerk. It is supposed the legislature will adjourn about the 10th of April: the sooner the better. Everything in the political way goes on smoothly. Young looks as if he had been bled ; I feel sorry for unsuccessful candidates. I think in this state we ought to have a peculiar prayer for such people, and especially one in the common Prayer Book. I shall soon have the plea- sure of seeing you, Write me a long letter. Yours sincerely, E.LIVINGSTON. [No. 110.] Same to same. Albany post mark, May 14, 182 — ."T have abandoned all idea of settling at Albany. The chancellor has been so much perplexed, harrassed of late that he this day permits his furniture to be sold at sheriff's sale and bought in.| This will be my apology to you for this short letter * * * Seymour, it is supposed, is elected in the Wes- tern District. Make me one of the Committee in the first ward [of N. Y.] for nominating. Tell Hatch to attend to it." I t Hammond tells iic, in pn^'e llti of liis 2ri(l volume, timt under the luw of party, then and now prevailing, the fJovernor miiMl carry into elleci the wishes of his political friends ; that is, he is a mere tool of the faction of the hour, and must name to the Senate iis tit candidates for office, whoever a caucus or county majority ol politicianfi may dictate. 'I'his is .setting repiihlirau gdvernnicnt at dcfmnce. It hiid been the cu.stom to ai)point i\ nntnry-public for each hank, and as he was a hank ajf nt the Oirectors named him, without reference to his politico. The amended constiuilion vacated all ottices — Chester Bnlklcv, teller of the state hank .\ll)anv, was recommeniied liy the Directors for re-appointmetit. He was a moral man of high char- acter, otid an elder of B. F. Butler'* favorite church, hut because he dilt'ered a little from Van Ruren's party cau- cus system, the senat/? rejected Governor Yates's nomination, and refused to let that petty otlice he filled by any other than one of their creatures ! The next move was the .Safety Fund, thro' which bank sioi-k, direotori, offi- cers, the county presses, and the public credit were converted into state machinery for the elevation of Van Burcn aud the wliolefule plunder of the public. (Can thii allude to Chancellor Kent? / HARD TIMES WITH VAN RUREN LIVINGSTONES GOSSIP, 187 [No. 111.] M. V. Buren, to Jesse Hoyt.— Albany, June 2d, 1822. Dear Sir- I wish vou would pay my old friend Mr. Carter,t what I owe him, and ask Mm to discontLThlspZr It IS UNNECESSARY TO SAY that I am influenced in this solely by a necessitv to curtail mv exmnses of that description which are too heavy. Your friend, M V^^bSrEn! Ulshoeffcr praised-Gihbons the Butcher-Hoyt- Van Buren-Offices-Swearing, Hc-Jacoh Barker. [No 1 12.] Edward Livingston, Albany, to Jesse Hoyt, N Y showers ' My dear'^Ho;:t " ->f ^'^'t%^ S:^ D n"/ ""' ^"^"^'' '^'^ ^""'^''^ ^^^^^^'^'"°" n,P^fT^,^r 1 / 1 I ■ . ^ o""^ '"end Don .Tuan, queer as it may seem, reminds n.e of Lord Coke for he says thai it is not from many books that a man deriveth know^^d^e but from the well understanding of a few. «*« Mr Van Buren i« hprrhnr , T ^ ' Schoharie this week with .lud.e Sekinner. to sefsul^lL" Vow le^ U shS L^m^e'^on" llTd h 'f T ''''' ^:;" ""^ ''' ^"^'^ ^'^ ^^'•'^^'^ him down, as I think him the floT'o the flock "nd be nen" A h oT ""' f'^'""-^ ""f f ^""^''^ '^"'"'"'^"'^ '"'" ^° ^'^ RepvMican ;w/, L on oJ N best men. About your being crazy, I do not feel alarmed, for you have already had the strenPth t'chi^flurceT'Grbbl'^l'TVr''^"^^"""!^"'"^^- *' * HowSJ^^'itS?, Huzirfor ,!n vp!^ Iff .'•'"■ "^""'^ '° h^ '"='>'°'' °^ ^'^'^"y' ^"'J Southwick governor, rerhans .Hd n l'"f 'f ', ""'''/ connected with universal knowledge and honesty, you would P iZl in ^ Tl" ^ ^''^' f'- ^"^ •^"'^^ •'"'^^^ W. W. Van Ness come on, and is Wm f. going to South America ? Amen, so be it, says Jesse. « * » * rxr 11Q1 rr^v Yours sincerely, ED. LIVINGSTON. [r^o lid.] The same to same. Albany, July 18, 1822.— ***** We had a frolic 4th h d a Lt"l 't™;'r 'r'^^'/'f "'^' '^"'^^^ ^"'^'' •^- S'— "' P«t- Ganse!"ort! &c 'We Beeek ldS'v.?r "%'^^^^ or ten days since, when I sat betwe;n Mawne funes of ZeM .hi "■'"' ^""f''''''"^ ^'^^ «he latter sundry protestations, &c. The For- mine * * Yo„ wS '^°'"'"'^"^'' ""f 7^"'"^' «"d l^«Pe -hey may be better than either yours or tTcJe't vou liM J n ?7""" ^""'^ ''"' ^"'^ '" ^''^ Y"^"^- If y"" ^«" g'^' o" the [Assembly] he e • WhoTs ,h rHov tr^"'" V "t"^ T '""'=^ ^^ ^^^ '^^"^^ ^""^ Albany friends. They asked Sr&c?' Th. =?^ ^l T ^?''.'' ^h"' r'' ""Saged in a cause in Rhode Island, with Web- a coming to !' '""'' ''"' ^' ' ^^' ^"'"' ^'''^'' '' ""'^ '^'^y-' ^^^"' ^^at's this world throS'in'thHi'^df'n' \«22.-My Dear Jesse, * * * * The people here are .such cursed misan- mJ^.^'.'fMti August 13, 1822, Albany. (Please 6,mahis letter.) Dear Hoyt * * * * since TxtoSiv von '^^^"^ ''L^>d your w""'^'^^^"^ perseverance and various other estimable qua "ies Be^^re oLlZ 1 "'"'i- ^ '""."''^ *"'" '^" "^"^ '•^^'' "^"^ "'*" ""^ ""^^e you vain. * * * al wLs Zf te 1'^" 'V"°r "V' "?''^ °f yo-self, for Solomon sayeth. " Take heed to a uords tha are spoken, lest thou hear thy servant curse thee." * * * Court was very full doerSuVv fa^'ou 'i'l'r'''/"^^ T'T- ^^^' ^^^"'^ '« '^^ S-^^- f-- ^ "s dIsTri t sL,em. r. t A f ' 'r" '^'^'•'^,"''' ""-^ Wood worth are currently spoken of as Judges of the feup.eme Court. All in doubt about Chancellor. How would you like Sava-e for Atton ev Sinli Wh^':'%'^Tr''"- * * * I have left offSweanng', Chewing, an^d Smoking n^ situn on^" rl. . ^«"/of a mixture! * - * The old rule was to bring your mind to your SeaJe Lr fh T'''^:,"'^""''^''^ is poverty coupled with magnificent notions, ^e Wh. wn1,i^ T "'!'h,^'^«';.«"'J g^t up to wine-not with wine and come down to cider. * * * Sv "v BaXn'. ^1 Chancellot^Harmanus Bleecker, Nathan Sanford, or -acob Barker? 1 hey say Barker is the only man who will be able to keep up with in the rapidity No t: I "ratw' f,7r"r'"VS'^f^ ^'"^ "-^"^er Van Buren nor Jacob will St' iNo telling what would take place if Southwick should succeed ! * * * Believe me, as ever, Your sincere friend, E. LIVINGSTON. E. Livingston to Jesse Hoyt—HoyVs appointment— the Elections. V>Sr%ll^'^i\ ■ . , Albany, November 1, 1822. ™J> ^ . •'"^' received your letter stating that my dear friend, Mr. Cooper, had made a vacancy for you to fill up. To thank him becomingly, would be my great joy Now in sober truth, what could be better than to have you and clrdiner both here'?' You'have el-' wTv« 1^ expectations, for I did not think that you could get the nomination. Gardiner. I al- ways thought could come when he pleased to make the effort. The ticket is a good one, and H. h aTu ' """ >" ''"P;^'''"'- ■^'''•'•' ?""»■ ■^"'"«* has too romantic a name f..?a legislator He had better go too New England and get christened afresh. Our people here were all in hopes that you would get the nomination, and I doubt not will be joyful on the occasion. We caku! 103 HOVT A LEGISLATOTI— SECRETARY YATES-^RtSJELL H. KEVINS- he should be ^'^C'^'^// "\;f '?f . '''X^^ it i, ,aui, will be elected to Congress in his d.s- tb. licket-hkes ll.e t.ckel. &.C. ""."''■•7'' f,,' " J,' "h,,™ ,„ „„d v,m Ihe R.*. or >he S:.' ri'S: rihcrtrif,.' ;';°:'."f t tisi,, e.c.d. •• r*. ./»o™«, iHr.'ifoyt"— it looks well, and hope it will sound well. Am en. Secretary J. V. N. Yates's Courteous Ejnstle to a 3Iemher elect. rw 1 1R 1 John Van Ness Yates, Albany, to Jesse Hoyt N. Y. , .. . A ^^°' Nnl.mberSth 1822.-Dear Sir: Permit me to congratulate you on your election to ^^'^f^'n^hlv To find an ir6a«/«« after so short a residence in the metropolis of our state the Assembly. ^^ "^^"^ ,he confidence of his republican brethren, ,s no small proof n.,ng l"to Jtice anj se u mg he^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^ can equally penetrate into. IS/apSt^a^ter^f^ Fan £«rc?t no« fond of the third heavens in the 31. H. rMn 1171 fTo J Hovt.l-Nov. 14, 1822. Dear Sir-Why did I not see more of you [No. UM 11" qu;,„;p,. Qpneral Maicv and myself will come down with Saturdays U "^TJZVJ^if^^ls^^^^^^ Mechal^ics' Hall. If he can give us his lutle ' r r sU.ir"room 5nd bed rooms, it will be well ; if not any other good moms will do. so parL.r for a «'' "f ^""^^^""''j ,^^^,ij rather stay onboard a vessel thm go int.. his third h.-av.ns. If" oYam.obe"efyou\r; let General Jla^cy's room be on high and he c^n Ijav.^die use if mv room to do his business in, &c . In haste . your tr.end. M. V. BURDN. Arcell knou^n WaU St. B.^e.s Instruct. o^^^^ '^''ti'rf' Ii^mention ng fh ob"^ o^^^^ W^ B'H. ^ w.s rather toencourage a more extensive ?; £ fn. thtT: rr:,Send no!ie at all. Perh.ps his view of .he matter is more correct than mine- md it mic'ht be attempting mo much to go furiher at this time. Bland ^'.°"J^'"°"^ ' % „_,„„„/es of sound m> tt'mt at Albany consider how farthe efil-cts of such a measure .-y;7ch? It wilhic . simply Toud, the pocket; of the rich. The inhabitant of the Log House will feel it too. WL , . Mr. Yate. wa, a ,oa ofChief ..n.ice V^te, a j,,^^ rehUu. of losepl, ^ «-, der of .Mbnnv, tille.l the oir.ce .,1 Scrrrtary of « '-^'t, .o 1/^;^ No H^ "ml Imd the .listnl.-linn of tl,e gr- ,nke. a. the bnrktail canHHlato t,.r r..nernor. who .r^reeded m N^ reappointed .T V. N. V. offices of ..atr. under the new consi,t anon '" i\^ ^X^ vv Man v'. c ompeti.^^ but Van Buren. thon^h . 8err..ary, and Marzy as ^"■"P"''''",. ''f"- J"'^"" ''^'l.ri fl^^^^^^^^^ vninlv exerted lor Tallmad » Wa.h.nKton. did h,. utmost to .,ppo,e \ ounp "/'''^ \[-""f;„ X''^ yTn Buren nnrtv-and in Feb. 18-2ti, he was -e- Mr. y«tc. w«» a friend of Adam*, and opposed .o ^.'e ^^'^^J- ;'• ^^"retav of State ; with M.rcy again as comp moved bv the lep,.lat,.re. 8,, vtes to 3 ' ■ '' ' '' A ; C"^,^ «f ^^j "^.^ ,7„ ,'„ ,d „« gather lax in hi. morals, sociable, anc trailer, and Talc.t «'V'J''«,!;/ir; '„,,.),." ed . rh,!n. too fond of Tompkuts. liked Southwick, and wa, dl. ^^ZZ:::^^r^ uru;XV>UUi,«» .a tU. .any .ag.. ,f th, war. A WALL ST. BROKER UNFOLDING THE M\\^TETIIES OF STOCK-JOSBING. 189 is it that a Fanrier in the State of New York can borrow on his Land, and thus prevent fre- quently his own ruin, when in some of our neighboring States, such a thing is too vain ever to be attempted? What hut our Laws, together with the great flow of capital that comes here to be invested. When will the Canal Loans be taxed ? When the State has no longer occasion to borrow. Will the holders of our Bank and Insurance Stocks have any confidence in the ex- emption of the Canal Stock from ta.\iition any longer than the State wants to borrow? Will not the argument be among Men of Properiv, that it is better to place their property in Stoek of the United States, or in the United Slates Bank 1 Are not the friends of the latter looking on now in high exultation at the prospect of their prediction coming about sooner than their own wishes had expe'-ted it? " The United States Bank toill crush all the Slate Banks." This has been for a long time the cry. Will our Legislature do ail they can to help on such a result ? Will they not rather put a stop at once to tlie whole project, and by an overwhelming vote quiet apprehensions whicli never ought to have been raised? Harm enough has been done already. The States of Coimecticut and New .Jersey have driven away Capital to a large amount by tax. ing Bank Stock. Real Estate has fallen in various parts of these States to half what it v.'as ; and in some instances the depreciation has been two-thirds. What has left them has come to us. The next jilace it will go to if the tax passes, will he into United States Bank Stock, &c. I understand it to be a very frequent remark of those in favor of ta.xing, that the personal pro- perty taxed in the city of New York, is very small to what it ought to be ; and inproof of it, the amount of Bank Capital, &c., is cited. Suppose we have a new bank in the Bowery, with a million capital — or let it be five millions if you please. Will any man undertake to say it would increase the amount of personal property in'theciiy? ^"^ hat would be necessary to make up such a bank? Only a few thousand dol- lars of specie, and bank credits for the balance. Suppose, fi.r argument sake, a man is worth SiO.^OO, and it consists of 100 United States Bank shares. He would subscribe to a new Bank— he borrows ^10,000 on his stock — and as likely as not may put down for four times that sum in the new concern, for probably 25 pft cent of the money may be all that is called for, and his notes for the balance. Or, if the whi lie [amount of stock at once] is to be paid in, it is only for him by a hille management to borrow of the Bank, or of A. B. and C. by a pledge of his stock. Behold then how our cap- itals are made up I— ^.'■)0,000 ! where there is only in fact $10,000. Verily there is more per- sonal property taxed than exists. Contrast the character of our State secuiities with any around us, or in any part of the Union. Is there one of the whole number that has the least credit in a foreign country ? There is a Canal stock of the State of Pennsylvania, bearing an interest of G per cent, the payment of which {interest) is guaranteid for twenty years by the State, and it now sells iti Philadeljihia at 97 per cent. Our Canal stock having twenty three years to run will briiig II Oi per cent : it may be said that the Pennsylvania does not g-jarantee the ultimate payment of the principal, there is i";rce in the remark; but to make up for that iher-- is every prospect that the Canal it- self will be venj productive. Such a stock in our State I have not a doubt would be worth 107 or 108 per cent. Write me again and often. 1 promise you I will not again trouble you with any long let. ters. Dont get out of patience when you see Men act like fools, remembering always that it is in every day matter, and would keep one always in a ferment. I make this remark because \ou speak of being tired of legislation. Keep cool and try to persuade our counirv friends if their error Yours in much friendship, tR. H. NEVINS. The Sentinel to be the New York Patriot— C. K. Gardner. [No 119 1 W. Wilev, New York, to .Tesse Hoyf at Albany. New YoRK.'.Tanuary 2f5, 1823. Dear Sir: The bearer, Mr. Ketchum, proceeds to Albany ro.inorrow mornino-,and I have availed myself of the opportunity of tendering my tnanks f..r vonr attention to the Sentinet.. A prosiiectus is iss^ued for the establishment of a daily news- per imder the title of the t" New York Patriot," which we expect to be able to issue within a jMr. Rnsiiel H. Kevins was one of the Vice Pre-iiflcnts of the jreiit AnIi-Te.xas-annexation meeting, tit wliich Al- bert Gallatin presided in the Tabernacle, Broadway, New York. ' Co\ Ch'i-les K Ciirdne' conducted tlic Pn««of,Mr. Henry Wlieaton aided in peftin;' it up, and Hammond tolls iH tint Mr. Cail.oim very pn.bably exerted himself in starting it. It took a deeded stand asa.nsl Cr.iw- l-.rd Van I'.nren. and his Ue-encv. Gardner had been aid to Genl. Rrov.n dnrinfr ho war ami ys afterwards AsMsrant P. JI. General. ' Tliis oflicc he again filled under Parry and Kendnll, and it is said that he is now p.isf- Jlr'crawfo^d' sVirthe'KtrIol'le\""the;Vhave't'he'eTe""ction, and the minority will cheerfully agree to iheir declared This proiiosal was resisted by Van Buren, Fla-g, W.ight, Butler, Hoy1,Marcy and other pretended friends' of freedom, but assented to by Governor Clinton an.l hi.< supporters. \Vright, elected a senator under a pledse to sn),port a bill giving the people the choice of electors, wheeled into .me under Van Buren, and voted 190 THE ALBANY ARGTrs A POIJTirAL MACIlINEj BIOVEP BY V. RURE\ & CO. short period. The Sentinel will then, of course, be merged, and our subscribers served with the daily paper. ***** ^y ^yiLEY. A Central Press, under Van Barents control, essential to the successful working of his Partii JIachinery. — The Albany Argus. [No. 120.] Senator Van Buren to his friend Jesse Hovt. Jan'y 31, 182.S My Dear Sir: lam overwhelmed with the account of poor' Cantine's death. "l know that nothmg from me can be necessary to secure your zealous attention to Mrs. Cantine's interest if anythmg can be done for her. I have written to Mr. Hoes to be at Albany ; you will tind him a most useful man. I have also written to Mr. Buel, which letter I want you to see Amonrr you all you must do the bc.«t you can. If anything can be done for Mrs. C. I hope and be" heve no republican will oppose it. MR. HOES AND MYSELF ARE RERPON.^IBLE TO MR. BUEL FOR S1500 of the last payment. If nothing better can be done, no person ought at least to be appointed who had not preciously purchased the establishment : and under no circum- stances ought anyone to be appointed who is not a sound, practicable, and ABOVE ALL DISCREET republican. WITHOUT A PAPER THUS EDITED AT \lB^NY WE MAY HANG OUR H.IRPS ON THE WILLOWS.t With it, the PARTY can survive a thousand such convulsions as those which now agitate and prohablu alarm most of those around you. Make my sincere thanks to Mr. Duer and IVIr. Sutherland for their kind letters, and tell them I will write them soon. in haste, yours truly, M. VAN BUREN. Judge Betts— Noah— Leake— the State Printer—' Nolo Episcopari,' with variations—' my views are humble.' [No. 121.] Extracts of letters, Judge Michael Ulshoeffer, to Jesse Hoyt, at Albany. . New York, Feb. 3, 182.3.-Dear Sir : * « * AH eyes are directed towards Albany, and your proceedings have been of such a character as to keep alive public interest and expectation Let me know who is to be put in [Judge] Betts's placed— who will be comptroller— and why the appuintments to be made by the legislature are delayed— who is tobe our circui> and fir^t jiidt^e &c.? I regret to learn by your letters, that in settUng the salaries of the Judges, some feeling' growmgout of the nominations, may bf experienced. It was a surprise to me'thot Governor Yates nominated the Judges before their salaries were fixed by law. It was not good policy Was the strong vote against Betts, evidence of the strength of the opposition to him or to the Executive, or was it only evidence of Young and Tallmadge's strength ? Or how was it to be accounted for ? I presume that our city appointments are to be recommended by the members, at least I have been informed that such is the wish of the Governor. Will your friend Noah consent to this "?— for Isee by his paper that he rules at Albany, and that those who offend him are to receive no quarter Pray infirm me whether he is authorized to say, as he does in his paper, that all who are not his friends had belter stay at home or not offer their names at Albany this winter ? What are you doing about state printer, will not Leake obtain it? Let me also know whether anv open or concert -d opposition is made, or making aeainst the Governor. I must a>Tr,in trouble you respecting a small appointment in this city. William A. Seely, Esq. whose business is niucli in the collecting line, is anxious to be continued a notary, and desires to be remeniber.jd to vou. Heretofore, no consideration of politics has governed in these minor appointments, and for that reason I have without hesitation written to you in behalf of several of the present incimihems IVhnt is to be done in this respect hereafter, you must determine. I feel some anxiety respect- ing H. Westervelt, who wishes to be a notary, who has always been a repuUican and has a large family. Do not forget him. You see I have given you room to write me a long letter at your leisure. Yours truly, M. ULSHOEFFER. t On tlie 2.'')th of August, in ]P2()^.Iea«fi Bnel tmnsferrad Jiis intere'^t in the Albany Argus to Cantiue & I.e:ike. n(- " * .T„_-^. , ,-.. ,„..„, . ^^ 1(1 Uurcn hiiviris procured himself lo be. made Senator nf the United Statr.i Inj the legislative caVcvr—I far the mninr- tti/ were agnin.H Aim)— then Hirccleil the n.lhuviu; a|)p.)i»tnients to ho miide, vij : J. [. Van Men the hiilf hrotlier ol Mcirtin Surrnj.ite nndto be the n.^islunt Jn.lijc ..f the common pleas; Mnrtin's brother. Abraham V.in llnrou to be Clerk : n Mr. VA ilc.ixon. who is the pnrlner ..IVaii Alen. who is ihe brother of Martin, to he Dinrirt \itor- nev ; Cornel ns Ho?ebi...m, who is the hr..(berin-law of Abraham, who is the brother of Martm is an afli.lnit I Samnol R. netts. no-.v IT. P. D. C. Judio, Xeu- York, was nominated bv Governor Yates, in .lanuarv IH^t ns n supreme eoiiri indjc ,in.ler the new ciri.tllufion, an-l rejected bv the Senate, while Sutherland, n.iminatrd'wilii tuin, was cofifirmcd. B'.-tls was next nominated by Yates as a circuit judge, and the tame Senate us-enfeil Imer ICAN ?rERCHANT<; DENOUNCED AS A BAND OF MALIGNANT TRAITORS. 191 [No. 122.]— New York, Feb. 18, 1823.— With respect to the Comptrollcrship, I can only say that it was not desired by me, and that I had so written before I received your kind letter. I have no such views, I assure you. Even that highly respectable situation would not tempt me to leave here and reside at Albany: Nor do I desire to be made, first judge in any event. iU^ news fire mare humble, and I have no intention at present to become a candidate for any ottice beyond that of a Notary Public. Accept, however, my grateful thanks for your friendly intentions, and it I have an opportunity, I will reciprocate. Do not make a State Printer, who wil transfer the feuds of New York to Albany, and throughout tlie State. Dulness would be preierable to indiscretion. Do look to this. I regret that the appearance of things is unpropi- lious at Albany. But is it necessary to oppose Governor Yates? Will not things go on smoothly in future ? If the members of A.ssembly have recommended the county Judtrea, how comes It that the Governor nominated Barstow, &c. ? Has not the Governor rompTied with the members' wishes in this respect? But I must conclude with my queries, in the confident expectation of another interesting letter from you whenever you are at leisure, or in a humor to write to your ob. st. and friend, * lyi. ULSHOEFFER. TheN. Y. delegation puffed— Hoyt's Oratory— Public Opinion wJiimsical—TIie Merchants of New \ork deceptive, traitors in war, and not to he trusted in peace— General Broion-Help Brake to a place. [No. 12.3.] .Tames Campbell. Surrogate, New York, to Jesse Hoyt, Assembly Chamber Albany ,u ^7" \-'''^' ^y}'- ^•'' ^^~3.— Dear Sir : * * * * You wish to know in what estimation the JNew Y ork delegation are held by their constituents. As fir as I can ascertain public opin- ion, yoit stand veil ; indeed I hcUcve I hazard nothing in asserting thai ice have had no Reprc. scntatwn from tins City tor several years past that has given half the satisfaction. Recollect, however, that you have not as yet more than half finished vour labors ; that public opinion is a very uncertain and precarious thing— more easily lost than acquired : and altho' things look fair nt present, I would not bp at all surprised if, at the end of the Sessions, some of you should find yourselves as unpopular as certain of your predecessors. From the debates which are published ''' ff J '" ^"'^ ''^^^ ^"" frequently address the House ; and, without designing to flatter you' It affords me pleasure to observe that your exhibitions as a speaker, do you no discredit I was mucn .amused with that debate, wiiere you had the courage to enter the lists, and to break a lance with the great Demagorgon of our State. His attack on the merchants was unnecessary and nnreasonnble ; at the same time, you must pardon me for te\\in' '"^^'""j '"''''"' "^ ^"'«*"S it on paper aXendinl H aVa n,e - t^n» 1 r >^ to reply to such a speech no mntier how discreet it mav he, " is a remnant of rovnltv " " and o.ial.t to oe aboli5hed." T^nrtoubtedly a speech is the most respectful mode oi" the two. ^ ^ ' ° 1C2 V. BUREN WITHHOLDS THE STATE PRINTING FROM NOAH — JACOB BARKEIl. This teHiouK digression about your speech has swelled this beyond the ordinaiy dimensirns of a leiier ; an effect whicii I did not foresee, or ! should have tiikcn care to have avoided it. Other jnatrcTs that I intended to communicate, niusr be deferred to a future occasion. I would thank y.iu ti> exert yourself lor iny friend Mr Drake, who is an applicant f.r the office of Master in Chancery. Drake is quite a fine fellow, and.I should he much gratified to hear of his obtaining this situation. Uc has nol been a Clintonian for some years, and when he was one, he w;is a fair and moderate opponent. Give tny resnccts to vour colleagues, Mr. Rithbom; and .Mr. Ver- planck. Your friend, - t.IAMES CAMPBELL. Noah after the Printing — Bael's fortune — Piddling State Patronage — being true to ^CTcach other. [No. 124 ] M. M. Noah to .lesse Hoyt, Albany. New Yokic, 23d Feb. 1823. Dear Hoyt ;«*»** Mr. Phillips will hand you this, and e.\p!ain fully the object of his visit. With respect to the State Printing. I cannot but consider my-elf as unhandsomehj treated by those from icliom I had a right to expect a different course ; and am positive that on thu (Jea'h of Mr. Cantiie there was but one voice in my favor. If nianngemeat and intrigue cou d h ive b en s.) successfully exerted as to wenn away my friends or impair my claims, then there is noihinsj to expect from the justice of the Republican party. I cannot blame Mr. Buel in wishing to b. secured in the paymenis due him, but considering the difficulty we labored uu. der in bringing the Akgi;s in the republican from the Clintonian ranks — considering also the fortune which Mr. Buel has made nut of it — 1 ihink that opposition does not come with a good ^racc from bun, and tliat aiy further survicllance over the State Printing should cease. * * * « 1 am n >i so certain thai I can be defeated — but if so, I am willing to hazard a defeat, reserving to myself the rit,'ht of spreading the ficts before the wmid, «//rf exhibit the system of jieddUng away the pntroiiniie of the Stale, * * ^ * Mr. Phillips, goes up to get a section, authori- zing leiTiil notic. s to be pnbli-^hed in the advocate . . . it is jvecessary IN RL^LATION TO 'I'tTi:^ "PREdlDEN'TlAL QUESTION. . . . He has full powers from me to enter i-nto any irrangement, or come to any understanding, ichich may tend to keep things harnwniously and comfiirtably njloul, and prevent schism and division in our ranks — this can only be done by aeting justly and fairly towards \]0'each other. Always, Dear Hoyt, truly yours, M. M. NOAH. Jacob Barker's prospects — he likes ' the fuu' of War in Europe, and desires to see Young Nap, crowned, [No. 125.] Jacob Barker, at New York, to Jesse Hoyt, at Albany. — Ni;\v York, 1:3th March, 1823. My Dear Sir: I have this moment committed to the flames, a sheet * * * * * As soon as steam takes the place of ice, I perceive we are to have the pleasure of seeing you — I hope it will be soon, for many reasons, and particularly because Capt. Barker would be triad to see you before he goes south. He has rfr.-olved with the John Wells — she goes into Byrnes and Tremble's Liverpool line, and Barker goes to Mobil-n to try his hand again at Merchandizing, jiaving declined to command a line ship. He left for Boston this day — returns in ten days, when he will be one of the firm of Barker & Co. Haileck is in great spirits. * * « « J have no news to tell )ou — am poor, out of business, with bad prospects, yet cannot but smile at the freaps before the argument ; but after the cause was argued, and the facts so ably and correctly liid open to the Senate, I thought McDonald's prospects brightened. Messrs. Van Vechten and Henry, who argued the cause on the other side, were sadly disappointed at the result. From the cimtmslnnces of JJr. Butler's being engaged as Counsel, my feelings were much enlisted in McDonald's favor, and I felt very much interested. 194 VAN BtTREX STUUGGLE TO in-F.P rOVvKE FROM THE FKOTLE. ■n tV,. r^qult ^ • * * ^ A meeting has been called, and is now, this moment, in full in tne resuu, . .. t> -j r,fi-,l PlpptoM It was started by two notonons political rwia toi'3 political cast-Pr ^f'^'X"'' ^-/l' ^^J",; g^^ff^rd. >5.c. I trust that Republicans and the thePeZlT^ZLieB. The measure itself I must say, as I always have said is a Republican ot 6? //elT from lohich it springs will render it unpopular with ^ Republicans. ■^X.lt-iZ" Lcmn toihe clerkship of the Assembly 1 consider beyond doubt His Mr. Ijiv ngstoni^ tfici.i deservedly unpopu ar w th the Republican as well as Tf 'T^T Tha" on. s nee forfeited h confidence' of every body. A man devoid of Federal party, ^e ^^^a^^^^ to sacrifice his character, and every thing else that a every P""f 'P'^^ ^^ J°"°- '^^j^Vrine of Ivarice, I think will not obtain the support of a Repuh. to obtaiK a situation under his successor ; but I think L. .. perfectly sate, as ^i,^J^5>^';^J^QYT Bn.ne^sAntiJaclcculiar nor- * Who is Lorenzo Hoyt ? T will tell you. ^^.l!^"- '" [^'^^ ^l^'^^^^ heav" ^"utity, more es,,ec,ally on amount vices with the CoUeCorshi,, of the Itevenue «' ^«^^ \"j'';, ^'^ ,"' frc-tl^er! 'Unonz.^- h^. Uolhor in-law Robert nf rtwnruvoufs enihe/./.Ie.ncnt. In ^^",'=^ l**''^; ''f " ^';,f ' ^^ ' Oak ev the .!.i l^.^-^ [ ,. f^ ^ "^ \ B " mm had certifie.l twenty years before to the the bond thai the »'ire'ie\w^'« »'"!''>,''''"'*^'Yu nrref Ka k <^^^^^^^^^^^ would ;.av. He knew it. But it d.da't and ,.eo|,lo of tin. State, that the Wash.uL'ton and V\ are . ' 'i r. ^' ,"^; ,. ,, ,,,,e ' Uc. ; .les.e was f.nu.d t,. have en.- lvo.lldn-t-andsowen,aysayofL..ro,.^o lovt ''' l'^J\' J,^ '\^; "V^X ,o seiL^.I«.ne, K. P.ok coul.i find no bezzled S^JO.OOO-the jurv gave the, r ^"^ '^™,,'r" J^i ,2^" ,d to this hour in lW(i. not an eir.,rt .s made, or diMrict ntlorney that w:-.ild suit hiiii so we 1 as Butle ^sam ■iiQ to '" oakley, Thurston, .Tones, Jesse, or meant to be. tJrecover a dollar of the monies «n^,'>"- «' •;; ^^;,, ^ '^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ New Worhl ! ! ! Thtirstou any one ei.e I ! ■I'his i. Van lluren .lemocrarj as I •>' ' '' ^"'''7"^';J,7'\vi,. dbury in Mar. 1839. that he had em- (bke M-JIni^y) ,s lloyfs ''^<''''-'" '-^jitwrV ec Woodbur^ receivi, this clerk as Jesse's surety .or ployed liim BB n custom-house clerk, iit Siomi sai,ir>. iii » ri. .'ii'idio.f'OO on Butlor'irerommenilution ! : croswell's artful scheme— the van euren-crawford caucus. 19^ tooate, and by which he has incurred the indignation and disgust of every sensible man withii his hearing. He accused the Argus of political inconsistency, in first advocating an ahera. tion of the electoral law, and then in a few weeks after reprobating the measure as unwise and ami-republican. Th« speech, if it had bee^i an extempore one, would have appeared nii;ch better than it did, but it was perfectly apparent to my own, and the niiud of almost every other pfison who heard hun, that it was a written and committed sppRuh, and CONSEQUEN TLY was perjeUly dis- gusting. The opinion that I always her. to fore entertained, that Gardinur Wi,s a man of very limited talents, is now irrevocably confirmed. As to Mr. Whtaton,+ 1 am not sufficiently acquainted with him to judge of his ahilitiei", Wnt if I/;an form an opnuon Irom what little 1 have seen, 1 .should say he is noihins above mediocrity; but I think I have seen siimcient to warrant the as.«e!iion, that this wmteiVNew York delega- li-.n, IS in every ref-pect inferior to the delegation that New York «as tepresented by la=t wai- ter. I tnust confess I was not a little astonished, when iseeuho the New York n>embers were. I presume they are men of tolerable good sense, with the exception of Crolius ^nd one or two others, but as for their abilities they aie, in my opinion, contricted. Let them be as they may, 1 think they will wish themselves back to New York agMin, bdore the close of the session ; for the Opposition are agoing to experience not a little niortrticaiion this winter I can see already tha much trouble is brewing ; and that the Opposition nnist piepnre themselves tor the resistance of a hot cannonading. * * * Youts affecticately, LORENZO HOYT. Cromocll endorses Noah— Don't abuse Adams until yna have used his friends tohs injury— the Wisdom of the Serpent— don't name, Crawford, for ice can pack the Caucus— The Electoral Law — IVheaton. [N... 129] Edwin Croswell, State Printer, to JesFe Hoyf, New York Albany, January 31, 1824.— My Dear Sir: The course which the Advocate has taken since the return of Major Noah, as well as during bis abs-^nce. has received the enure appiobaiion of our republican friends here. There is one point of policy, however, which it may be well, per- haps, to vary. There are several republican friends of Mr. Adams in the legislHtiire, who have gone broadly with us so far on eveiy question. It is quite important, THEREFORE, ihat voth- ing parncularly harsh respecting Mr. A. [Adams] or his frienda, should be published, AT LEAST DURING THE PENDENCY OF THE ELECTORAL BILL, unless a plai.l dis- tinction is made between his fmleral friends in your city, and his republican friend.- in the country. As an extreme je.dousv prevails among the friends uf all the candidates opposed to Mr. Craw- ford, and as the Opposition make every use of even the most innocent sugirestion to warp the feelings of our friends, it is also important that his [Mr. Crawford's] name^and e^ecially his prospects of obtaining the Caucus nomination, should be kept out of view.X Our points, il they t J Rfl'L^'^'''^i^'"'! "'"' V^^" "■' '^]%r^''"t "■ ".'^ .^,?P'^'' ''"''>" '" "-^ As^eniblv. in oppo..ition to Van R.tren and rhnt ff^^ ■h^'r ■■?",' *'«>""'" Van Buren's tuUnvvers ,n the unjust and u. jratefni act „f retnovintr Governor Clmton from the Canal board an.l ,s now the representative of tlie U. S. at Berlin. In ]8i3 he was editor of the ^^tlonal Advocate, afterwards Rej^orter to the U. S. Supreme Court, and is by profession a lawyer. t In these days, the Argus declared, that "the fact ,s clear, that Mister Jackson has not a sinjrle feeling in com- mon with the i;ep„l,l,can party, and makes the merit of desiring the total extinction of it." The\\« " ille B rn- rublJcan f ilj wLlrington!''''' '"' '"""""' '*' " '"" ^""^'^ ^^'^"■'■"^'' ^""<="^ f-" ^ •^'"''-''> l-S^ S •'^^ Wend you with the Pads to-night- Tis the fide of faction flowin"- Sixty.five perchanre they'll muster- 'Tis the noon of treason's reign- fhere will he none of mind or nllgh^ /,/„„,/, of Maryland, is "oiii— r.Zl 7T-f f,^ '"'i?. '' " I '^""^'- DicKKit.^ON,- and Holmes V Maine : General Uuindlrr w,ll ;,e there- Western T/iovms looking -rimU— rough as steel and bold as Hector- From \ew York, a h.-illa^d few VAN the .mavy DirMor. Spectacles a nd vai.or through: Forsyth, with his foreign graces— „r , , , Edwards, »'imnm%. in a stew— ^^^"t ''"^ n''"' '''^ ^"'^"^ '"-n'?ht^ Plotting: brains and dirtv faces ,^^^ "^'''^ "" ''•^'^^ ^'''" S'^d'y meet you— With the blushes reddeninj'throtKrh- ^' r"" "'" " .'^'''^r'^'jte Shallow knaves, with forms to mock us. ^^,,^^'^, '^''•' ''/'"S '" greet you— Straggling, one by one, to Caucus. ^ ''"'' "'^ <'emon of despair ,„ . • . , „ , , Reign.s, the tvrnnt of thehour, W end you with the Rads to-night. And every dark mtri-iier there Tall and short— and weak and witty— Jostles in the race for power M.any an eye that hates the light, Laborers, suited for the ioh And loves cnn fusion— more 's the pity. Will be there vt riosc'of day • W end you with the Rads to nishl- Barber, Floyd, and Foote. and'CoAA- Cancus ,n his court presides- J.r.nmnn. reariv for his pav- Promises and |.oweriny,te- j8„,h the Barbour.^, men liiistaken ' W^A pn/^f ^aml faction guides. Uniytli shall scarcely save his bncon- ^1 end you with the Rads to-ni^ht- Gallant C^rAvfrom Tennessee- A motley crew, and bad the best- S„n,e in -loom am! some in <,|e»_ W inging from the South their flight, Siiuliow knaves, with forms to ^efe ,». W 1th two po.it stragglers from the West. Strafsling, o.-e by one, t^ vlncZ'' 196 LIVINGSTON, CROSWELL & V. BDREN TELLING WHAT PARTISANS WILL Dd. are eained at all, may be more certainly secured in this way, than by giving even our hone^ con- vlctio'is and hopes of the ultimate success of Crawford, it by U we g.ve currency to the contemp- iihlP Pint which the enemy promulgnte so liberally against him. It IS 3 fficuh to conjecture Nvhat will be the result of the various propositions which are now before the Houe on the subject of the [Electoral] Law. A considerable diversity of opinion nreva'l as roaZajority or a plurality ; but I have strong hopes that our repubhcan friends will SnlL ton the former, and defeat the scheme of Tallmadge & Co., to give the electoral votes for ^TlS'Xmoon, in committee of the whole, Mr. Waterman [of Broome Co.,] explained the fea- ture of Wsbill ^nd the prominent arguments in favor of a majority, in a c ose and conymcng Seech The committee rose after having passed the firs, section of Mr Waterman's bill, with Sn Amendment poliding for the election of 36 instead of 34 electors by the people. PeXost^erev^'s never a more subtle scheme for the prostration of the democraUc party Peihaps there vv as ne VVheaton, and it will require the whole vigi- '^:iy^Z::^:^o::^^r^^r.en^s, to meet, expose,.and resist the designs oHhe fac- tion that is now seeking their ruin. In great haste, yours sincerely, E. CROSWELL. [Three letters, E. Livingston to J. Hoyt, N. York.] Aaron Clark vs. E. Livin.ston-Yates' Notions-Keep power from the People-Van Buren^s Repnhlicans described by Linlngston-Down with Clinton, right or wrong I [No 130 1 Albany, Nov. 14, 1823.-Dear Hoyt: * * * * Aaron Clark is a can- didate for the clerkship. Marcy, Knower, Porter, &c., will do everything lor me ; but as Clark s an ind fits fcllJw, and vviU prove troublesome to me, I feel anxious to give him a signal defea * * * * R..maine and Ulshoelfer could be of service to me-wiU you ask their ass.s- tance ? * * * Write rae an answer to this letter, and burn the same as soon as may be. b. L. iNo 131 1 [Post mark; Albany, Dec. 5,] 1823.-Esleeck put the stories in circula- tion L New yirk that^ was under Van Buren's inilue.ce made a speech &c ut you know without my telling vou, that he IS an egregious bar. * * * * 1 have seen tne governor rYntes sice I last wrote. He is decidedly in favor of Caucus nominations, and confoundedly ZzzlTaZtsLg the choice of Electors to the Feople-hni he says that the Republican vartv ousht not to be afraid to go to the Feople.X . ^ •< ^ „„;ui„ t ^ He will recommend the measure, in my opinion. This I wrote you before-but, if possible, I -im nriw mirer of it than I was before. , . "'Trr;;i>.n members of the House, it is thought will hoU a f"-- "/^ ^'^f "^'^V nnd after coming to a conclusion, nil go one way or the other. ^ ^KJ;'}^„J, u^ n^ xTwnT' DANrPROUS THEY WILL GO ONE WAY. AND IF IT IS THOUGHT HE CANNOT M^SnYDII™ * * *r Yrl have some prime stuff. Stilwell will act firmly and as becomes a RErrBL.CAN I presume you ':2rs!^U\.hatImeanby^f,rmness.' * * * ' ^^ '''^ ^^i'^t^^'^T^':^ terv that has a $100,000 Prize in its wheels. Now, ns a favor, I wil take halt ot a ticket vuin vou if you will purchase one-but recollect it is the last time, and that if you] should draw a blank, I win not venture any more with you. If you consent to this proposition, let me know our number, and then I shall have something joyful in anticipation rvTNP ^TON Yours, sincerely, t- ijlviiNUSiuii. [No 1.3-^ 1 Albany, .Tan. f., 1824.— I rather think the Assembly will pass the Elec- toral Lavv-ihe Senate will not pass the law. I am dead against the law, or against anything t =5« WLeatcn's plan, Flagg's nmcn.lment, an.l tl.e wl,ole prooccdin?. of a meetin? of the ''f'""""';" "'7^",^- }^:::':L^Zl"siJ^k:U^^,:.n'slen.r to J. Hoyt, No. 131, wrUteu three ■„o..,h. prev.ous. t W. A. Thompson, in a letter to .1. Hoyt. dated Albany. ICth Feb 1824 says-; T.,o Sn,<,U -vO-V "-J ■•;;;; butlooVc^t at last. I shall siay here a week or ten days, unt.l we hear the results ol the Caucus at \\ ashu.gton. 1, Mr Van Buren confirms this discroditnl.le statement of the unprincipled '•''""'•t""^ '.is own P"/;>^ 'j "'W';'; solved 'to condenu. hi. art, in any event; when they ""'> ''-^ ;^..'' ,';""^^,j^,^'f,f eomitv and of nshl are merged ,,..u.c.. in order to take thur own position nrninst lum ; when all '""^'^f, "''""' "L"^,;, enrnees them as that he In an ah-orhing do.,re to expel hi.n IVom olhre and when 7 ''■'-"" ""^'/^'^'i^ e"^ to mean act ::^-::^-::;^:::::!x^:.::"^o"X^ opponents .LLy say or think or liim to give hini a niunicnl's cure or uneasiness " THE SANDY HILL JUDGE~A WRONG GUESS BY VAN BUREN. 197 that will tend (o raise Clintonian or Federal stock. * « * t .uini. .,„ , •., ^ . Yours, l:iED. Van Buren's Mend, Skinner, interferes M the State Legislature and Judiciary to prevent the People from electing their Presidents. ^' ■P'^^"^"' [No. 133.] J"dG;e Skinner, U. S. District Court to J Hout isr V t January, 1824. Dear Sir: Mr. Latham A BurrovXt nf .1.; « , V^''''''-— ^^^*^Y' ^I'h with Mr. R.ker, the Recorder, (at an^r^te he is atrchedio Mr R I. \^""'^"''^'""'^' '"'^^d '^^ CordialJy, |R. SKINNER.' ' Li^ingstor. to Hoyt-The Clerk's Logic-Mat L. Davis kept out of Mischief-A list for Mr- Van Buren— Leake for Clay— The Caucus. "^^'^ ^^"^ [No. 134.] Albany, Feb. 16, 1824.— * * * a maioritv nf tl,. t • i majoruy of the people. We recognize the people as the souTce ofal Lvver-t his' i "'' '' * Tii^izrnthSut:^^,^::^' -' '- ''- -'' '--^ ori;;:;. 'l^t.'^ ^ -p the ^e'^nhs.X^^^S'^^t^^Z lZ\i tt Vf °^ ''' "^^ '^^ ^^ Crawford has 88, Adams 36, Calhoun 11. aaTejL^^^^^^^^ * * * hates Van B^uren-I know it. Le^ak: wilUrt't":; h l^^lnt'oTh 'rut^ f'^'t^.^^ ee.e^:::^^:i.u|r^^-^^^ t..y feel towards his Lellen^y'lTmVe^^d; I^ o-he „1=^^^^ 'i^^t' j^l Caucus will be held to-morrow night, or Thursday.' Marcy advises Thursday. * * ^'^^E^StateJ them, could not change his vote or ini'aire ! im tn wWi f ^ fu'V;?^'', "''-^*' ""'' Recorder R.ker, (if he obeved diced against CLntonrand Zch'opposed to^^h^et ^1 oTja'ck^^^^^^ '"^'"- ^""""'^ wa,'slr.,n^Iy preju acted a disgraceful and unbeco^in',' part in inilrtr^r^r^^Lllf:^^^^^^^ ,Hi.^^,^;;|:^:fXJ^|i-^^'^,;"J-Bu^ -.ency which .ppo,nted Noah Sheriff of New Yorlc l IS a Sandv Hill lawyer. Wri-ht fva, id m^ttP,? „.,? I 'i^''",' ^"^^'" "'"' ^" '^^^ ^''''"l" and student-he also HHI some n^onths a'fter Ben ainin F bIX V "n B n ;X na'r 'M^PfT F.""" '" i^^'f^' 1«'9, and left Sandy of Directors of Barker's W. & W Bank in wl„r-h i, ..t ,^i '^ v, ' "T"'^'' ,"'"'' "* President, Cashier, and Board sold out his law office at Sanlv Hil to fiuUer vL ^ '"' '^ may have been an occasional assistant. Skinner the river St Lawrence, in Oct! thai sn^ne 'ear Wri. ^vtit for'Vrf' f^^ ^''"^''^ T'"*^'' "' C""'""' ""» Senators who voted to keep from the people the nower of eTpn.in. t,, /'^"'^"'u''"^ "^ the imnwrtal seventeen seventeen were defeated by 17 OUO votes nevtl^PcZn L k " the electors of the President of the U. S.-the Buren and the eabal-they^uffedV„ru;he'',y,t-and^ m effi,y_but VVnght stuck to Van' the real control of the Argus and its opinions lay. "°^'' ^''- ^^ "^ ""' '*"«' ^^'" "l-Iain where iQB VAN BTJREN S AIR-BUILT lASTLE A.^u ^'^ .hin.. the only one calc^ated - Pjo^^ --^ .. e^ on P^c c.ini^ ^^J^^ttn^ ever, the opinion, or rather the f^^^/^f f ^'^; "^J^.^j p,. Jam ihmgs the Majur has sa,d as to n.uch pleased and .o accustomed to J^ ^^ f°"Vy"eomplain to me that the Advocate has lost regret the deprivation '^f '^^'"-'^"^ ^57^'':^ '!°X^ he is, they think, under son.e sort of obU- its spirit. AstheMajorh..depravedthetrappe.m he 3 y^^^^^^,^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ gation to feed tliem on such vmnds as have be^°^J ^^ J ,^ ^ay excuse me from Lpects to him. and to our h.ends ; tell them that ior "''viou^^^^ ^^^^,^^^ ^^ ^ BUREN. not writing as often as I could wish^^^^^^ <,. /„ Crawford and the Caucus ; thereby showing no political sagacUy. Van Baren prophecies success to Crmojord ana t y -Washington, March 6, 1824.- [No. 138.] Martin Van Baren to J'^f/^^^7';j^;,Jheip 41 Messrs. Lvnch and King T>L S,r: I have received V--^ ^h-s mom n iAh.tThave at no time doubted of our complete may choose to infer trom my l"°'^^>,''"Vj^' Irci^cd here to prevent members from attending success.t The great mrtuence ^^^'l^^^ J^^^* „^^;'='„;ile who have partaken largely of -he fa. the caucus, and the subserviency and in r.' ^^,^^^ ^^^^^ d.,ubtle

ed. 0„ tlv assumption fe.-t, but d. spondeney is a ^^eakness w th -h ch 1 an. ^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ that New York will be fi.m and prompuy ^-^l^'lV ' "^.^^ "" ,, ,,e,n in the field after the course of substantiaily settlH, Neither Mr. ^^t J^^J;;^: X^^iL oyrni^n rests and the reasons New York is pos.si.iv.ly known. J^Jr \^^^ myself be ea-y on the subject, an. so will our in Its sunport cannot be g've.n in a letter 1 vsin "'> confidence. Make my be^t respects friends here who never were in better spirits or felt ^'-"yS^;^^';^!,^^ M. V. BURRN. to our friends, „ . „ „ . -rpdH Pnveriv — Office Hunting — (Ko. 139., ^-»-;«;^- .f K7£;:i.:.;-?"r„'sr.L. .1. n»«r Rrother- Yours of the 4th came duly to Albany, March 7. 1824, Sunday evemng.-Dear « ot^ Thompson received from hand. The subsiance of it I had -"^f -, ;;„^ j^^;:. y'^to the result of your application to you While here, in which you spoke ve,y ^'^^^^^'n^ M ^^^,^^, despaired unul I the Corporation, but as .1 had not heard horn you ^mce 1 ^^^^„^ 3„^^,,d „ ,. received' your last. It is now I suppose ^-own^^; ^^^^ d%end\ipon for a livelihood than ting the olfice you sought. If a pe s n has no h,n ,d„^i„,n.-e, I think he wdl s.,on go olhces, which .t .11 ..me. depend "l"'' .'^>;/' '^ ""^ ,W-rf i-"" ^"•^'^'^"' '" ■""' " ^"'' T^ '""* ,opot. /'A''«»-/'^howev.r,y."rse,-. ce^^M ,^^,„ endeavoring toohtain ; but it ap- succeede.l he mnflc 'Y° "\u <„^„ » lookins round to see whom he coinn nexi ■"-'■-; 7, ,„c<,eed, 1« eree|.erd wpre nnvtlnngl'Ut VAN BURENISM IN THE BITD—PARTY PRINClPLES—SUDAM-^MALtORY. 199 mention your businees is agaiti increasing a little, which I hope is the case for if it HnB« v,^t where the end of 1824 will fi.d us I should not like to undertake to say "'''' hJZ r'T"^ ^V- J*^"^'"?^""' I ^i'*"!^' if the river opened soon, that he should be up a «1"'*«'' ^^e mon- The question was taken on the passa^-e of the bifl M,rM Z °''"""'"/ "charter for the Chemical Bunk, N. Y. again taken-yeas 19-navs IsJcarr^'d Honest Ja^oerw'?''."^''''' I^nays 13-lost. The same question wn for a repeal he and Bowman bolted. Sudam ChrkTndRrn, 7 n' " Vi "f u^^" '}^ ^""^ ^"""^ "P "^^ Nov. no twice then wheeled round to the veasfweVe thrcommitt^^ of in'"^^^ ''"'^ur[' ^"'^"^ ^'^'^ ^^"'^'"" ^"^'"S voted pointed ? Clark. Bowue, Greenly and Ke ei Z,,Zl,Z,?, ,'"'i""'V- Why was not even one o'lponent an- for repeal-but Lieut. Gov Torded^edrha Tre^' 1 tS/^;'' "',r';-'^;'^u'\'^^^"• «"'"»"" =^"'' O^dley leK Albany, A|.ril, 1835, aged 54 years-^nd Xt\Xact2 n ,.^ ^ Y''"^'''^ ''^ '"'"'^'- *'^- «''n character when be expressed gratitude for Sudan,', 200 VAN B.,REN AND JESSE-A JOUENEV SOUTH-CABINET SECEETS. the s ore on the corner of Broadway and Liberty street. y .^ ^^^^ ^.^^^ •n»„ 'i(\ 1R2fi— Dear Sh-: The attack on the Vice President [No. 142.] Washington D 30 1826 Dea^bt.,^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ .^^ ^^^^^ .^ ^^ ^^ rj. C. Calhoun hns produced very great ^xc 'enetu. x k j j ^^x. Satterlee lith seventy. There ts of course not .he jjj^^htest pence fote Ueg^ ^^^^^^ .^ ^. .^^^^^ Clark of your city is the " gentleman Jo'" J^-^;^ York. U ^.^ ^^ .^^^ ^^^^ ^^,^^^^^^ . round the cltest. My quondam fnend Jolm A ^^^'^ f ^^^^^^ \^J^,, earried advices from and when he parted from me. was so f "^'^^,^^f °™ '''l"'J""„ainst me that I wrote confiden- here which would induce the ac^mimstra tion to s o come ou a.- " ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^,ns..\..x to tially to Campbell by the same mail my ""P'^;;'2';7eft u^ The result has, I think, verified my look out for it In the American the mornmg ^^'^'^yi^^^' ?n haste your friend, conieciures. Say nothing of this as coming from me. Inhaste, jour , ^^^^-^^ rNo 143.] WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, lS27^-My Dear Sir • J^f -f ^^^^ t^otain^rcrf- Mr. S^is.a'geitof the editor of the National Telegraph, who v^^^ ^^^,^,-^,y bars for that paper. Any assistance you can give him in Pjo^^^^l^^^ j^, V. BUREN. remembered by the editor, and oblige ^ , ^^^ V K T 1Q97 _AIv Dear Sir : Being entirely free from blN- [No. 144.] WAsmNGTON, Feb 3, \i21.-Sly "^^l^" l^^ j ^j,;,,ad remain so, I DORSEMENTS miv, and my situatton rendering 'iff'^^P'^P^'Q^^ CASE, HOWEVER, v.\. 7 1827— Mv Dear Sir: This will be handed to you [No. 145.] Washington, Feb 7, 1«^ '• ""J , Carolina. He wishes to come on by Master Hayne, son of my friend Colonel "^y^^ °^,,?°f ^'„,„^^^^^ Do me the favor to see to this place under the protection of some person ^'^'^^^f '^"f "^''^''^ '>,ie^^^ Thomas Ludlow is that the wishes of his father, in that particular, ^-^^y^^;" sSncIrdy M. V. BUREN. coming on. ^ « WeUter looks black, and Clay looks blue.' [No. 146.] C. C. Ca.nbreleng. ^L C . to^.Tesse H^y^fZ-^.e us. Webster looks Washington, 13th l-^. 182<.-Deai Hoyt- We ^je c^^r>i ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^,^_ BLACK, and Clay looks BLUE. I h;'ve ub cr bed fm t^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^,^^ u ..t «!9 1 vpnr 1 Wish VO'J would get tliat numoii ui ..u t>.„rn iI.p nrirr of fo me' l'?s so cheap, yon will have no dimculty in filling up the numbet. From the pncc the paper, you will see it is designed for the ^^ovl^^^^ ^^ _^^^ ^ ^ CAMBRELENG. intention to have been back by t^ns time l^^y^e ^^'^ ".VeTlm sday inurning, and after stopping dered it absolute y impossible. Wo s^ a h ve he^e „ ^^^^ ^^ J^_ ^^^^^. ^^^^^^ j ,, ,„,kea a few days at Raleigh, .t .mc- ^ *; ^ ""„ " 'j.^^^ b„t have not vet seen it in either. You anxiously u,^«^A.-«rn.."..«-M-'^^^^ ;:;!LbS;tL;:^«^l? S:S:;tNoah] J.... i...,. .. readers .Un a conc,seand,er. ,„ .1 ••.„! w TI Oiwf.ml in Georgia, mill Icirning from 1 I, «as .lurin- this j....rnev, tlmt Van B. an. C"mbreleng vis te 1 W. 1 . a^^ o n„ ^^^. ^^^ .^^^^ ^^^^ t««M l,i,n unci Mr. Calho.m. Wlalc "^ "l!^'^, ;\;;i;'':7",;;.' ^-^l-'l-nent ha, assumed a ..ew and far more seduc- EITCHIK — ^MY IPHAETON — ^ECONOMY — THE TARTY TRICKED. 201 spicuous view of that suhject, AND IS NOT APPREHENSIVE THAT HE WOULD IN- JURE HIS FRIEND MR. CLINTON,! he might do the same thing. In haste, Yours, sincerely, M. V. BUREN. Thomas Ritchie's Party Practice — The East Room Letter. [No. 147a.] From Niles's Register, Vol. 37— 1829— '30. Extract ol a letter, dated January 1st, 1827, and addressed to, and published by, the Editor of the Richmond Enquirer. " This being the day on which the President's House is thrown open to all visitors, I went, among others, to pay my respects to him, [Mr. Adams :] or rather, I should fairly confess, I went to see the East Room, for the furnishing of which we had voted twenty five thousand dol- lars at the last session of Congress. I was anxious to see how that amount of tumiture could be stowed away in a single room, and my curiosity was fully satisfied. ' It was truly A GOR- GEOUS SIGHT to behold ; but had too much the look of REGAL MAGNIFICENCE to be per- fectly agreeable to my old republican feelings." — Richmond Enquirer, Jany. 4, 1827. Remarks. — Mr. Ritchie was instantly charged by other presses with having published a ma- licious falsehood, there being no truth in the above. Did he hasten to make amends? So far from doing so, it was four months (April 27, 1827,) before he could be induced even to try to excuse himself by sayitjg that " The account to which the writer refers was forwarded to us by one of the most intelligent and distinguished members of Congress." If a member of Congress really made him his dupe, by telling him a wanton and malicious lie, to injure another, why did he not expose him to his constituents, and why allow the untruth such a long circulation ? Is it thus that the Union is to be used to give the signal to 500 servile or uninformed party presses? Is this democracy? In August, 1829, the Editor of the Tele- graph attacked Mr. Adams on 'tother side. " It is well known (said he) that thro' Mr. Adams's aristocratic priHe this elegant room [the East Room] was left unfurnished,'' &c. What an evil it is to have editors in power, and influencing the people, who, like Ritchie, Noah, "Croswell, Blair, and their employers, say " all's fair in politics," and act accordingly I Exchanging a Carriage — an Apology for one cent of Postage. [No. 148.] Letters, Martin Van Buren, at N. York, to Lorenzo Hoyt, at Albany. New York, June 2, 1827. — My Dear Sir : Will you do me the favor to get Dennis or some one else to clean up my harness and Phaeton, and send them to me by one of the boats, with directions to give me the earliest information of its arrival. I want to exchange it here. I can- not pay the postage of this [12| cents] but will j-epay it among your other expences. Excuse me for troubling you, and write me. Your friend, M. V. BUREN. [No. 149.] N. Y., June 6, 1827. — My Dear Sir: I have sent a copy of the enclosed to Mr. Wilcoxon, with directions to advertise anew. The Chancellor would not grant the order B. sent by Mr. Butler. Consult Mr. B. as to the form of making the amendment, and do it for me forthwith. / have no opportunity of paying the postage of this [it was one cent] but you will, of course, keep an account of your e.xpences in this matter. In haste, your friend, M. V. BUREN. t By a reference to Van Buren, Butler, and Croswell's previous letters to Hoyt, about Noali, instructing him in the course that would best serve their purposes, and commending his conduct ; and also to Van Buren's letter to Hoyt in Nov., 1828, [Nu. 156.J vi-here he says " I sorely regret the loss of Noah's election ;" and by calling to mind the fact that Van Buren set aside the claims of Coddington and many other?, in 1829, that, with much difficulty in Washington, he might provide for Noah, by the Surveyorship, the candid reader will perhaps arrive at the same conclusion as myself, that Hammond is wrong in his opinion — that Van Buren, Alarey, Knower, Croswell & Co. acted in good faith towards Mr. Rochester, when they nominsfted him at their Herkimer convention, Oct. 182G, us a candidate for Governor, in opposition to Clinton. Clinton was for Jackson — so now was Van Buren ; all his party capital was thus invested. Rochester was the warm, personal, and political friend of Clay, and anxious for the re-election of Adams — so was Peter B. Porter of Black Rock, who addressed the electors in favor of the Van Bu- ren candidate, reminding them, and with very good reason too, that Rochester's election would probably give Ad- ams the State of New York, while Clinton's might secure it to Jackson. Noah had tried to make money, eight or nine years before, by deserting the bucktails — it would be a good trick in Van Buren to allow him to appear to come out, of his oion accord, for Clinton, against his own [the V. B.] party, by which means the chances of defeat to the Adams candidate might be greatly increased, while Van Buren and his friends would make capital on both sides, and seem to have kept their word. Van Buren writes from South Carolina to Hoyt, in 1827, to get Noah to insert his speeches, " if he is not apprehensive it would injure his friend, Mr. Clinton." There's something of the sneer in this saving clause — Croswell went for Rochester, who was defeated ; Noah for Clinton and Jackson — many of Van Buren's confidential friends, at Albany I'nd elsewhere, were against Rochester — and when the tug came in 1828, Noah, Van Buren, Croswell, Wright, Flagg, and the anti-Adoms men, were Kin nd pulling steadily one way, wtt/i S. Swartwout, for the spoils. Noah's bitterness towards Van Bnren, in 1834 to 1841, was probably in a great measure owing to the imjjression he had, that his useful duplicity had not received a suitable reward. There is at present, a very good understanding re-established ; and Van Buren and Noah, as they deserve to be, are again friends. Clinton, as Governor, had 3650 votes over Rochester; and Pitcher, the hucktail nominee, was returned with him as Lieutenant-Governor. " Hnd Rochester (Van Buren's pretended candidate) been elected, there is every renson to believe (says Hammond) that the entire vote of the State would have been g-iven to Adams" — and Van Buren writes Hoyt, Feb. 8, 1»29, INo. 165.] that VVester'velt, in 1828, had saved their party from defeat by preventing Pitcher's nomination at Herkimer— ;Ac very man they pretended to support in 1826. The apathy dis- played by some of Van Buren's men, and the oiiposition of others, towards Rochester, having turned the scale ia favor of Clinton, the Clintoninns in the legislature rewarded the treachery (if such we may name it) by voting to re-elect Van Buren to the U. S. Senate, in Feb. 1827, 202 VAN BUREN, WRIGHT, VERPLANCK, MANUFACTURES, MASONRY. [No. 150.] Tuesday morning, June 12, 1827.— I must leave here on Saturday morn- ing, and if my carriage cannot be sent down so that I can have it by Friday morning, it will not be worth while to send it. [No. 151.] New York, June 13, 1827.— Dear Sir: lam detained here by nothing save the carriage ; and, contrary to my letter of yesterday, I wish you would send it down upon the receipt of this, if I should have to wait until next Monday to exchange it. *^ In haste, Your friend, M. V. BUREN. [No. 152.] John Van Buren, [Attorney General, &c.,] to Jesse Hoyt, Albany. New Haven, Nov. 28, 1827.— Dear Sir : 1 wish very much to get my rifle here ; and I know of 710 other person except you to lohom Jean write about it. I would be very much obliged to you if you would have a leather covering made for it, and put it on board of the Constellation or Consiitution, in charge "of the Captain ; directed to me, care of Drake & Andrews, Tontine, New Haven. The Captain will send it over to either of the New Haven boats, and so I will get it. I want it very much, and I don't think I shall be home in the winter or I would not trouble you ; it is in my bed room. Whatever the expense is you can get it of Mr. Butler, or if you pay it I will pay you when I get home. The bullet-raould is in one of the draws of the aide board : if not there, I wish you would look for it. JOHN VAN BUREN. The Metaphysics of the Committee of Congress on Manufactures, in 1828. [No. 153.] Governor Wright, Washington, to Jesse Hoyt, Albany. [Free, S. Wright, Jr. Rep. in Congress.] Washington City, 15 January, 1828. My Dear Sir : A n'ote from the Hon. G. C. Verplanck was received by me yesterday, enclos- ing a letter from yourself, together with a particular reference to the Committee on Manufac- tures, of which I am a member, of a subject very nearly and deeply interesting to the Committee, as well as to the farmers and manufacturers of our beloved country ; to wit, the subject of do- menfic cons»m]ition. i i • u You propose to him to refer it to me " as one o( persons and papers, properly belongmg to the Manufacturing Committee." It may do very well as one of die "papers properly belonging to the Committee." But it would seem very clearly to me, that it is oi ly the evidence of " one of the persons" properly belonging, &c., as you cannot have forgotten that the "^paper" had re- ceived " an envious rent," which you say was " from an Adams Woman." Now this Adams Wnman would appear to be more nearly one of the persons, as possessing evidently the ability of proving t) the committee the facts in relation to this branch of consumption. But whether or not this conclusion be strictly correct, anoth< r follows directly from a view of the " paper" itself, and which it is passing strange you should have overlooked. The repair of this " envious rent," you say, was immediatelv made " by the most delicate fingers that could be possibly en- listed in the cause of the General !" This repair is manifest and presents of itself a delicate specimen of domestic manufacture, important to the comfort, economy, and independence of this republican government. iNow if it had occurred to you, that the object of the Committee is not only to procure uxpfal specimens of domestic manufactures, but also the personal attendance be- fore the Committee of the individual practical mimufacturers themselves, that they may .^ee and learn at the same time, yon certainly would not have omitted to forward the names or name so directly rendered material, to enable the Committee faithfully to discharge their important trust. We have no news here. I shall at all times be e.xtremely pleased to hear from you by letter. In much haste, I am very sincerely your friend, and humble servant, SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. Electioneering—Mr. Clay a Mason of rank— Poinsett's Mexican Masonry— Is J. Q. Adams a Mason ?—M(irtindale on Slacery—Guliah C. Verplanck. [No. 154.] Gulian C Verplanck, M. C, to Jesse Hoyt, Albany. Washington, Jan. 22, 1828.— Dear Sir: I have just been told by a distinguished Western member that Mr. Clay is a Mason of rank. He has been in Lodges, Chapters, &c., with him. Cannot this be so used with Clay's friends in our Western District, or with the people, as to di- vert that question from mingling with the Presidential one?* ♦ (;ulinn C Vfrntiinrk shows no Inck of tiict in whnt is culled eler.tioneeriiig. He wns the whig cnndidate for Movor of .\'ew York in )8:i4. nnd cii.ne witl.ii. 180 votes of defentinj C. W. Lawrence, ihoiij-h the previous demo- crntic m.Horily had hecn .WOO. lie must he well iidvnnced in vei.rs. for he wns mnrried hy Bishop Mohnrt in IWXl Miinv ve:irs nIocc he wns involved in n dispute ahoul Trinity Church which did not increiife his Irierulsmp for Governor Clinton. As ' Ahimeleck Coo.lv.' in 1814. he wrote powerful essavs in defence of '"« "^";-, ""V ";■ tacked Clinton with Rreiit severiiv— and afterwards joined the hu.klails nsainst hiin. In 182fi, attne Mcrkimer enth.n. he noniinnted Van Uuren for (;overnor— supported .lackson for President— and only .loincU the oppo- when the hank veto and deposit micsiions came up, and the ere U reiiuhlican piirtv hied otl to fi«"» ntjfl leii iiS« and democriitH. He hni l.een in Concress and a Slate Senator— is distinguished in the wn'^^" »'era- Conveii sitlun (\S whi"i arid nemocrriii. iiu una uij^ii m v^. ....;;..,.......«.. «....^ . — ■ - ^. 'T ;■ ' . I 1 : ^O'v-.- .A A.# turo— and. with Levi Kcardsley and Samuel Vounir. has proved himself a friend to hu country bv hii ettort* to ex- tend the blessings of •ducatlua aud inctauM uwful knowltdge throughout tha land.. ELECTIONEERING WITH A VIEW TO THE CONTROL OF THfi SPOILS — CLINTON. 203 Mr. Poinsett's masonic interference in Mexican affairs, a minister appointed and supported by Adams, might also be used.* 1 have written to Baylies to ascertain if J. Q. A. [John Quincy Adams] is not also of the pro- scribed secret association. I have not time to add more by this mail. Suggest these matters to those who will use them to advantage. Martindale has made a singular display, reading a long sermon against slavery, with great emphasis and gesticulation. I am yours, G. C. V. Regrets Clintoii's death — What could we have done with him ? — He might have opposed Jack- son — My friend Lawrence — Help Judge Hoffman. [No. 155.] James Campbell, Surrogate, N. Y., to Jesse Hoyt, Albany. New York, February 22, 1828. — Dear Sir : I was very much schocked when I heard ol Mr. Clinton's death, and I confess to you, that I sincerely regret it. Important consequences are likely to follow from this event ; but whether favorable or preju- dicial is difficult to determine. It was certainly a very embarrassing question to decide in what, way Mr. Clinton was to be disposed of at the ensuing election. He undoubtedly v\oiild have been a candidate for Governor, and in this case could the Republican party have been prevailed on to support him ? I am of opinion that they could not. Mr. Clinton then, finding himself opposed by our party, would he or his friends cordially co-operate in the support of General Jackson ? In such a state of things, the probability is they would have opposed Jackson, and the intolerance manifested towards them vi-ould have been urijed as an e-xcuse for their conduct. By the death of Mr. Clinton this danger is avoided ; but then it may give rise to others not less serious and formidable. In the selection of a candidate for Governor, every kind of artifice will be resorted to by the Adams party, to distract and to throw us into confusion : and it is only by effecting this that they have any chance of succeeding.t * Joel Poinsett ofSouth Carolina wns Consul Genernl of the U. S. at Buenos Ayres in 1813. andlinH held official station there for years " in ihe same line of business 'says the Baltimore Federal Re|iul)lic!in) ns .lohn Henry fol- lowed in the I'. S.. viz : sounding the disfiosition of the people, and holding out enRonragempnt to disnnion." He was :if>erwards sent to Mexn o where he tmsied himself in the estnhhshment of Masonic l,od?es. the chiirfers for which he obtained from the tf. S. The Mexicans charged him with be'ns :in ar'ful distnrber of their political sys- tem ; and in dne time he assumed his proper position as Martin Van Buren's war secretary. Poinsett began his education in Connecticut, and finished it in London and Edinburgh. t Mr. Clinton, whether in life or death, was evidently n cause of uneasiness to Vnn Bnren and his followers. The following letter iVom Silas VVriuht to Martin Van Kuren wms published in the VVorkingmnn's Advocate. Albany, Oct. 1830 — and shows what Wright's views were at the time he wrote it. Govenuir Clinton could not have nomi- nated Heman .1. Reilfield as circuit judge of the western district, for he was one of the ITsen.nors who had set public sentiment at defiance in \!H4. to please Van Buren and elect the intolerant c:'.ndidate Crawford. It is one ofVah Buren's rules, that, ns, by adherence to him, his political friends mav sometimes have to act dishonestlv and un- justly towards the people, he (V. H.) will stand hv such partv iTisSrnments, if nsePul. and noludd them .ig'in.st the people. !l was on this uionarfhical principle of Charlps I and II, that Wright spoke of Redfield So, too, when the people's representatives removed Flagg, Van Buren made him a P. M.. and there are hundreds of similar cases. Letters Silas IVright to JUartin f^an Buren. H'as/ihigton. Albany, April 4th, 1P26. My Dear Sik : — The time for our adjournment is now fixed upon, and we shall soon have done what shall at all be done to prepare for our fall contest. Much alarm and excitement is prevailing, not only here, but in New York and elsewhere, from the course taken by Noah, and by the allegations that ^nne of us with vourself are in- clining to join with Mr. Clinton against the .N'ational Arlministrntion These aMejations have been more or less made for some time, hut did not become loud ot efiective until the Advocate came out as v<'ii will have seen. Many of our strong friends are fearful, and nearly nil of them cannot under any terms be brought to j,,in Mr. Clin- ton, or to consent to endeavor to sustain ourselves without running a candidate for O.ivernor agninsi Clinton. If he had nominated Redfield as .ludge of the 8th Circuit, and taken nnv ground, the result might have been different, but now I think it perfectly fixed. My object, therefore is to inform you truly what 1 think will be done; what course 1 have myself consented to ; and what course will, in my 0|)inion. alone «nve us from nn entire division and failure at our next election. A caucus will be held by our frienogadoc,o„d l'f"''^'-J'!:gJLick se, up «» . Deco, DuckS.r, re- tions. They have been a source of ^^'^ pam and P^ea^u ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ contents, and the former «" account of ^^^^^^;7J f^^'/^,^ how extremely painful it is to contents were. You would certainly ^"J^^^^^^ ^^' ^'^/have had no tune to eat my meals My ^ :rourofThe™senses, and/requendy without cause for c.h.^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^, Lavin" the efforts ol Anti-masonry ou of vie« , ana oi Everywhere, as far yond 'rumour, the election has ^e- a -U ^^,.^1 J-^^ ^^y^ ^^^e^Klming votL and lost in L ascertained, we have succeeded in demociaiiccoun ^ ^ tored to death if it is Tounties that were formerly federal by -al majonu . J-^of -as ^^^^^^^ , ,, lost, which is not certain. Th. "^^ «£ ^f^J'^^''' ^The result, according to my present knowledge Old feelings into entire and f'^'^'l^^'^^ces^ slnallv triumphant. The following vote upon and belief, has been (under the "■^'^"^^Xcertain If'there are any mistakes in it, m your part the electoral Ticket I regard as absolutely ""^";- ^^g^fl-^lk, /^.eertained.-Kings 1 do.- of the State, you can. of course, correct it. Quee.^anclbm^^ do._Orange 1 do.-Ulster and Sew York3 do.-Westchester and P^^Titl^^^^^e aJrand Schoharie^l do.-Herkimer 1 -x^-n^s^Lntfi^w:^^^^^ Blightest doubt— 17. chances in the other districUs; you must make them out ifiiimiiiiiiiSI .l.o.iUl we Imve the power next «-'"%; '",g,,j„,, .^..j uJv.sing to the curse I have 1''!'"'^^^ "",, jH-.I "ested de- tad. iryou'-''n(»0""=""'^ ''""^^^^^^^^^^^ • ,„ „„v by this letter s..s,.ect that ""V :^»n«^ /'^„, „, * *" * * VAN BUREIN S LOOSE MOHALS SI1.AS WRIGHT A REFOKMER . NOAH. 205 have votes enough to put Jackson's election out of all question, and WHAT IS OVER IS ONLY IMPORTANT ON THE SCORE OF BETS.* Our Governor and Lieut. Governor's majority will be immense. The only 4 towns in Broomet (A CRAZY COUNTY) have given me a unanimous vote, viz. 1000, and the others, it is supposed will not reduce that. Everywhere I get the true party vote, and in many places Southwick's vote will be large. We shall have nearly 3000 in Ulster and Sullivan, and be- tween 1500 and 2000 in Cayuga ; we have carried our Senators in 4 districts, and have a good chance to carry them in most of the others. Our majority in the Assembly will be as large as is desirable. Contending, as we have done, against Federalism, revived Anti-masonry, and Money, I am satisfied with the result. I SORELY REGRET THE LOSS OF NOAH'S ELEC- TION, AS WELL AS ON HIS OWN ACCOUNT, AS ON ACCOUNT OF THE COST HIS ELECTION HAS BEEN TO THE PARTY ; but one point is gained, viz : he must be satisfied that his friends have, with their eyes open, sustained a great struggle, and run much hazard on his account. I hope there will yet be some loay found out of doing something for him. I shall be down on Tuesday. In the mean time, show this to my friends Bowne, Ver- planck, Hamilton, and Cambreleng. Tell Verplanck I have no doubt you was as much fright- ened as he says, and am quite certain that you have as much pluck as you claim. Remember me to Mrs. Hoyt, and believe me to be, Yours, cordially, M. V. BUREN. [No. 157.] John Van Buren to L. Hoyt, at Albany. New York, Nov. 13,1828. — Dear Sir : You will confer a favor upon me, by having that small trunk in which Pa keeps his valuable papers, i^c, sent up to Mr. Butler's as soon as pos- sible. I neglected doing so when I left. As far as returns are received, we have three votes certain in Maryland, with a chance of another double district. Our friends here all claim Ohio, with perfect confidence. The returns from there are very favorable. JiNO. VAN BUREN. [No. 158.] Judge Edmonds to .Tesse Hoyt. PIuDsoN, November 26, 1828. — Dear Sir: I am anxious to sec Mr. Van Buren as soon as he returns from N-^'W York. Will you be so good as to inform me whether he has yet returned ; and if not, drojr me a line as soon as he does return. By so doing, you will oblige, Your friend, J. W. EDMONDS. [No. 159.] t J. A. Hamilton to Jesse Hoyt, Wall street, N. Y. Nov. 28. Private. — Dear Hoyt : Campbell informs me that you hold a part of the money collected from the Auctioneers, unappropriated — if so, I wish you not to part with it, inasmuch as I advanced ,$200 to Targee to send to Albany, which he promised me should be repaid out of the first money he should collect. He nowinforms me that he has not funds to pay me, &c. ♦President Van Buren does not think a lar?e majority of the people, as indicative of union on men and measures of the least consequence. If Jackson is safe, and the chance of the party to clutch the plunder, through him' "what is over is only important on the score of bets." Gov. Wright, in his mess.age to the Legislature of New York, Jan. 1845, furnishes a very suitable commentary upon this gambling, betting propensity of the Van Buren' family, in these words : " Another point of much more serious complaint, is the extensive and rapidly increasinMM-»' «' " f ^/ " ■' the rearhcry and ingratitude thus n.nn.fested by Wrigiil and Blephcn Allen cahall ( ol. 1 ilcher "f ^ "'''-;;' Vf^,,,.,."^ -j-he Morgan excitement was fanned JACKSON TIMES — THE 6ENEKAL SCRAMBLE FOR PLUNDER. 209 An Old Hunker of Tammany, electioneering for a fat Office. [No. 168] Jonathan I. Coddington, to Jesse Hoyt, at Albany. New York, Feb. 20th, 1829. — Dear Sir : I am in receipt of your favors of the IGth and 18th, and am pleased to learn that Mr. T. L. Smith is not an applicant — but really I don't understand the impropriety of getting the support of our Republican Friends in the Legislature, whether from Town or Country. It is not a new thing. I have known it to be done both in this State, and" also in other States, by persons applying for offices under the General Government. I re- member signing /or the friends of several of the Country Members the winter I was at Albany, but if I recollect right I told you my object in getting the Country Members was not so much with the view of strengthening me as it was to prevent others from getting them. I shall be perfectly satisfied with any course you and my other friends may think proper to adopt. Before the receipt of your last letter I saw Al. C. of the 1st on Change yesterday. He asserted boldly that he would support you for District Attorney. He cannot nor dare not back out. I called to-day at Coe's to know if any more had signed, but he had not the paper, and informed me that the Recorder had it — and I intend to see it to-morrow, (would to-day, but for the vio- lent snow storm — at least 12 inches has fallen since morning,) and endeavor to get the 9 to sign, and I think there is no doubt of getting that number. I observe you wish it kept a secret, that our friend the Governor is going to Washington. Why even our opponents know it here. As I have got Allen and Bogardus, would it not be well enough to get our other two Senators from this district? — This I leave entirely to you to do or not to do. Muir (Gen- eral) tells me that Arnold told him that he had got the Chancellor on, but as you say nothing about, tho't perhaps he was mistaken. If he has not signed should like you to get him. 1 have one more favor to ask you — let me know the day that Mr. Van Buren will probably leave Albany for Washington. Your friend, J. I. CODDINGTON. [No. 169.] In a long letter of Feb. 23d, 1829, J. I. Coddington says he has had a con- fidential letter from Washington, announcing who the members of the Jackson Cabinet were, bids Hoyt take the list to Gov. V. B. — then winds up — " I have to renew my request in mine of Saturday, which is, that you'll assertain as near as you can what time Mr. Van Buren will leave Albany." " P. S. I open this to say that my Washington letter says that the general opinion was that General Jackson meant to take [care] of his friends. J. I. C." James A. Hamilton declares himself a good and true Spoilsman. [No. 170.] James A. Hamilton, Acting Sec. of State, to Jesse Hoyt, at New York. Department of State, [Washington,] March 10, 1829. Dear Sir : I have with pleasure re- ceived your letter. As to Mr. Duer, I will say to you, as I said to his brother-in-law Mr. Bun- ner — " While I am not called upon to make an effort to displace Duer, his conduct on an oc. casion of great feeling and delicacy, (the controversy with Mr. King about the 'Hamilton Pa- pers,') was not such as to occasion regret to me if he should loose his office, or to induce me to turn a finger to retain him." / agree with you entirely in the propriety of making changes FOR THE REASON YOU SUGGEST. With very great regard, your friend and servant, JAMES A. HAMILTON. An Application for Office — very briefly answered. [No. 171.] Mr. Sec. Ingham to Jesse Hoyt. — Washington, 11 March, '29. — Dear Sir: I have received yours. The District Attorneys have usually been recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury — but often the applications have been made directly to the President. As to the several particulars noticed in your favor, I can only say that it becomes us to speak rather in action than by words, lest the latter may be misunderstood — the former cannot be. E.xcuse short letters — necessity compels me to be very brief. Yours sincerely, S. D. INGHAM. Shall /" get anything in the general scramble for plunder V — " Push like a Devil" — out with the Adams men .' [No. 172.] Samuel Swartwout's advice to his successor, J. Hoyt. Washington, 14 March, 1829. My Dear Jessika : Your very beautiful and intire interest, mg letter of the 8ih was received in due course of law. I hold to your doctrine fully that NO D D RASCAL WHO MADE USE OF HIS OFFICE OR ITS PROFITS for the purpose of keeping Mr. Adams in, and Gen. Jackson out of jmwer, is entitled to the least lenity or mercy, save that of hanging. So we think both alike on that head. WHETHER OR NOT, I SHALL GET ANY THING IN THE GENERAL SCRAM- BLE FOR PLUNDER, remains to be proven ; but I rather gvess I shall. What it will be is not yet so certain ; perhaps Keeper of the Bergen light house. I rather think Massa Pomp stands a smart chance of going somewhere, perhaps to the place you have named, or to the De- vil. 510 SPAVINED AND RING-BONED— A QUEER TRIO— W. A. DUER. Your man, if you want a place, is Col. Hamilton. He being now the second officer in the Government of the Union, and in all probability, our next President. Make your suit to him, then, and you will get what you want. I know Mr. Ingham slightly, and would recommend you 'to PUSH LIKE A DEVIL, if you expect any thing from that quarter. I can do you no good in any quarter of the world, having mighty little influence beyond Hoboken. The great goers are the new men ; the old troopers being all spavined and ringboned from previous hard travel. I've got the bots, the fet-lock, hip.joint, gravel, halt and founders ; and I assure you if I can only keep my own \eggs, I shall do well ; but I'm darned if I can carry any weight with me. When I left home, I thought my nag sound and strong, but the beast is rather bro- ken down here. I'll tell you more about it when I see you in New York. In seriousness, my dear sir, your support must come from Mr. Van Beuren and Mr. Col. Ham- ilton ; I could not help you any more than your clerk ; if I had the ability, rest assured I would do it without prompting. Tell Robert Sands that I am offended with him ; he promised to write to me and Mr. H. on business, and he has not done it. My best respects to him. I shall be home in two or three days. Till when, do all you can to improve your fortunes, and believe sincerely Yours, SAM. SWARTWOUT. [No. 173.] Senator Dudley to J. Hoyt. Washington City, March 14, 1829. My Dear Sir : I have been favored with your esteemed letter, dated the 9th inst. In reply to your question, I will state, that from no other person ex- cepting yourself have I received any communication touching the office of District Attorney. Mr. Sanford tells me he has also received a letter from you, and that the office in question, the bestowment of it, is with the Department of State ; Mr. Van Buren will, of course, have much to say in it, and to whom you observe that you have written. There will not he any removals from office before the Senate adjourns, at least from offices in your city, as I am informed. It was expected that we should adjourn this day sine die; but we meet again on Monday, when there will, I have no doubt, be an absolute adjournment. The appointments are all announced in the papers — the few nominations left to act on are of a military nature — Brevets, &c. With great respect, I am, dear Sir, your faithful and obed't serv't, CHAS. E. DUDLEY. Butler thinks Hoyt may turn Van Buren against office-seekers he cannot depend on. We bawl- ed for Jackson when we meant the Spoils ! [No. 174.] Lorenzo Hoyt to his brother Jesse. Albany, March 17,1829. My Dear Brother : I have received your letters of late — those on the subject of District Attorney among the rest, and I have seen and read the one to Mrs. Butler. It seems to me to have been labor lost, for at the last conversation I had with her about the VVashington expedition, she seemed as firm in her opposition as ever. What they will ultimately conclude about it, I don't know ; they will probably come to no determination at present. I also saw your letter to Mr. Butler. His opinions and feelings had undergone a great change about the District Attorney matter since he saw you. I met him in at Mr. V. Buren's Saturday afternoon, and the conversation be- tween us three, who were alone, accidently turned upon that subject ; and Mr. Butler then ob- served, that he beaan to think quite differently about it ; and he nnw says, what I could not but think he would say, that he can do nothing for Duer. He thinks y^ur last letter places the Bubjeci on a strong ground ; and that sueh arguments, addressed to Mr. Van Buren, would be very apt to kindle a proper feelins of resentment AG\1NST A SET OF MEN WHO HAVE NOT I r IN THEM TO BE HONEST AND TRUE TO HIM. Mr. Van Buren observed. on the occasion that I have mentioned, that he had a letter from you that morning, and that you had set about the mniter wnh a very determined spirit. I further understood him to say, that he should not interfere, especially to save Duer. Before much hnd bteii said on the subject we were interrnptt-d liy persons coming in. I am a good deiil surprised that Mr. Van Buren can be neutral in this, and thnt he will not lend the utmost weight of his influence to displace from ojfice such nien as John Duer. lie ought to be satisfied by this time, tliat ih^it class of men can never be his real or pretended friends, any further th:in is necessary 'o promote their own inter- est ; but strange as it may seem, I do belieoe that his fear of the effect of such a measure, is the only m-ttive that would prew.nt his conferring on W. A. Duer, any office within his dispoS'iL* You will probibly see hini when in New York, and you ought then to present your views to him in the plainest manner. If we have been struggling for the success of Jackson and the ac. ♦William A. Duer, recently President of Columbia Cullege, N. Y., Is a grandson of Lord Stirling, one of the most eminent ct. 7. ISli, at which I'hilo llugglcs, William Hard, William A. Duer. and Thomas .1. Oakley were eleclcd as delegates " from the frienda of I'ca'-e' to a general anti war convention, and Madison's administration rensured fni rashness and precipi- tuncw. Towards the close of the contest, however, he roused the people to take part in the struggle — ,ind in 18-23, we nnd him nominated liy the .Mliany Kegoncy, Ihroii^'h Van Huron's influence and exertions, as n hucktail judge for the ;trd circuit and acce|)ted by un ultra democratic legislature, in opposition to Ambrose L. .lordan of Hudson, who had always been an active member of the republican party, and was a firm siippnrter of the war. Mr. Vao £iueuer, to whom the Hoyts had *o THE HUNGRY OFFICE HITNTER — THE POLITICAL WOLF. 21 1 qui^tion of political power, for the benefit of our opponents, I wish to know it, so that I mm know how to act hereajter. From the manner in which the President has exercised his power thus tar, 1 am inclined to think that he will go " the whole Ho<»." Mr. Van Buren left this morning about 1 1 o'clock. Mr. Butler went with him as far as Kin- derkook or Hudson. Wnte me. Yours affectionately, L H [No. 175.] M. Van Buren to J. Hoyt. [Post mark, Albany.]— March 17 1829 —Mv J3ear toir : I will be in New York on Friday, and wish you to take lodgings for me at the Citv ilotel. Yours, ° M V B It would seem that no Regency Governor could visit New York, until Jesse had prepared the i way. On May 9th he had another epistle from another Governor—" Dear Sir, I shalU^ke the J Bteam boat next Tuesday morning, and reach New York in the evening. You will confer an- I other favor upon me, if you will mention it to Mr. Jennings, that he may provide rooms for me. I E. T. THROOP." * I Jesse pushes ' like a devil '—Hires, for Van Buren, a cross grained valet— To the Victors ' belone I the Spoiis—^ We the people '— ' the blood of the martyrs '—the P. 3I.'s Bet-put out John JJuer—bold measures— Rudolph Banner is faithless to us ! { [No 176.] Jesse Hoyt to Martin Van Buren, Sec. of State, Washington ' Saturday, 11 o'clock, A. M., March 21, 1829. Dear Sir : I am under the necessity of leav- ing this evening so as to be in Albany Monday morning at the opening of the Court of Chancery and 1 presume I shall not be able to see you. The man whom I had spoken to as your valet has called every day this week to see when you was to be in town, but 1 have not seen him to-day, but I have left word at my office if he calls to send him to the City Hotel. His name is hryan Farrell. He has good recommendations from Mr. W. B. Astor. He has lived with Mr. Prime, from whom I have learned more particularly his character. He is very capable sober, honest— his only fault is his bad temper, for which Mr. Prime discharged him— but a man who would not suit Mr. Prime in this particular, would never have occasion to exhibit that tailing to you, but of this you are to judge. As a general rule it is an objection to a servant. He is married, but would leave his family here. This is all I have to say on domestic concerns, and what else I have to say is not upon subjects of less importance, but which you may (and as the world goes, perhaps justly,; consider as partaking a little of selfishness— but as Mr Kichie said the other day in a letter to Mr. Noah, " Mr. Van Beuren must tell the truth to Gene' ral Jackson.' So I ought to tell the truth to you, and I will do so, at the hazard of fotfeitin""" V-Hnren'had more 00,^^; n.itie died thiit f„ I. Mnd Oner was .•i?!irn .defeated, bv C. Borland. Dner w:'s in the *l.rte ronventi.in If^ „„!i' 2 12 THE parasite's reward— first minister of justice. for various reasons — it is the case oi ivir. yuci. i±<= ft- o„„f„„l nnrl Mr Dud ev. „o, a candidal., »»^ ' '""S"""' "".J, Tlod M, Bow„e that I would ttot tak, the office of who could insist upon Mr. D. s removal. 1 "'» "'j removed, r.nd now repeal that Di.tricl Attorney lor this city if I could get it, till ,Vlr. uoir was lei , p 1 wdl hold no office from any political parly thai will keep *''-.°''" ;'»''" ""'„„"; „,f„l that it 13 not just to import => •^:>"J;°^ ^^^ you" ^^''it two years ago to Oswego-besides many Heart u,Uk "•^•. ^J y-^j;^-^ ^ted, H wo" J loTnt to a r'c -appointment of Mr. Duer. 1 have other objections that could Deraisea . .^^^^ ^.^ interfere exertions to get hnn o-l^ «! » "=^ «; ^^^^.^r, I will not as he and his friends have done, violate and their principles. , I" ^° "^/'^'^'^j ;ri^;^t;eonfidence, but the means I shall resort to will be the sanctny of private ^"^"^^ /P^^^J/^^'^^^ J„,y, ,„d upon the same principles that ha. actuated free from cnccalmen, but shall '0°?"^^"°"' f^',. .u.ilfore if driven to go to Washington to :„e m opposing him ^^-f'^e late contest^ I shall t^^^^^^^^^ ^^^.^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^,. ,^ prefer my <^^^-^'^";l^^ f'^C:^:^^^^::^ men in power are not prone to look upon as much ^''"^^.d;:^»";/,^J,;,7X I h^ written this in the hurry of departure, and subject office seeke.s in so f;^;«^^^'*^ *^^ '^^^^^^^ \ have not time to read it over and prune it ot any doubt- to the mterruptmns ot ^^^^^ J"^* i .J.^fore send it, subject to any explanations that may be ful expreaMons. if "^ "^^ t'l^^^^^^^ So 1 al I ha e taken a general or special view of the sub. proper to <=""-/ '7, ^",^7^^'^'; J ,,," majo ity of your political friends in the city, nil of whom ir;l tTitoVe -1 c ic 1 o.nt n vou; political fate. The theory of youraddre.^s.o .he Commmee S h Lgislaturewe all ad^ under it, if conformable to the theory, ^s,^Uhat 01 iiic L-cgimai j^ ^^^^^ [vxsie, Very truly, your friend, J. nui i. we require. PATRIOTS FOR HlREj ©UR UNION's LASTING SHAME, 213 Mr, Stilwetl would like Office — is injured by the N. Y. Law Monopoly — has an itching for poll' tics — he gets to be U. S. Marshal. [No. 177.] Silas M. Stilwell to Samuel Swartwout, Hoboken, N. J. New York, March 24, 182i}. — [Private.] — Dear Sir: After leaving you, on yesterday, an idea popped into my head that I would Like a situation in the post office of this city, for one or two years, or untilZ I can completely concentrate my property here. I am now using every means to turn my western and southern property into money, for the purpose of purchasing real estate in New York. — and making this (my native) city my permanent residence. While my bujsness is going on, I can as well be employed in some buwness, that will make me some re- turn. My legal profession is of no use to me here, inasmuch as my licence was granted by the courts ofVirginia.f I feel still an itching desire to write on political subjects, and take an active part in political afiairs, but I shall restrain my inclination untilZ a more convenient period shall arrive. You are no doubt, surprised at the request I make, but I believe you will eventually see that I have taken a proper course. You will be appointed (beyond all doubt) to the office, and I should be gratified if you are pleased with my application. Please drop a line in the post- office, .saying where and when I shall have the pleasure of seeing you. Be pleased to Except of the assurance of my high consideration and respect. S. M. STILWELL. General Prosper M. Wetmore's President refers to his friend Van Buren, [No. 178.] General P. W. Spicer, ex-President, U. S. Lombard, to Samuel Swartwout. New York, March 24th, 1829. — Sir: I have been informed that the office of Collector of this Port has been tendered for your acceptance. Should this information be authentic, and should you conclude to accept the appointment, I take the liberty of ofiering my services for your acceptance in the situation of deputy. 1 feel a conviction that my mercantile experience would enable me to discharge the duties of the office to your satisfaction, and witli advantage to the public interests. If you are not already committed on the subject of your appointment, I can, with confidence, refer to the members of the Republican party at large in our city and State for the claims I may be concidered to possess to your favorable concideration. / om AUTHOR- IZED to refer to the Hon. M. Van Buren and the Hon. C. C. Cambreletig for MY POLITI- CAL STANDING. I likewise feel justified in adding the names of Benjamin Bailey and the Hon. C. P. White, who have assured me of their disposition to advance my views. May I ask to be favored with an interview when you convenience will permit, in relation to tliis busi- ness. I have the honor to be, &c. P. W. SPICER. A Tammany Office-Hunter in the dumps — the Postmaster of New York ready to rebel against Andrew Jackson, and tvhy — Hector Craig — Noah on Clay and Van Buren. [No. 179.] Jonathan I. Coddington to Jesse Hoyt. — Confidential. New York, March 29th, 1829. — My Dear Sir : I have received your favor of the 25th. My interview with Mr. Van Buren was not quite as satisfactory as I could wish, or indeed had a right to expect, after hearing what Silas Wright, Jr., said to Arnold. I will explain further when I see you. It may all end very well, but I am prepared to hear of Noah, or Hector Craig] receiving the appointment. You no doubt have heard ere this that Major Swartwout, of Hoboken, is to be Collector of New York.i^ He told me so himself. The (General had pro- mised it to him, provided he could make certain arrangements, which he says he very soon ac- complished, and sent on — and expects his Commission on Teusday morning. But notwithstand- ing all he says, Alley, Fish, and others dont believe it, or rather, wont believe it. Frank Ogden, it is said, will go to Liverpool. You leell recollect that Camhreleng expects this appointinent. Thus (if true) are TWO OF THE VERY BEST OFFICES in the gift of the Government t Silas M. Stilwell's letters to Hoyt and Swartwout, copied into this correspondence, arerenlly curious produc- tions. He is from New York, went early in life to Virginia, studied law there, hecame a Van Bnren member of the N. Y. Legislature, but voted m favor of the U. S Bank. In 1834. he was on the whis side, and nominated by that party Cwith Seward) as lieutennnt-governnr. lie has been an Alderman of New Ynrk, and a bankrupt. In 1841 he professed a stron": attachment to President Tyler, who gave him the lucrative post of United States Marshal in New York, now held by Eli Moore. Heers's Bank, or the North American Trust Co., was planned by him, and a few others of his way of thinking; he is charged with l)orrowini beautit'ul passages from Brougham, &c., and passing them off for native manuf ictures ; and is probably a self educated man. He started a boot and shoe store in New York; and in 1834, was, ( believe, legislator, alderman, lawyer, shoemaker, and speculator. J Hector Craig succeeded Noah as surveyor of the port of New York in 18 !3. He was secretary to Tammany (Martling's) in 1808. When a member of Congress, and friendly to De Witt Clinton, in 18-2.5, he voted for .lack- son and asainst Adams as President. His father wns from Scotland, and a paper maker at Newbur^h, N. Y., Mr. C. had been a merchant in New York, and in 1837 was an anli sub-treasury conservative. Eh Moore suc- ceeded Craig as Surveyor. W. F. Havemeyer, mayor of N. Y. married Craig's daughter. He (Craig) is dead. ^Tho' enraged at Swartwout's success, Coddington was his personal and political friend, and wrote him. May 6, 1829. Dear Sir — Mr. Isaac Warren is tlie Olil Democratic RrpiiMican in whiise favor I spoke to you sometime since. He has been trying (io get an appointment t'rom Mr. Thompson, the last seven years — and hope he may now succeed. Mr. White and Mr. McUermitt have also requested me to speak to you in their favor for a sitiation. J have also to request that so able and efficient an officer as .Mr. A'al/ianirl Huvt may not be removerJ. Yours most respectfully, J. 1. CODD[NGTO\. 214 WOI)D. — AN OFFICE OR A MUTINY ! — RITCHIE— OFFICE ; FIE FOR SHAMB ? GIVEN TO PERSONAL FRIENDS, and without even consulting his Cabinet. There is considerable dissatisfaction liere that Mr. Van Buren waa not at Wai-hiiigtun sooner. Messrs. Bailey, Alley, Bloodgood and fish, and others, called on Governor Van Buren on Monday, and expressed to liim what they deemed the wishes uf the party — that Thompson, Duer, ii;c. ought to be removed. The Governor told them that he had received a long letter from you respecting removals — but particularly about ihe District Attorney. It is said C. D. Golden is a candidate ioT Duer's place. If so, there ii» another persona/ friend of the General's in your way. O- IF THE PRESIDENT PEllSUES THIS COURSE THE PARTY IS RUINED, O' AND THE SOONER WE BEGIN TO BUILD UP A NEW THE BETTER. Let me hear from you again soon, and believe nie to be yours, truly, J. I. CODDINGTON. Re.mares, I3V W. L. M. — The impression on my mind, from the mercenary character of Noah, and the intriguing, politician-buying ways of Van Buren, and what I see in this corres- pondence, is, that Van Buren had bargained for Noah's support, payable by some fat office in Jackson's gift, if the attempt to gel the Sheriffship for hmi failed. In Van Buren's letter to Hoyt, No. 156, he " sorely regrets" Noah's failure ; and when Coddington saw him, [as above,] he found that Noah was ahead of him, and was so chagrined that he was ready to revolt. Noah, In his Star of Aug. 5, 1834, says that he pleaded in 1829, to .Tackson.at Washington, " the con- dition of the [Noah's] Enquirer, almost broken down, and $25,000 in debt, from a fierce politi- cal contlict " — that Ritchie opposed him — that he wrote Ritchie, tvho replied, [see his letters, Nos. ITJa, and 1796,] — and that when he [Noah] took sides with Webb, against Van Buren, Ritchie called him " the Swiss Mercenary," &c, Noah, again says, in his Star of June 23, that Van Buren got uj) a candidate against him (Coddington 7) and pu&hed him with all his force ; but, he adds, " I was still Van Buren's friend." He praised Clay to the skies ; but had previ- ously, when ordered by " that tyrannical and iBercenary oligarchy known by the name of the Al- bany Regency," described him as '■ the man who had bargained away the presid* ncy," " the apostate politician,'' " the despicable demagogue," '■' who, by a base bargain, brought into the presidential chair the head of the old aristocracy, the reviler of Jefferson'' — adding [Enquirer, May 17, 1828,] " We shall not find fault with Mr. Clay in turning religious, and renouncing cards, dice, and women — it is time for him to do so,'" &c.t [No. 179, a.] Thomas Ritchie, now Editor of the Union, to Mordecai M. Noah, Editor of the Enquirer, N. Y. — Richmond, March 25, 1829. — Dear Sir: I take blame to myself for not meeting, more directly, a suggestion which you made in the letter you were so kind as to address me a few days ago. But since replying to it, I see so much to draw my attention to the subject ; so much in what has been done in the case of others, and so much in what has been rumored in your own case, that I oannot reconcile it to the regard I have for you, or the respect I wish to preserve for myself, to pass it over in the general and delicate way I have done. I will not content myself by saying, as I then did, that I wish for nothing from the Adminis- tration, hut I will take the liberty of going farther, and, in the most respectful manner, ot ask- ing whether you, (at the head of such a press as the N. Y. Enquirer,) sliould accept of an of- fice at their hands? The dignity of the press is already i.v.iuk!;d. I greatly fear, by the NTTMBER OF EDITORS WHO HAVE OBTAL^EP OFFICES — THE TWO GrEENS, DaNFOKTH, KeNDALL, IIiLL, AND IF YOU ARE ADDED TO THE LIST, IT :WAY BE TRULY SAID THAT THE MOST ACTIVE AND ABLEST EOITORS IN THE ELECTio.N OK Ge.v. J. HAVE OBTAINED OFFICES. A mind like yours will see at t fn Noiili's Pt;ir. June 23. 1834. he thus explains his connection with Van Biiren : " I wne so unfortunate as (o i-ommit Mr. Van Buren in favor of VVm. H. Crawford for the presidency, and to h«W liini fust in his pledL'e of fiuelilv. so lar nt least as to vote for hiui on the first ballot. afUr which it was hit intention to have voted for .IoIhj Uuincy .Adams ; to secure his election, and to accept in return sM-h contingent re- ward ns servicLs and infiuPiice of lii it nature have rendered unavoidalile : — for he it known that at that time, and nt no time, waB Mr. Van fJnrMi friendly to Gen. Jackson, or had any conlif, April 13, 18:39. — Dear Sir: I never expected to see the day when I should be con.strained, as I now am, to address you in the language of complaint. Nothing but my strong conviction of the extent and sincerity of your friendship could sustain me in resisting the belief that you have a settled purpose to quarrel with me. Here I am engaged in the most intricate and important affairs, which are new to me, and upon the successful conduct of which my repu- tation as well as the interests of the country depend, and which keep me occupied from early in the morning, until late at night, and can you think it kind or just to harrass me under such cir- cumstances with letters, which no man of common sensibility can read without pain ? Your letter to me at New York contained many truths, for which I was thankful, and reflections which I thought just, 6uZ the lohole were expressed in terms so harsh, not to siiy rude, as to distress nie exceedingly. I have scarcely recovered from the effect of so great an error in judge- ment, to say nothing else, when I am favored with another epistle from you, still transcending its predecessor in its 7nost objectionable features. I must be plain with you. I have all my life (at least since I have known you,) cherished the kindest solicitude for your welfare, and have manifested at least my good will towards you, and should be extremely sorry to have occa- sion to change those feelings, but it is due to us both that I should say, that the terms upon which you hare seen ft to place our intercourse are as inadmissahle. It grieves me exceedingly, more than you imagine, to be obliged to say so. When I was favored with your epistle in New York, I had just returned from an interview with Mr. Bowne, in which I had made your im- mediate appointment as District Attorney, a point that could be no longer delayed. I havesince had an increased desire to see it done, have taken steps to effect it, and with the mail that brings your accusatory letter, I have information that it shall be done ; but that you are hesitating whether you will accept it or not. Let me advise you without giving my reason ichy, to do so. The story you tell [the word illegible,] as coming from .Mr. Hills (a man who, if I know him, is without the slightest consideration in society) about the President's great confidence in Mr. Berrien, and little in me, is tiie veriest stuff that could be conceived. The repetition of such idle gossip constrains me to say, what I am almost ashamed to do, that I have found the Presi- dent affectionate, confiJeniial, and kind to the last degree ; and that I am entirely satisfied that there is no degree of good feeling or confidence which ho does not entertain for me. He has, however, his own wishes and favorite views upon points which it is not my province to attempt controul. Upon every matter he wishes to have the truth and respects it ; and will in the end Batisfy all of the purity of his views and intentions. I have not time to add another word. Your friend and humble servant in extreme haste, M. V. BUREN. Office Beggars rebuked — Hints to Hoyt about embezzling other people's cash. [No. 18:2.] Secretary Ingham to .Tessc Hoyt, at New York. Washington, 14th April, 1829. — Dear Sir : Your favor is duly received, but you must per- mit me to say in great soberness, that an excitement without reason cannot be founded in sober judgment, and ought never lobe made the cause of action on the part of an administration, who are bound to consult, in great soberness, the great interests of the country, and not the feverish feeling even of the best of friends, for which no reason can be given. If there were an enemy menacing your good city with desolation, that would be a good reason for excitement, or //' it was known that your Collector n-as embezzling the public money, or corrupting the Connnuiiity by official abuses, there would he good excuse; but really for so many wise men as we claim among our friends in New York to suffer themselves to be put into hysteric spasms because of the continuance of Mr. Thompson to rolled the duties a few days or weeks longer, or shorter, 18 really matter of surprise — and if it indicates anything for consideration here, it is, that it ■would be better to let the {'"ever evaporate, before we throw in any more stimulants. I am sure that sedatives are better adapted to such a condition tiian any other prescription — but to be more seriouB, my dear sir, let me tell you that there is a vast mass of selfish interest at work abroad. * YOtr MADE ME WHAT I AM,' SAID VAn's POOR, SPAVINED TROOPER. 217 to excite jealousies among us here, and produce distraction, by which some may ride into office on one hobby, some on another, while we are endeavoring to stand unmoved by those ruffling passions, and by harmonious action, to keep the ship steady on her course — and I should hope there was soberness enough among you to resist the impotence of expectants, until their vain hopes shall yield to reason and common sense. There is, moreover, you must know an im- mense mass of severe and constant labor to be performed by the officers of the government, and much more severe to those who come newly into office. These dudes cannot be postponed, and I do assure you that / am compelled daily to file away long lists of recommendations, S{c., with- out reading them, although I work 18 hoars of the 24, iiiith all my diligence. The appoint- ments can be postponed — other matters cannot — and it was one of the prominent errors of the late administration, that they suffered many important public interests to be neglected, while they were cruizing about to secure or buy up partizans. This ?«e must not do, and hence it is . only at intervals, " few and far between," that we can find a moment's time to consider appoint, ments. Then let us come to New York. Our friends there have settled down on about two of the appointments, but you are wholly unsettled as to the CoUectorship ; and I believe as to D. A., and yet such impatience I Why, sir, let me tell you, that one of our best, and I had almost said, ablest friends in Baltimore, left here on the 6th March, leaving his imprecation behind him, be- cause he was not appointed to an office, not then vacant, and because we had not removed all the Administration Inspectors, not one of whom could have been known here, and of whom they have not yet accurately informed me. He has since come to his senses — the inspectors are chiefly removed, and matters are getting right there. Boston, too, has been in a fever, where our friends were so strong, that tHey have divided into two parties. Providence, too, has had a fer- ment, where we had 72 votes, all told. There has also been the same at Little Egg Harbour, where we had five votes ! These matters proceed from the morbid parts of our system — but nothing can sink deep which is not founded in something rational and substantial. Are you not wearied with my long letter? I am. It is the most lengthy epistle I have written, since I was dubbed secretary — and despair of getting time to write such another, for this year at least. Yours, truly, S. D. INGHAM. Iloyt tells Van Buren horn he had served him — Is annoyed at having his ' literary property ' sneer- ed at as rudeness — is Van Buren' s pupil — very disinterested — no sycophant or intriguer — the Vice Chancellor's office part of the spoils — Why Butler and Hoyt were obnoxious — Hoyt puffs himself — down with Duer. [No. 183.]. Jesse Hoyt to Secretary Van Buren, at Washington. New York, April 24, 1829. Dear Sir : I received your letter of the 13, on Monday morning last at Albany, and sufficient time has elapsed I think to enable me to answer it without indulging in those feelings its perusal naturally gave rise to. I have not now and at no time have I had any " settled pur. pose to quarrel with you," for I have too often quarreled for you, to be at this time willing to quarrel with you. It would be extremely huwiliating to be ob\eedgeA to admit, that in all my intercourse with you I had not sufficient sagacity to understand your character ; and it would be no less mortifying to have cause to unsay all I have said for the last 12 years, calculated to advance your reputation as a man, and your INTEGRITY as a politician. When I first came to this city to live, your democratic adherents were not numerous — and without any vanity I may say that my exertions tended to increase the number — and until I have been found guilty of some overt act in derogation of my former conduct, I question with great respect your right to make the insinuation your letter seems to convey. As lam not favored with a bill of particulars of my " indiscretions," " error of judgment," &c. ^c, I am deprived of the power of explanation, but if the plain truth, spoken in a plain way, renders " an intercourse inadmissable," then am I content to be cut off from the world and the iriends I have hitherto been ardently attached to. Every idea I conveyed in the letter you received from me lohile here were conveyed more in reference to your interest than my own, and the language in which they were clothed I suppos- ed would have been sufficiently softened by the reservation I made at the close of the letter — at least to such an extent as would have protected me from the charge " of rudeness," which always detracts from the gentlemanly deportment I am most anxious to preserve. The political senti- ment of that letter I still adhere to. My political sentiments I inherited from a " long line of ancestors'' (such as they were,) MY POLITICAL EDUCATION I AM MAINLY INDEBT- i^D TO YOU FOR, and the principles I imbibed from birth as well as education cannot be eradicated at this time of life. I HAVE NOT MADE POLITICS A MATTER OF DOL- LARS AND CENTS, NOR HAVE I ADHERED TO PARTY WITH THE HOPE OF GAIN, but I have labored in them under your immediate auspices for 12 years with the leading motive to serve yoit, but against the advice of many powerful business friends. During this time you have met with occasional reverses, and I believe my fidelity and faithfulness, and even .'^nme degree of efficiency to you, were never questioned by any or\e — nor am I aware of having evinced any disposition to shrink from the consequences of adveisity which attended you. If 218 THE SOW AND PIGS StTGTION FROM WITHOUT ! perchance I should now fail lo pour out heartless adulation less copiously than sycophants and intregers who have the good tbnune to surround your person at this lime, if mny be a just ground "for letting me down the. wind a prry to fortune." I have no ambition to be in the train of great men, if I am to sacrifice my independence or to be prohibited in expressing an honest opinion. I frankly admit 1 wrote the letter referred to under some excitement. I was assured by Mr. Duer's friends that you had promised to sustain him. My conversation with you at Al- bany led me to the same conclusion. I had that morning received information from Albany that you had spoken to Governor Throop, at the request and in behalf of Judge Duer, for Vice- Chancellor. If this was not enough to justify plain dealing from one who had given some proofs of devotion to you, and who felt the grtat interest you had at stake, I am at a loss to know what would have been. / know the sevse of your partizans in relation to these men, and I know a more indiscreet measure you could not have adopted, if you desired to retain your pow- er and influence with the party to which you have acknowledged obligations. As I wrote that letter my confidential clerk copied the sheets (T kept a copy without reading over the original or even the copy before I got to Albany) for the purpose of enabling me to shew it to Mr. Butler. I did so, and he remarked that it was all right, and he was glad I wrote it. He said the ideas were very strongly expressed but the reservation I refer to rendered that harm- less in point of language, and I must therefore confess I was surprised to find that the charac- ter of the language I used had found its way to your " Sensibilitv,'' or that you could for one moment consider me guilty of "rudeness." As to the other letter, I am equally surprised at the exception. If these were considered exceptionable, then I fear the one I wrote covering one to Mr. Hamilton would be deemed still more so. I had reason to be dissatisfied with Mr. Hamilton for having misled me in his letter early in March. I may have written the last letter under the influence of that feeling. When I tell you. however, that I meant nothing inconsistent with my former relation to you, and that J shall not hereafter obtrude either my opinions or advice vpon you in relation to any subject, 1 should hope I had made satisfactory atonement. 1 am per- fectly aware of the responsibility of your situation, and God knows there is no man living that would be more gratified than I should to have you acquit yourself with reputation. I am very much oblcdged to you for your interference with Mr. Bowne. I shall not get that place, and I can tell you how I was kept out of it. Mr. Maxwell, when he got alarmed, goes to Judge Hoffman and tell.-* him he was to he removed, and that his son, Ogden.had better be a candidate for the office. Mr. Bowne tells Rikcr, confidentially, and he tells an Alderman that you would be pleased to see me put there. This comes to the ear of Hoflman, and he goes to all the Clin- tonian Aldermen, .... of the 4ih and 8th wards, &c. &c., and insinuates this idea to them, and with all the adroitness peculiar to that family, rakes up old prejudices, enlists Duer, who is attached to youne Hoffman, with all the coodies, high minded, and Glintonians, and I was defeated. Duer was in the thickest of this. No Clintonian in the Legislature voted for But'er, snve one or two ; not one of the corporation voted for me. IVe had become obnoxious for our services in the cauM of another leader. There is not old staunch democrncv enough in the Common Council to elect me. It is not then surprising that my inveteracy to that concern, coodies, high minded and all, should be as strong as it is. Mr. Duer is now plaving the same game that Maxwell plnved on WechiPsday (J;imes Campbell authorised me to sny so) — he went to Judge Hoffman and told him th;it he had such information as satisfied him that he would be removed, and that he did not know whv In's s^in Ogden should not be appointed. i\Ir. Duer had then been informed that Mr. Hamilton lind the option to t'lke the office. He told me on Tues- day that Mr. Hamilton could not take it. for on that subject he was " Committed on paper." Mr Bnnner told me the same thins on Monday, at Albany. After this Mr. Duer goes to Judge Hoffman, and, with what motive it is not diflicult to divint\ I did sta'e to Mr. Bo" ne thnt. a« t'lings now stood, T cou'd not Except the office of Altorney for this Comity, nor can [ if it could he given me, after whut f write you, with any degree of honor. I informed the gentlemen who were instrumental in getting up a caucus here on Saturday and Wt-dnesdav last, Cwhich, by the bye, were perfect abortions.) that I had no expectations of Mr. Duer's office, for I kn'^w from the beeinning ;/ you tone not for me it was idle to say any thing on the suhirct: and [ need nofsa> that I Inve not been promised any aid from you. though I thought then and now think I had strnnsr claims on you nsa p^irtv man and a pev.cona! tViend — and such T undcr'ake to say is the universal sen'iment of evei-y b'dv hce, of.'ill j'arfies who have witne.'ssed mv exertions to snsiain \ovt aga'nst the intamous attacks of your enemies. More riian 20 leading men here tendered theirnames and among the rpi^t 'Mr. J, C Hnmillon : your silence induced me to decline the proffer. [ HAVE NO INHERENT LOVE OF OFFICE, and f have not therefore studied discretion or weighed pronouns and advirhs in my letters to " Constitiitioiiril advisers'' and advisers not ronsi'tu ionni at V^'aKliinfton. / Anow Tiii: fxact UXTE.NT of 7111/ prrtfusioiis, mil S''rvire'>, chrinis, CAPACITY, and POWER — they are small and inconsiderable — But when all or any of ihrrn — hall not be pr^ perly respected by those whom I think ou'rht to resppct then^,! should be unvv'Tm? to submit in silence without beinc; aiarmed at any fate that might await me. FolUicttl MelUy, untiring induslry and perseverance will <' I'VK GOT THE BOTTS, HIP-JOINT, GRAVEL, HALT, AND FOUNDERS." 219 one day or other find their value in the political market. These qualities I claim to possess, and which I deem important ingredients in forming and which nearly make up a capital, on which one can conmience business on his own account. It would grieve me as much and' infinitely more than it possibly could you to be under the necessity of differing so far as to lead to a sever- ance of that friendship which I know has e.xisted. You have the power to make me District Attorney, but I could not sufficiently abhor myself if I was " to quarrel with you" for omitting to do it. Yet if Mr. Duer is not removed or any but a democrat is appointed I should do vio- lence to the principles you have taught me not to be dis?ati?tied ; and I do not think your nature is so much changed as that you would require me to withhold the expression of that dissatisfac- tion. Lorenzo tells me I had better abandon all ideas of political preferment till the coodics and high minded have become exterminated. Perhaps he is right. I have said all I have to say, and perhaps more than I should have said, but the ground upon which your letter places us seemed to require equal candor on my part, I will not attempt to disguise the fact that my feelings were such toward you that I fancied I was entitled to know the principles upon which you were to dispense your political power, and to be informed frankly inhetker it was expedient to ask for the place of an obnoxinus incumbent. The confidence I should have reposed in your friendly advice, which I thought myself entitled to, but which was withheld, would have satisfied me, whatever it might have been. Your total silence on this subject, with the apprehension at- tending it, led to the anxiety to be infomied whether your friends and enemies were to be put in, hotch-potch, without any more adhesive qualities than oil and water, and which could never be reduced to a reasonable consistence. It was not inconsistent with my regard for you to point to the danger of such a course : whether I have by so doing forfeited your confidence is a matter somewhat lessened in nnportance to me, from a conviction of the purity of my motives. Yet, as I ever have been, Your friend, J. HOYT. [Pmo. 184.] Eevenue Offices dispensed in paytnent of Political services— for electioneering — to uphold needy families, 65c. — a Primitive Jackson-man ! New York, 28 April, 1829.— To the Collector of the Port of New York. — Sir- The bearer Mr. Benj. C. Burdett, WAS ZEALOUSLY ENGAGED IN OUR LATE CONTEST and deserves the appointment he solicits, which I understand to be that of an Inspector. I am, &c. C. C. CAMBRELENG. "New York, 30 April, 1829.— The collector of the Port of New York.— Sir: Mr. James Maurice, AN OLD AND ACTIVE POLITICIAN, desires a station in our Custom House, and is worthy of THE PATRONAGE of the government. C. C. CAMBRELENG. Mr. Maurice is a Republican of the old school, and a warm and devoted friend to Gen. Jackson. JEROMUS JOHNSON— JOHN HILLYER— M. M. NOAH." Here is another wonderful document — New York, April 29th 1829. To S. Swartwout, Esq. We the undersigned doo recommend Abraham Meserole, as a very suitable peison for one of the Custom House Inspectors, and would gladly se him appointed, knowing him ion allways having been a warm Pupp'Tter of Gen'l Jackson. M. M. NOAH, H. ECKFORD, WM. S. COE, JEREMIAH DODGE, JERO. iMUS JOHNSON." Immediately below this, is the following rare and curious request, on the same sheet and page of paper, " Dear Sir — When you have leisure, and take up the numerous applications for office." in the Custom h'use Hepnrtment, I m'ke this memoranWom FOR FEAR IT MAY ESCAPE YOUR MEMORY, THAT MR. ABRAHAM MESEROLE IS A NEPHEW OF MINE. His brother Bernard the Alderman of the 10th Ward, was a candida'e for the office T fill, supported by a ?tronjr petition of Jickson's friends — would take it as a particular favor, H?" IF THEKE IS A VACANCY AFTER REMEMBERING YOUR RELATIVES, j-fi if yo„ would dve him a commission. Yours truly, JEROMUS JOHNSON. [No. \85.] C. C. Cnmbreleno; to Collector Swnrtwont, New York, 28 April, 1829.— Sir: Mr. Jac'^ L. Dickenson is, I understand, an ■ipplicant for the office of fnspertor. Mr D. hes been one nf mir mnsi uniform republicans, AND WAS DISTINGUISHED FOR HIS ZEAL AND A TIVITY IN OUR LATE CONTEST. No man deserves wore than he does the PATRONAGE OK HIS PARTT. C. C. CAMBRELENG. To Samuel Gnuverneur, Postmi.'ster, N Y. — Dear Str : Thp benrer. Mr. Wl-atpy jg rhe gen- tleman I sp ke to vou n'ooit yectH dav— HE IS A VERY ACTIVE POLITICIAN, and wants an nppointment in the Cn=tom Honoe. You will confer a particub'r favor <." rne bv eiving- bim a few lines of rocommendation to Mr. Swartwout. M. M. QUACKENBOSS. 220 THE KNAVE AND FOOL's TEST— WASSON, A JAGKSON-MAN ! Mem. (Handwriting of S. Swartwout.)— " Alexander Whaley is strongly recommended by Mangle M. Quackeiiboss. He is also opposed to Purdy." [Whaley got $1100 a year.] John Morris, " an ardent and capable politician," applied for his share of the spoils to Collec- tor Swartwout, in 1831, immediately after the close of his (Morris's) political exertions at the fall election of that year. He was recommended by the signatures of John Yates Cebra, Daniel Jackson, C. F. White, Chas. Henry Hall, Waller Bowne, and Jeromus Johnson. Alderman Cebra wrote his friend Swartwout as follows : " New York, Nov. 21, 1831. — Mr. Morris has for seve- ral years been one of our m.ist active and efficient Jackson republicans in the first ward — and is now ACTIVELY AND ZEALOUSLY engaged with us." [No, 186.] William M. Price, to Samuel Swartwout, Collector, N. Y. March 30, 1829.— My Dear Sir : Alderinm Dickenson of the 15th Ward is one of the pkijiitive Jackson menA He is ari upright, worthy fellow, and is withal very poor. He is an applicant for an Inspector's place, and 1 believe his appointment would be generally well received. Yours truly, WILLIAM M. PRICE. [No. 187.] Silas M. Stilwell, to Collector Swartwout, N. Y. New York, 29 April, 1829. — Sir: I apply on behalf of Stephen Stilwell for one of the un- der offices in your gift — designate the one you see proper. I siand re.sponsible for his capability. He is one of the old reside nters of this city, and as deserving as any in it — a thorough democrat of '98, and A JACKSON REFORMER from the beginning of the contest — a prisoner in the Revolution — wealthy in 1800 and 1814 — now without property, but always honorable— ^-and eaqual to any bujsness attached to the duties of a Custom House officer. Until your perplexing season is over I expect not to see you — but rest assured, under all circumstances, of my una- bated devotion and esteem. S. M. STILWELL. [Remark. — Stephen went into office, at $1095 a year, in due course.] /. Oakley, SwartwouVs security, endorses the too notorious George A. Wasson. [No. 188.] J. Oakley to S, Swartwout, Collector of Customs, 2 Cedar St. "April 28, 1829. — Dear Sir: There is a very deserving man by the name of George A, Wasson a measurer attached to the public store. I do not know that he would, under any cir- cumstances, be removed, as I understand he has been a Jackson-man, and was appointed through the influence of Mr. Baldwin of Pittsburg, who is his friend. As it is a matter of great importance to him, however, he has requested me to speak to you on the subject. I wish you would have the goodness, if his removal is contemplated, to let me see you. Yours truly, J. OAKLEY. P. S. Permit me to suggest, by way of manifesting my regard for your comfort, that you had better make the removals and appointments which you contemplate, at once. If you do net, there will not be as much of you left in a few days as there was of the Kilkenny Cats." [No. 189.] Commodore Isaac Chauncey to Co/lector Swartwout — Avery good sailor endorses a very bad note. Navy Yard, Brooklyn, l\Iay 1, 1829. — Dear Sir : Allow me to introduce to your notice, Mr. George A. Was.son, who was appointed by Mr. [Jonathan] Thompson as inspector of the Cus- toms, last Summer, partly by my solicitation. Mr. Was.son is a worthy man, in whose welfare I feel much interest ; and is the individual that I spoke to you about some time since. He vnli relate to you his situation and wishes. If you can continue him in office you will not only serve a worthy man BUT RETAIN A GOOD OFFICER, and confer a personal favor upon, Dear Sir, your faithful friend, I. CHAUNCEY. [No. 190] Jacob B.irker, New York, to Lorenzo Hoyt, Albany. New York, 1st May, 1830. — Dear Sir: You have herewith recommendation of sundry per- sons interested in the Bank of Washinston and Warren. If Mr. Sherman should he selected, he will give Alderman Gideon Lee and John R. Hedley, Esqs., ns security — they are hislily re- spectable and responsible men. Alderman Lee is very rich. The names of some stockholders t Dickenson's cnse is nnother ilhistrntion of the dishonest system of selcctins; revenue ofllcers becnu'se of tlieir po- litical opinions, nnd pfiyinplhem for tlieir profession of the principles, or their adherence t» the men. thnt prove successful. Dickenson writes Swiirlwont, .March :10, 18'29 (.hefore it was even known publicly thnt he would he colle'-tor,) " In principle and soni I mn, ih.-ink find. .lackson, nnd inke some little credit for hcing a primitive one " Miitthuw 1. Diivis writes Swiirtwi>ul. three diiys iifier, " Me is a democrnt, nnil supported the electoral ticket that vdlfd for (lenerMl.luckson." AMerumii (,'ownn writes nnd tells Swartwout, that " on the score of .lacksoni^m he has strong claims, m he was one of the first .lackson Oiunmiltee ever formed in this citv." Mr. Samuel Townsend assures him that Dickenson "has for n long time been n strenuous siijiporlcr of the man who now swnys the destinies of the American people." Mr. Jesse Ctiikley certifies tlmt D. "is one of the original Jackson meii— not of the eleventh hour." BENNETT, BARKER ANB DECATUR— A TAMMANY ! FREE PRESS. 221 have been mentioned, but as a question of liability will arise from ihe peculiar phraseology of the act of incorporation, 1 think it would be very unwise to appoint any party interested, there- fore I hope that Mr. Lathrop or Mr. Sherman will be appointed, or both of them. Yours smcerely, JACOB BARKER. Col. Decatur, a worthless official, justifies Clinton's condemnation of his conduct. [No. 191.] Col. John Decatur to Collector Swartwout. Portsmouth, May 4, 1829. — Dear Sir : This will be handed to you by my particular friend, Mr. John Blunt, lately a resident of this town. In making you acquainted with Mr. Blunt, I take much pleasure. He is a gentleman who has been extensively engaged in business in this place, and in my official duties, as late Naval Store Keeper, have been daily engaged with him in mercantile transactions. For a number of years Mr. Blunt has supplied our Navy Yard, and I have at all times found him prompt, energetic, and faithful in the per%rmar.ce of his contracts ; and w^ere it possible for Mr. B. to reside with us, I know of no man whom I would sooner se- lect to the first office in my gift. For the last four years he has actireiij <:nd openly advocated the claims of our present worthy chief magistrate, and ihe reputation maintained by Mr. Blunt has been such in this section of the country, that we trust his talents have not been engaged un- successfully. Should it be necessary to have an assistant editm; to aid Mr. Noah in warding off the malignant shafts of the coalition party, which will be made on you, in consequence of the general sweep which I presume you intend to make in your office, I know of no more suitable man than this said Cod of mine, and I therefore request that you will add one more obligation I am already under, by giving him an appointment in the Custom House. Yours with esteem and aflec'.ion, DECATUR. [Remarks. — Col. John P. Decatur, whom Gov. Clinton had exhibited to the world, as very dis- gracefully interfering in State elections some years before at Brooklyn, and who figured dis'repu. tably in the Chemical Bank trial, was appointed by General Jackson, Collector of Portsmouth, N. H., in April, 1829. In May, he wrot« to his friend Swartwout as above. Jackson and Van Buren's advent to power, was fortunate for jockies, jugglers, gamblers and blacklegs.] Webb and the Courier — Flagg, Wright and Croswell — an Editor in leading strings to the Wire Pullers of Tammany — What am I to do ? — Butler and Tibbets — Making terms with the Press. [Three letters — James Gordon Bennett to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y.] [No. 192.] PniLADELPmA, 7th June, 1829. — Dear Sir: When I first contemplated leav- ing New York a few days, I promised to write you occasionally. Of course I consider the pro- mise still good. 1 have been part of three days here, and have mixed a good deal with the lead- ing Jackson men. They received the account of the Union of the Enquirer and the Courier with ' utter astonishment.' So they told me in express terms. They cannot conceive how the party in New York can repose confidence in Mr. Webb. Such is the sentiment here. I shall write you again fi'om Washington. In the meantime, will you do all you can about the paper ? Spur up Butler for he wants it. I am, Dear Sir, yours truly, JAMES G. BENNETT. [No. 193.] Washington, 11 June, 1829. — Dear sir: I arrived here the day before yes. terday. I called on Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Ingham. They are both in favor of the new Dem- ocratic paper or the old one renovated. The feeling against the coalition runs about as strong here as in New York. They knew it would be corrected by the public men in New York. Major Moore of Kentucky is here. He brings accounts from the west that some movements are making of a curious nature between Judge McLean (late postmaster) and Mr. Clay. * * J. G. BENNETT. [No. 194.] Albany, 20th July, 1829. — Dear Sir : Since I arrived here I have seen our friends in the Argus office and State department — I mean Major Flagg, Mr. Wright, and Mr. Croswell. They are very friendly, but they say they have heard little of our local matters in New York, consequent on the sale of the Enquirer, with the exception of a passing remark from Mr. Cambreleng, as he passed through here a few weeks ago. They speak in the highest terms of Mr. Barnum, and assure me that he is every way capable for the position in New York. I am sorely puzzled to know what to do. Although our friends here think it a very favorable op- portunity to start a new paper, yet they think it a very hazardous experiment. They told me to-day that if the party had the control of the political course of the Courier and Enquirer, it would be more eligible than a new paper. This they think could be done by placing an editor there under the auspices of the General Committee — an Editor v.'ho would take care of the in- terests of the party and its friends. They are afraid that the political patronage is not suffi- cient tor the support of a new paper, and they are of opinion that a jmnnal which now enjoys all such patronage 'as the Courier and Enquirer ought to give up its columns to a political Editor appointed by the General Committee. I wish you could get me out of these contradictory views and opinions. If you and Mr. OAKLEY, and Mr. CODDINGTON, and a few other of our 222 BENNETT, BURROWS, BTTTLER, VAN BUREN, WEBB & MACKENZIE. friends could settle what course I shall take previous to my return, I DO NOT CARE WHAT IT IS — 1 shall adopt it — I know it will be a proper course. Which is the best and cheapest mode of expressing die views of the party ? A new or an old paper. 1 shall be impatient for action when I return. Now is the time to sow the seed. This is the spring of politics. The birds are beginning to sing. I cannot resist those influences, and if you set yourself to work, I know you can accomplish the matter to a T. Do not call me a heretic, and a trif/ling fellow, because I have spoken thus much of C. and E. // it be heresy, then undoubtedly must head-quarters be in a bad way. On the evening before I left New York, I received a letter informing me that the Herald in- tended to publish on Saturday morning last this — " The last rallying point of the Republicaa Party has been surrendered, by the purchase by the Courier of the services and prospects of the gentleman who was to have published the N. Y. State Enquirer, &c. &c. &.c.'' I went to the office of the Herald and t(^ them it was untrue, and forbid its publication. Snowden will tell you the whole story. It appears that Mumford went to the Herald and told them the story. You can see in this the finger of our friend BUTLER and Elisha Tibbets probably, who want to make as much mischief as possible. I hope old King Caucus will remember them. I shall write nothing for the C. and E. during my tour — that you requested to do. Tell Mr. Ocikley that my next letter I shall write to him probably from the Springs. I am. Dear Sir, yours truly, JAMES G. BENNETT. P. S. — If you have any thing to say particularly in the course of this week write to Buffalo to me. Mr. Croswell thinks that under present circumstances the Republican General Committee can make their own terms with Webb and Tylee. Would not a private meeting of our friends on the subject be a good first step? Va7i Buren disclaims all knowledge of the revolutionary intentions ascribed to Mackenzie. [No. I94a] Daniel Brent, to W. L. Mackenzie, York, U. C. Department of State, Washington, 28th July, 1830. Sir: Your letter of the first of thief month to the Secretary on the subject of an article which appeared some time ago in the columns of the New York Courier and Enquirer, and has since been republished in other public jour- nals, both of Canada and the United States, with additional innuendos and particulars, was re- ceived on the 18th instant at this office, during his absence ; but I lost no time in communica- ting its contents to him. The object of the article or articles referred to is, to indicate a visit to the United States and to this capital during the last summer, as connected with some revolution- ary movement in the Canadas, in relation to which your agency was employed with the Fede. ral Government ; and you call upon the Secretary in his official capacity positively and decided- ly to contradict it. I have, accordingly, just received a letter from Mr. Van Buren, the Secretary, dated at Albany, the 23d of this month, expressly authorising me to deny all knowledge of, or belief, on his part, in the designs imputed to you, as I now have the honor of doing, and to state moreover, that he has not the smallest ground for believing, that your visit had anything political for its object. He directs me also to add, that if the President were not likewise absent from the seat of Govern- ment he is well persuaded he would readily concur in the declaration which I have thus had ihe ho- nor of making in his behalf. I am, &c, DANIEL BRENT, Chief Clerk. Silas E. Burrows and his schemes — Swartwout puffs him to General Jackson, of whom he was long an adviser by the back stairs — Silas wants his Consul at Panama, ijc. [No. 194, 6] Collector Swartwout to General Andrew Jackson. New York, 15th August, 1829. Dear Sir: The accompanying letter has just been handed to me by tho enierprisinsr and iiitelligenl writer of it, with a request that I would forward it to you. Mr. Burrows has not his equal, in our City, for commercial enterprise. You will readily perceive on perusing his communication, the extent and utility of the proposed line of communi- cation between different and very distant parts of South America, It is reaMy surprising that a gmtleman, sinizle handed and without the aid of the Government, should have projected and actually carried into execuiioii, such an extensive and very important operation. But his zeal is not surpassed by his perfect independence nj character. It was intimiiled to him n vear or two ago. that Government felt so deep an interest in this affair, th.it thev would be willing to rontri- bute largelv towards its completion, but Mr. Burrows, being a gentleman of fortune and great pride of feeling, said NO. He preferred the whole expence and the whole credit of it, and he will not swerve from thnt determination. All the aid he requires from Government, is the ap- pointment of Mr. Everet a? Consul at Panama, where there never was one before, and where there arc no Americans residinc at presini. This appointment is important to him. Tt ih'' sin- gle reason, th it he knows that hiscommi'rcial ngeni, if clothed with i-onsulnr dignity and authority, will be more respected, in thn' country particularly, than if he went there as n mere merchant. The person seleited, Mr. Everet, is active and intelligent, and a warm and zealous friend of thic prcacnt adminiatratian. SWARTWOUT SEEN TO ADVANTAGE — WARRING WITH FRAUD. 223 Independently of the merit of this Enterprise, Mr. Burroios is considered, universally in our City as one of the most upright, honorable and gentlemanly men in the community. I am person- ally known to him, and I can assure your Excellency thai no man possesses more of my confi- dence and esteem than Mr. Burrows. As this gentleman has already done a great deal for that country which cannot fail to benefit his own, and which has, in fact already benefitted it exceed- ingly, he certainly merits the countenance of Government. The steam vessel which he has sent thither, and which I visited in company with Mr. Moore, our minister, belbre his departure, can- not fail to increase the facilities of communication to an extent certainly never before cuntemplated by its inhabtants or by strangers and whilst we have a minister there or an agent of Government of inferior rank, this little boat alone will be worth thousands of dollars annually to our Government and its citizens. The request, therefore, of Mr. B., that Mr. Everet may be appointed a consul where there never was one before, and where it is important that Mr. B. sliould have an agent, and where the Government of the United States will also soon require one is. a very small request — and I feel persuaded, your Excelleacy will consider it so reasonable and proper as to give it vour immediate sanction.! The ' Eeform' Appraisers, Coe if Co. described by Swartwout — Justice to the ISIerchants, as doled out by Bernard J. Messerole, Jeromus Johnson, Ichabod Frail, and the Custom House .Politicians of 1830 — Espionage boldly defended, [Remarks. — I do not know whether the following letter, marked ' Private,' is, or is not an oflficial document. If it is, it is perhaps the only one I have copied from Custom House manuscripts, into this book. While 1 was copying it, Mr. Webber went down to Mr. Hunter, the assistant- auditor, and told him what I was doin,'. Hunter went to the auditor, Mr. Ogden, who said that the Records were in charge of Mr. Bogardus — who, with Hunter, came up, stopt about twenty minutes, but made no remarks. The original is among the old letters, &c. In May and June. 18.30, Jeromus JohnsoiT, William S. Coe, app'd April 1829, and A. B. Mead, went into office as appraisers at New York, and Bernard J. Messerole, D. L. Dodge, Ichabod Prall, and Ben. Brewster, as a^ssistant-appraisers. They were, nearly all, convenient, plausible, serviceable party instruments ; pretenders to republican principles, of which they had but little ; but grossly ignorant of the prices and qualities of goods which it was their duty to ex- amine and value. Mr. Swartwout's letter, written three months after, shows how ihiy conduct- ed business The Mr. Gardner he speaks of was, / suppose, the Samuel S. Gardner, who had been a deputy-collector under Thompson, Stephen Allen, &c., and clerk to Receivers of the Tradesmen's Bank in 1826. It could not have been D. Gardiner, the Inspector. By rewarding %vor;hless, artful, electioneering hacks to selfish party leaders, with very influential offices, the duties of which are unconnected with politics, business suffers, honesty is punished, undermined, or crushed, and the public morals are deeply injured. — W. L. M.] [No. 195.] Collector Swartwout to Secretary Ingham, Washington. New York, 1st Sept. 1830. — Private.— Dear S\r : lam very sorry that the removal of Mr. Gar- dner from the appraiser's office, should be considered by you as an act of personal hostility on my part, or that of any other disinterested person. I have often informed you that Mr. Gard- ner A.SSUMED AT TIMES — or had it granted to him — or appraising the merchandise, which was sent to the appraiser's offlce for exnmination. and WHICH WAS CERTIFIED TO BY THE APPRAISERS [sworn officers!!] WITHOUT THEIR HAVING SEEN THE GOODS. I had even spoken to the appraisers about it. / saw it myself, and so reported it to you. I did consider it. and do now consider it, a piece of gross assurance on the part of Mr. Gardner, and of most culpable neglect on the part of the appraisers. I could not remedy it, and wrote you that it was so. Was I to blame for that? But further— Many merchants did complain to me of Mr. Gardner's interference, while the appraisers were examining goods — and of his saying to them such and such goods are too high — and they adopted his judgment. This was com- plained of. He was not a clerk, but styled himself an assistant to the appraisers. His constant occupa- tion, to my knowledge, for I saw it daily, was to hand them goods, stating their value, and get. t Silns E. Biirrowc. (son of Enoch) and his history are well kn"wn in New York. He appears to have been deeply concerned with Collector Swnitwout, and other deep specuhitors part of that bund who joined " rn the gen- eral scramble for plunder," which thevso artfully covered up. in 1808—9. with the cloak of patnoti.-m. Buirows pot in debt, and failed, but $IO,nOO of his creditors means e.xpemled on a tomb to the mother of Washington a show of patriotism, with a world of puffs, from f^wartwout and others, had helped him along. He went strong tot Jackson— negotiated a loan for his very dear friend Noah— went with Swnrtwont as a conservative— and at the Tallmadge dinner. New York May 26,1841. when Van Buren's successor hnd gone to his Inst rest, toasted ■• .lohn Tyler, the disciple of .lefferson, the bosom friend of VV. H Harrison." In Sept 1820 or 30. Swartw.oil enclosed to Van Ruren. then Sec'y of State, Burrow's correspondence with the baron Krudener. and asked %■ me high mark ot e.xpcotive approbation for him. " Mr. B. (said Swartwout) is one of our boldest and most deservuig niercharts and a ffentleiivin cf the noblest and most chivalrick feelings— hence this pr-mpt and generous conduct towaids his un ■ foituaate fellow beings. But the jirivate virtues are so haj)pily blended," &.c. !S^4: AMERICAN MERCHANTS PLUNDERED AT THE CTTSTOlifHOlfl^. ting them to mark them accordingly. If such conduct was right, I was wrong in giving you information of it — not otherwise. Again. — Mr. , a very respectable merchant, called upon me at my lodgings, to inform me confide ntidlly, (and merchants will not give information in any other way,) that goods had passed the appraisers the day before, AT A LESS DUTY BY 50 PER CENT than he had paid for similar goods in the same vessel: and to convince me of it, he had bought a bale ©f the very goods thus passed, and had them in his store, where he would shew me, and satisfy me of the truth of what he said, by marks and numbers. I did visit his store, and found the facts, as stated by him, to be true. On enquiring at the appraisers, I found that it was Mr. Gardner who had INFLUENCED the appraisers in their decision — and, so paramount was his authority or , that his opinion prevailed — and this is not all. The Book in which a Clerk in the appraiser's office had recorded another decision, was taken from his desk, in his absence, and altered so as to correspond with his [Mr. Gardner's] own de- cision. This was done, too, with the entry, which was altered by the same person, to corres- pond with the alterations in the pooks. The Clerk in whose Books this was done, gave me the information — secretly I admit,'but not feloniously nor improperly. Th«y were no spies, but honest clerks. To show you that I was disposed to do my duty, I SENT FOR MR. COE, one of the ap- praisers, and informed him of it. He appeared to be very much shocked at the thing, and promised me he would probe it to the bottom, let who would suffer. I told him I was convinced it was Mr. Gardner from all the circumstances, the hand-writing, the erasures, &c. — 0° but I never heard any thing more about it from the appraisers. This is what I meant by " infidehty to his trust." It was not necessary that you should do this act upon the faith of what I stated. Mr. Gard- ner is nothing to nie, but / %oas obliged to notice his conduct, and what they said of it, but you were not compelled to believe me or them. I am willing to make oath to what I have stated, but I may not be able to get merchants to do the same. What took place in the appraiser's office can be testified to by the clerks and others ; but they would do it with reluctance, I ap- prehend, if the Treasury should attribute it to " improper passions." I cannot give you the names of those who communicate to me confidentially. I obtain in- formation, daily something of great importance — secretly, to be sure, but I cannot divulge the sources of it. I would rather not act than compromitmy honor in a matter of such importance. You appear to be surprised that Mr. Gardner is removed. I acted upon the authority of your letter to remove him from the appraisers' office, and give him employment somewhere else. I wrote to Mr. Gardner a very polite note, stating that I had the honor to enclose him a letter I had that day received from the Treasury Department, and I also sent the original to the apprais- ers. Mr. G. never came near me from that day to this. He left the appraisers, but did not ac- cept the offer to be employed elsewhere, because he is rich, being worth, it is supposed, sixty thousand dollars — and does not want and would not accept a subordinate situation elsewhere at half his former salary. I am, &c., S. S. [No. 19G.] Churchill G. Cambreleng, M.C., to Jesse Hoyt, Albany. Washington, 30th Dec, 1830. — Dear Sir: See our Engineer, Mr. Jervis, and see every man who can aid our Branch Railway petition, or who will help us to give the Turnpike Company its quietus. There is a secret about Judge Peck's trial — the federal minority in the Senate mean to sustain him — the case is an outrageous violation of the rights of a citizen. Tlie Planet, a new locomotive of Stevenson's, has gone from Liverpool to Manchester and back again in 60 minutes, including two minutes stoppage ! See the members of the Committee in the two Houses — and let me know to whom I can send of our charters. Sincerely yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG. The Quartermaster Generalship — Prosper 31. Wetmore and the Flash Fire Co's. — Wetmore and Webb candidates — the militia mixed up with party services — JVebbs great military ex- perievce — Noah a candidate unknown to Webb — Wetmore denounced by Webb and Noah — Sandford goes for Wetmore. [No. 197.] Col. James Watson Webb, N. Y., to Jesse Hovt, Esq., Albany. Private. New York, Jany. 8, 1831. Dear Hoyt : A gentleman called upon me to-day and asked whether I would prefer being Q'r. Master General to Lieut. Colonel of the Governor's Guard ; and proceeded to state that Bayard being absent in Florida, Prosper M. Wetmore, was pushing very hard to be appointed in his stead. He informed me that Lawson had pledged himself to get it for him, and made a visit to Albany last week, solely and exclusively on that account. He also told me what I did not before know, that in consequenrv of WETMORE'S connexion with the " Life and Fire'' or some other such company, the 21th Regiment of Artillery compelled him to resign. He is consequently obnoxious to the Military, many of whom turned their eyes to me— not for •WETMORE, WEBB, AND NOAH, RACING FOR A 0^ TITLE. 225 love, aflection or respect, hut simply because they thought I could defeat Wetmore. I know Wetmore only as tlie author of Lexington and other poetic productions, and as the great gun of Swartwout and Lawson. I owe him no ill will, nor do I feel it incumbent upon me to ask whether in seeking my own advancement I tread upon his toes or not. To cut the Viutter short, I want to be Q'r. Master General. It gives me the rank of Brigadier, and the duty will be less than that of my present appointment. There are no emoluments attached to the office, and consequently even an Editor may be appointed without the censure of the oppo- sition. Ten years of my life spent in the army, qualify me for it, and I may, without vanity, eay, make me more competent to the discharge of its duties than any other applicant. As an evidence of how the Military estimate my army services, I need only mention that in January last I was elected Lieut. Colonel of the Guards, when in Albany, without knowing personally but one officer of the Regiment, and this, too, without my having been consulted on the subject. You know what would have been the consequence of my having come out for Root instead of Throop last Summer, ajid it will be somewhat strange if he refuses to grant so small a favor as to consider me as worthy of the office as P. M. Wetmore. 1 do not wish to be known as an applicant so long as there is a possibility of defeat, and have therefore determined to write only to the following persons on this subject. From you I expect all you can do, nor would I write to my persons on such a subject unless I felt that I would be pleased to render them a similar ser ice. I wrote to Selden, C. L. Livingston, the Governor, Lt. Governor, Messrs. Dix, Tallmadge and Hubbard of the Senate, and Edmonds of the house. With any of these speak freely, and to any other you choose, but not to let it be known that I do apply unless I succeed. Cargyl of our delegation, and also Ostrander, are very friendly. In short. Do as I would do by you — nothing more. All well here, and I beg you to accept our thanks for your letters, although you did make me publish your hit at Monroe. Your friend, in haste, JAS. WATSON WEBB. N. B. You entirely misapprehended our remarks about Selden. Say it shall be attended to.— W. N. B. I have written to Edmonds telling him to call and ask to see this. — W. — also to Selden.— W. P. S. If I am not appointed W. must not get it — it will injure the Governor if he gives it to him. — W. I enclose you the letter to the Governor, which read and hand to him. Noah you will perceive has been named but he cares noticing about it. I do. Send all the letters I enclose to the persons to whom directed, [No. 198.] Lieut. Col. Webb to Lieut. Governor Throop. Office of the Courier and Enquirer, New York, Jany. 8, 1831. To His Excellency, &c. — Dear Sir : I have learnt to day, for the first time, that in conse- quence of Mr. Bayard's absence, applications have been made for the appointment of Qr. Mas. ter General. I am not in possession of any facts which authorize me to say that Mr. Bayard does not intend to return to the City ; on the contrary, he suggested about eighteen months since that the situation would suit me — said he had some idea of leaving the state ; and that, in the event of his doing so, he would let me forward his resignation, and at the same time become an applicant to succeed him. If, hovvever, it is in contemplation to appoint a successor, I beg that I may be considered an applicant. Of my fitness for the situation, perhaps the best evidence is to be found in nearly ten years service in the U. S. Army ; with what reputation your Adjutant General, Major Dix, can inform you. Of the value placed upon those services here. I have no other evidence than my being elected, in January last, Lieutenant Colonel of the Go- vernor's Guard, by the officers of that Regiment, without being known to but one of them ; and elected, too, without any previous consultation or information on the subject. It is not my wish to be known as an applicant unless I succeed, and therefore I have not applied to the officers of the Military in this City ; but if their recommendation is only necessary to ensure my success, an intimation to that effect to Mr. Hoyt, who is now in Albany, or to Mr. Selden, or Livingston, will be promptly acted upon. I beg, Sir, that my claims may be considered, and that you will do me the favor to inform some one of my friends of your determination. I am. Sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAS. WATSON WEBB. SUNDAY MORNING. — On showing this to Noah, a few minutes since, he informed me that his name has been used for this appointment, but that he is indifferent about it. I consider Mr. Noah as well qualified for the situation, and would be pleased to see him appointed if I do do not succeed myself. At all events, his appointment would be more popular than that of any person I have heard named. . Yours, &c. J. W. WEBB. [No. 199.] Dear Sir: You know well the delicacy of these military appointments among military men. I am indifferent, as Mr. W. says, about it, but there are many circumstances which ivould render THE APPOINTMENT OF COL. WETMORE, both of a civil and mili- tary nature, HIGHLY EXCEPTIONABLE. Several have spoken to me on this subject al- ready Yours truly, M. M. NOAH, 226 TUB ARMY, THE BANKS, THE CAMBUELENGS, AND THE STOCKS. [No. 200.] C. W. Sandford, to Lieut. Col. J. W. Webb. Thompson Street, Saturday Ev'g., Jan. 8. Dear ColoPfl • I have just received yours of this afiernoon, and regret sincerely that I cannot comply with your request to address the Governor in favor of your application for the appointment of Qr. Master General — simply because, before hearing of /our being a candidate, at the request of some friends of Col. Wetmore, I wrote to His Excellency in his behalf. Had 1 known you were arf applicant I would unquesiionubly have advocated your appointment — your practical military education and experience having given you great advantages (whicli you have well used) in ac- quiring information in military affairs. • But havmg already addressed the Governor, I cannot with any delicacy or propriety, intrude myself again on this subject. Yours very truly, C. W. SANDFORD. [No. 201.] R. H. Nevins, Broker, Wall Street, to Jesse Hoyt, at Albany, dated New York, 14th Jan'y. 1831. " Dear Hoyt — I must trouble you to let me know, whether our Banks, now beins; willing to take renewals of their Charters on the terms offered to them last winter, will all be able to get them ? It was predicted by some persons that some of them might not have anoiher chance. And as to a new Trust Co. — do you think that an application from a very respectable list of peti. tioners will succeed in getting a Charter siinilar to the one granted at the last session? ] shall be much obliged for your opinion on the above, or on any other subjects that may have to do with Wall street. I am willing to run the risk of your opinions, and I hereby bind myself not, either by word, deed, or look, to manifest any mortification or disappointment should any bad result come of your advices. I hold considerable Life and Trust Co. Stock, which will rise or fall probablv when the question is settled about other charters. Yours very sincerely, R. H. NEVINS." [No. 202 ] Frederick A. Tracy to Jesse Hoyt, Albany. New York, Jan. 26, 1831. — Yours of the 22d inst. did not reach me yesterday fill late in the day, so that nothing could be done. To-d.iy, at the Bonrd, it was not my luck to get hold of any of this stock, altho' some sales were made at from 96} to 97^ — but I have some prospect of concluding a bargain for 300 shares. If I make any purchases it will be for vour account solely, as I think the stock high. * FRED'K. A.' TRACY. [No 203.] Churchill C. Cambrelen?, M. C, to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Washington, 10 Feb. iB.'il. — DearH : The Senate only wait for our slow Committee on Foreign Relations to get up and pnss the bill organizing thf [Daijish?] Commission — there ie no other difficulty that I hrivi> henrd of Simpson's nominntion mav encounier opposition, but I have heard of none. I differ in opinion wit i our Directors, ab mt the grent unportance of a branch line, as it regard'^ our own interest — that lies at the eastern termination — we wish, however, to accommodate Albanv, but if the two sections of the town quarrel among them- selves and defeat our bill we cant help it. The northnrn pan of the town will suffor, and the southern part will be benefited by our havinw no branch. We sh dl cnrrv the business where- ver our road goes. Combinations of fragments cant hurt us in general politics — in corporation matters we shall eternally have local divisions. In general divisions we have none to fic;ht but Clay's friends — and we have Old Hickory against him. Between ourselves. I don't care two and sixpence about having a branch line passed — we can get n\>ns well ennngh without it. Next year the people of Albany will e glad enough to present the petition themselves — it's in- finitely more important to them than to us. Very sincerely your friend, ■ C. C. CAMBRELENG. [No. 204.] Silas TVT. Stilwell, Albany, to .Tesse Hoyt, New York. Albany, 1.5 Feb. 1831. — Doar Hoyt : Your favors have reached me, and I hasten to an.s-wer them. The name of Stephen CAMBREr,E^G has been sent into the Senate. I give you this in. formation because T know from your letter that it will p'ease vou, and because I like to please you — but I am hound to say that alihoue;h I have no objeption to Cam'irelentj. yet T gave Van Wyck the prefei'ence — and if I could have had my way — if personal weich' "nd nnxietv of feel- inrr couM have given the offien to Van Wyek. so far as relates to me he would have hnd it. Van Wyck ii my iViend — I owe him much friendship. This you know — nnd of coup-" he was mv man. T have been defeated, and I have the consolation that you will be pleased, nnil that Cambreleng is a clever fellow. I nm your friend, S. M. STILWELL. Thiiiis Calhniin some ' poor deril's dupe' — Van-Ruren lihcved 1o the h'ph.spiriled horxe — Spernlnfors !o be put down — Tkroop's nomination of Vice Chancellor ^IcConn hangs heavy in the Smntr. [Nn. 20S ] Diidlev Sfilden. M C. fee. to .Tes-oe TTovt, N. York. Albany, March 4, 1831. — My Dear Hoyt : My frlenH's letters have not perhaps been an* flwe«d as soon as he tliinks they ought — but 1 have not been able to read ihem yet — and a man JTTDICIOUS fUFFS TO POTOST AND THE POLITICIANS. BASSWOOD. 227 is certainly entitled to be praised for his punctuality who makes his return to a letter as soon as he has perused il You need not endorse ' coiifidential' on any of your communications to Livingston or Stilwell ****** Q,j reading Calhocn's correspondence, I made up my mind very soon that he had been the dupe of some poor devil behind the curtain, and had exhibited most egre. gious folly in being caught. Your successful competitor for a high place [J. A. Hamilton?] seems to hare been the most conspicuous man in bringing up this by-gone transaction — and I am glad that Mr. Van Buren, like the high-spirited horse, has shaken the dew from his vianc, and exposed the rogue to be taken. No news here. Your kind efforts of the D. and H. are duly appreciated. I felt satisfied that in sending me the little pamphlet, your whole object was the public good. So is mine— and I will, if I can, give the rascally speculators upon time a thrust under the short ribs. McCoun [Vice Chancellor] hangs heavy in the Senate. I know not why. As soon as Slee- per withdrew (and so I read his letter to the Chancellor; 1 have aided him all I could. Yours truly, DUDLEY SELDEN. Selden a man of talent — First rate Democratic timber a scarce commodity — ' a judicious puff' — thanks the Courier and Enquirer. — Lobbying from within. [No. 206.] Silas M. Stilwell to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Albany, 7 March 183 L Dear Hoyt : I should have written you before, but that businpss begins to press upon us of the city, more and more — and again you know we i>re in the midst of my Bill on Imprisonment. I have great hopes. You have doubtless seen Selden's report on the Finances, &:-c. You may depend there is an exhibition of talent and business habits about that report which is worthy of all commendation — Selden is a man of talent — and I am deter- mined the world shall know it. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to back a clever wor- thy fellow. I can look the world in the face and say he is honest, he is capable. Yoc know THERE IS BUT LITTf.E FIRST RATE TIMBER IN THE DEMOCRATIC RANKS, THAT HAS BEEN DISCOVERED. We should therefore prize what we have the more. But 1 am inclined to think that your bar cannot present to u« one who (if backed by his friends) will be a greater ornament to the party than Selden. I will not speak more on the subject, altho' there is no topic which yields me more pleasure. Now permit me to say that nothing will help a political friend so much as a judi- cious PUFF through a party paper. Never loas there a finer opportunity, and I commit our friend's reputation in that respect to you. Hovt, remember, we ne'er can do too much (and I know you think so) f >r a warm hearted, talented friend. Be judicious, and let us see what we can do for him. I vvas much gratified on seeing in the Courier and Enquirer, a notice of my report. I mu.'^t think better of that establishment than T have done, and will take the first op- portunilv of assuring those concerned that I cannot be outdone in genrrcms conduct. It ia my intention to back Selden to the utmost of my ability in the tax proposed — and you know T sel- di)m fail in my undertakings, for what cannot be done by argument and conduct in the House can be carried by activity and cleverne.ts out doors. I feel vpry an.xious to get through and return home ; this business is a great sacrifice to me ; and did I not employ my mind and body constantly, I shou'd not be able to remain here. Let me hear from you. I write in great haste — and be assured I remain, with great respect and esteem, your friend, S. M. STILWELL. McAllister of Georgia, and the Gold Mine of Nexo Potnsi. [No. 207.] R. J. Arnold and M. H. McAllister to .Tesse Hoyt. Wall street. Savannah, May 15. 18.31. — Dear Si'-: Your favor of the 5th inst. is received. In replv, we would observe that our Mr. Arnold sails for Npw York on the 23d inst.. and will be authorised fo close this business upon the terms he may think best. Tho* what part is sold, must be at a handsome profit, for every dav we are receiving more favorable aecoimts from, the Mine. To-day McAllister received a\?tte.r from the Gold Region ; Tin extract from it will be given be- low. The report alluded to in your letter from the Doctor, will no doubt come to hand by to- day's mail. We shall wait with anxiety until it is received. In the meantime we note that part of your letter which requests us nnt to interest anv person here. This has not been done. On the contrary, every person here is ignorant of our being interested in the Tntosi mine. Y u will perceive by the extract froin the letter above alluded to, that the claim has not, as vet, been cxtineuished, although we so considered it the last time we wrote Mr. Ward. It is therefore very necessarv that this business be kepi an pntire secret for the present. McAllister rcill, in a few days, as .loon as the Court rises, start for the Gold Eesion. R. .1. ARNOLD, M. H. McALLTSTER. Extract. — " With regard to the claim on Potosi, they wish to hold on, on account that they " have examined the mine more thnroushlv. and find it much better than fhev expected. THAT "PLACE IS THE MOST ASTONISHING IN ALL THE GOLD REGION ; and I hope « you will believe me when I say its prospects are verv much more flattering than when you " were here — in the language of the writer, 50 per cent better." 228 OUR NAVY. $33,500's worth of albany regency bait. Pushing in the Naval Service — Swariwout wants his Nephew sent ahead of his Seniors. The way a thing might he done. [No. 208.] Collector Swartwout to Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Navy, Washington. New York, 28th May, 1831. — Sir: This letter will be handed to you by Samuel Smith Swartwoui, my nephew, at present a passed midshipman in the U. S. Navy. This young gen- tleman entered as midshipman the 10th May, 1820. He was entitled by law, loan examinaiion in 1828, but being absent on duty, he did not offer till January, 1829. Ill health and extreme diffidence lost him the opinion of the Board, and he was rejected. This unfortunate mishap pro. duced so much distress, that, on a second trial, from mere embarrassment alone, he failed again ; but the Board, as well as the Secretary of the Navy, from his known talents as an officer, deter- mined to encourage him to make a manly effort to overcome a constitutional defect ; and he has recently passed an excellent and most creditable examination, and now presents himself to the Secretary in the expectation that he will be placed as several officers similarly situated hereto- fore have been, upon active duty as a Lieutenant. It is also greatly to be desired, if consistent with the regulations of the Navy, that his commission as Lieutenant, when is.sued, should take date with those of the midshipmen whose warrants bear date with his own, but who passed in 1828- The private character of Midshipman Swartwout is irreproachable, and his honor unim- peached. He will explain more fully to you, in person, the causes of his failure to pass in 1828, and give you such other information as may be of consequence for you to know. S. S. Railroads — Turnpikes — Hoyt and Cambreleng. [No. 209.] C. C. Cambreleng, M. C, to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Albany, 22d August, 1831. — Dear Sir : I am informed about the turnpike movement. The stock was appraised at 20 per cent, and the charter was valued at $10,000, making in all about $33,500 — about a fair valuation. The distribution of the new stock not yet made. That dis- tribution will give offence. Some of the Directors are anxious to push on with the road — others are for compromising with our company. The latter have most money, but the result is uncer- tain. When they see our locomotive in operation they will abandon their plan of a turnpike and rail-road. We should have no trouble with it at all ; but there are some ivho want merely to make a BUBBLE of it and take in honest men. I have a perfect understanding with Mr. Corn- ing, and if he can in the distribution get a majority, or a controul of it, we shall compromise the matter. In the meantime we have advertised for a branch line, and Mr. French is privately at work, getting the consent of owners of property through which the line will pass. If no compro- mise should be made, wc will make them a proposition which will give satisfaction to nine-lenths of the people of Albany, and send the speculators in the new stock with a bad grace to the le. gislature. But after all, they must keep up the turnpike, and that kills their rail-rdad project at once. The two never can be combined without sinking the capital laid out in boih. We shall have our locomotive at work by the end of the week. The boiler went back to ihe road to-day. Ours will be an immense stock. I am certain we shall next year average about 800 a day. Sincerely yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG. Mr. McAllister condemns the Democratic Legislature of Georgia, as stupid, envious and igno. rant — /. M. Berrien's efforts to enlighten them — iffurt to obtain special privileges for HoyVs gold mine. New Potosi — Why should corporations pay their debts ^ Checks on party legis. lation — McAllister swears at 'em.' — Purgatory — The asses who bray for the public. [No. 210.] M. H. McAllister, of Georgia, to Ward and Hoyt, New York. MiLLEDGEViLLE, [Georgia,] Nov. 27 1831. — Gentlemen: All is over. I have just come from the State House. After a struggle of three days in the Senate, wherein an unremitted and hot debate has been maintained from morning until night, for two days, we have failed in our object of obtaining an Act of Incorporation. The intelligence of the Senate has been beaten by the ignorant-wise, grass-fed members who compose a large niajority of the Legislature. No effort has been pretermitted, no exertion spared. Berrirn in behalf of the Elrod, Murray in behalf of Beers, Booth, and St. .folin, and ourselves, have all maiie uuiteil and untirina: exertions, but all in vain. Against US the prejudice is unsparing. They say that the Elrod people have but the lease of one mine, whereas we have monopolized a great and valuable minintr interest; and to incorporate us would be to hold out an inducement to northern men to embark in it; and the effect of their embarking to work the interest would be to create an immense monied interest in the State, which would revolutionize its politics. The Clark men, with a fi-w exceptions, opposed it with deadly lio^tiliiy. The body of ihe opposite party went for the charter. Fnurteen nrgu. nvnts were submitted to the Senate, by as many of the most di-tinguished men in the Hiuise, and altho ' but two .spiike against the Bill, such was tin." (hinger apprehended frnm our immense wealth (that is to b'.) that the Hill was voted down. I cantiot have patience to write or speak deliberately on the subject. For three weeks, day and night, our exertions, together with the 1 Cnn this be the Matthew Mull McAllister who wiis Dis. Atty. for Georgia, and more recently a Democratic can- didate for the office of Governor ? A GEORGIA LEGISLATURE, OR ' THE ASSES WHO BRAY FOR THE PUBLIC.' 229 efforts of many of the leading men in the Senate, hacked hy Berrien, have been unceasingly em- ployed—all in vain. THE BESOTTED IGNORANCE AND THE BLIND AND FOOL- ISH ENVY" OF THE MAJORITY have carried the day. I have never laboured so severely lor the obtainment of any object as of this, and am proportionably, disappointed. On Saturday (the 25th) our bill was taken up by sections. On coming to the 2nd seciion an amendment was proposed " lo make the individual property of each Stockholder liable for the debt of the corporation." On this motion the struggle took place, as the advocates of the Bill knew that if it were sustained there was an end to the Bill, as THE ONLY OBJECT CONTEMPLATED BY BEING INCORPORATED WOULD BE DEFEATED. The discussion continued all Saturday — the excitement was greater than on any question which has arisen this session. The advocates of the Bill urged every consideration that men could express ; but all to no purpose. The arguments of the opponents to the Bill were, that we had an interest too valuable for any set of men in this state, and to induce capitalists to work it by giving an act of incorporation would be to make us dangerous to the State, &c. Such stufi" never before issued from the mouth of man. The yeas and nays on the motion were called, and it was sustained by a majority of three votes. This small majority (,tliere being 76 Senators) inspired the friends of the Bill with the hope of ultimate success — they moved for an immediate adjournment, which was carried by a majority of one. Saturday night and Sunday were consumed by the mutual efforts of the friends and opponents of the Bill in canvassing for and against it. Monday morning we felt se- cure, as many as SEVEN MEMBERS HAVING BEEN GAINED OVER; when behold! letters were received by a number of the members of both Houses from their constituents, pro. testing against their exteJiding legislative protection to us. By the rules of the Bouse, every Bill has to be published for a certain lime previously to a third reading ; and thus our effort was made known to the people, who instead of regarding the matter in its true light determined that we were going to swallow them alive. These letters determined the fate of our Bill. The whole of Monday (this day) has been consumed by the intelligent members (about twenty out of the whole number) in contending against prejudice, ignorance, and the d t folly ever ex- hibited in a Senate Chamber ; but all in vain ; and I have just strength enough after the fatigue of the day to write you this much. Berrien is writing the fate of the Bill to Mr. Bolton. * * * * Dr. Baber, one of the most intelligent members of the Senate and one of the most active ad- vocates of our Act, will write you from time to time as to any thing that may arise hereafter upon the subject of our Bill. / leave this infernal place /o-morrow morning. Arnold left here for PoTOSi some ie'w days since. I wrote you about the title to the Keith Mine — that it was There is no difficulty about title to any of our lots, and thank God for this I for I believe otherwise that this rascally apology for a Legislature would take them away if they could. »**#** I can tell you that if any one of you had been in the situation I have been in this worse than Purgatory, you would express no such surprise. I have not written to my wife nor my partner. * * * * A Mr. Dickson has submitted to me the plan the English have adopted to work mines in Mexico, where they have no incorporations ; I will submit the same when I next write you. TO INDUCE THE ASSES HERE WHO BRAY FOR THE PUBLIC at the expense of $4 per diem, to pass our Bill, everything was given vp, " and a tax of two per centum on the nett profits, nay five per centum was offered." We asked simply to be a corporate body, and this they denied I I should suppose that sympathy alone would have induced the majority to vote for corporations, inasmuch as there is a marvellous resemblance between them — they are ' bodies without souls.' * * » * They can't touch us as individuals — as such, thank God ! we have the federal constitution to protect us. Write to the Hon. Am- brose Baber, thanking him, &c., and state whether you will have ap act if the private property is made liable. We think it would be worse than useless, &c. (2 o'clock, A. M., 28 Nov., 1831.) M. H. McALLISTER. Van Buren in London — Evaporation of Anti- Masonry — the Reform Bill — the Cholera. [No. 211.1 M. Van Buren, American Minister, to .Tesse Hoyt, at N. York. London, Dec. 14, 18.31. — My Dear Sir : I thank you kindly for your attention in sending me the newspapers. The result in New York is truly gratifying, and cannot fail to have a decided and auspicious effect upon the character of the next session of Congress. It is to be hoped that the utter hopelessness of their cause will induce the opposition to withhold a portion at least of their wonted opposition to the measures of the general administration, and to give the Old Chief a fair chance in his zealous labours to advance the interest of the country. I was not at all disappointed at the result in New York, AS THE TIME HAD OBVIOUS- LY ARRIVED FOR THE EVAPORATION OF ANTI-MASONRY. There is nothing new here that you will not find in the papers. The Reform Bill will, with- out doubt, pass by or without a creation of Peers, as circumstances may require. We have been in constant dread of th« Cholera, but notwithstanding that the danger has increased, habit has lessened our fears. This city is, I have no doubt, as yet entirely exempt from the malignant an4 230 WEBB, CAMBRELE.VG, THE ASS, McLAKE AND THE BISHOPS. fatal disorder. My health, and consequently my spirits, have not been better for many years. Our situation is very comfortable (always saving its enormous expenses) and the Town is full of objects of intense interest — animate and inanimate. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Hoyt, and believe nie to be. Very truly, yours, M. VAN BUREN. McLane's Treasury Beport condemned — the Lords and Bishops, [No. 212.] C. C. Cambreleng, M. C, to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Washington, 29th Dec, 1831. — Dear Hoyt : I have yours with the papers. We have strange notions about such cases — I mean we Lawyers. What ihe committee may think about it, I don't ]^now I will get along as well as I can with it, and hope for the best. It's lucky you sent a petition in a decent hand-writing, or I should never have known what you wanted. Ten years a"-o the case would have been rejected. I have hopes now, as we have reversed some of the old principles. The Treasury Reportt is as bad as it possibly can be — a new version of Alexander Hamil- ton's two reports on a National Bank and manufactures, and totally unsuited to this age of de- mocracy and reform. The battle on these grounds has not yet begun — it will go like wild- fire WHEN WE COMMENCE OrR WAR AGAINST THE LoRDS AND BiSHOPS. Sincerely yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG. The Friar's jump over the Ass — the Courier and Enquirer, [No. 213.] C. C. Cambreleng to J. Hoyt. Washington, 29th Dec, 1831.— Dear H. : I am quite amused with the new Bank convert.t the Courier and Enquirer — it reminds me of the Friar who was trying to mount an Ass. After jumping up two or three times without suc- cess, he put up a fervent prayer to the Virgin Mary — jumped again, and went entirely over to the other side — the Virgin was too kind. Sincerely yours, C. G. CAMBRELENG. The Debenture case — Lawyers' Justice, [No. 214.] C. C. Cambreleng, M. C, to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Washington, 3d January, 1832. — Dear H : 1 dare say you are surprised that there should be any doubt about I and McJ's c^ise — but you will cease to doubt when 1 tell you that for twen- ty years the debentures were foiinhed because the oath was not taken within the ten days I This was Lawyers' justice — but men of common sense took up the subject about five years ago, and reversed all the old decisions, and granted relief in all such cases for thirty years back. Yours is a new case, and I don't know wh;it queer notions the Lawyers may have about. I hope I shall get along with it. I may report a bill to-morrow morning, if I get the consent of our committee. If I get it from Smith when I go home, I will send you the $730. Sincerely yours. C. C. CAMBRELENG. [No. 215.] C. C. Cambreleng, to Jesse Hoyt. Washington 7, Jan., 1832. Dear H — I have your letter — all right — and will go right. Why does n^t Glover hand over the $2000 to Bucknor? I thought it was paid a month ago. I wish you would say to Mr. Cod- dington that Bucknor has not yet received one cent from Mr. Jackson— he talks of paying $175 —but nothing was paid on the 5ih unless on that day. Sincerely yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG. Colonel Webb .tpurns Poor Devils xoho sell themselves fur Office — is independent of Jnckaon and the Regency — but the warmest friend of Jackson and Van Buren — A hint to Blair — liket Jesse — but away with Parasites ! [No. 216.] Colonel Jamf-s Watson Webb, to Jesse Hoyt, at Washington. Otfiee of the Courier and Enquirer, New York, Janu.iry 19th, 1S32. Dear Sir — Yours of the )6ih has just been received, and has been taken as it was meant; yet, permit me to add, it has not had any influence upon the course 1 intend to pursue. // my course hat disgusted every honest friend of the President, THAT IS, EVERY PoOR Devil WHO IS WILLI.VG to sell HIS INDEPENDENCE FOR AN OFFICE, V/hv 80 be it. You know, as you ought to know, that I am not to be driven from any course I consider cor- rect, even if th(! friends of General Jackson should attempt it, or profe.=sed friends of my own, write, or procurt- to be written, artichs in thf Gi.oee inierferinc between us and the Argcs. If, aa you say, my " friends are fast falling off" in Washington, and you havebftm made their confidant, please tell them that I do not valuR such frietiHshi|) a rush, and no matter what their etatioHB are, whether high or low, they are most welcome to pursue such a couree as to them seems proper. Thank God I am independent of Genrral Jackson, and those who would fain have the wodd » ny Louis M'l.Qiie, whu siicneeiled Mr. Inpli.Ttn ns Secretary, in Jn"e. 1831. t In o letter to llovt, Feb l.'tth, 1832, it is staled thnt n credit for 8.>0.00!1. ^r upwiirds. hud b««n piven to Mntrt. Wclib & Nouh, by tbc l'- S. Biink. oa n note nr notei drnwn by the furmer mid endorsed bv the latter. Uoythul very early Dutic« uf thit V. S. Bauk loan, and urg»d Cambrtltof to probe it in CoDcrMc, whicb ba did. WBBB ON VAN BUEEN — CAMBRELENa ON THE BANK. 281 bcUeve they have the keeping of his conscience— and if I am not— if my daily bread for myself and family depended upon truckeZling to his friends— to the Argus and its coterie of would be great men, you should know enough of me to believe that I would d° ^\hai ^ "^""ff ' ^o"^^'- „ / would Like to see an individual in the United S<«p^« founded on the credit of a national bank, nut only connected with the finances of a government, hut like ours, involved in all the fluctuations of every species of commercial credit and dealing in them upon u national scale." " It is a common o|iinion, too, that a national bank prevents tlie nurfliplication of Slate banks. It may he so, sir; but if it is. it is contrary to principle, and in this country and in r,nj;lnnd contradicted by experience. It is true that immediately upon a dissolution of a nutimial bank, there will lie, as the eenlleman from IV-iinsvlvania has shown, an unusual numlier of applications for Slutc institutions ; but in a long series of years, the tendency of a national bank note currency is more powerful than all our local circulations, in constantly impelling trade, banking, and every species of credit and speculation beyond those prudent limits, which, without the agency of such an institu- tion, would usually be jircscribed by the annual and steady accumulation of the capital of the country." ASK FOR A NEW NATIONAL BANK ! HOYT ^ NOAH HELPING BLAIR. 233 TNo 220 ] Washington, Uth Feb., 1832. Dear II.-The knowing ones at Albany merely w'h J mancBuvre a Ut.le abou, the Governor to ,et^a c ..ge^ Tha ^as l^su^.ct. I have written VVrtght Edwards and F.gg-a .^ ^,^^ ^^,.^ |^ ^.^ THE Bank for 4 weeks-at east I should thiiik ".° • J J,^,";^,reme-Clav's on t'other. The shall become. McDuffie's, alias Calhoun s, Tariff, is °" "'^/^^"u" L,/,g,/-Ld school * Gentleman who wrote Mr. Mumford is not -[^f-^",^-"-'' °^ ^'^C. C CAMBRELENG. Washington, 16th Feb., 1832. [No. 2..1.] Clayton of Georgia has a resolution prepared and Dear H.-I return you ^^^^ '^"f-j-^^Jf J,^2 lect in view-I shall see the President to- will offer it as soon as he can-it vmU ^^7^ '"^^ °''J^" . „„t fe^, but what we shall take night-who has a cofdenUal director on he ^P^^- Yo^ REFLECT ON ihat U v,ould be well care of the Mammoth m some way or °^,h"-\f7„„"^^. , ^/, ';,,s.„^ Let them follow the forward a State bank next year-mennon '^|JJoJ^>-.J,bbets. ^ ^ cAMBRELENG. 1 did not know before why that paper was so bitter against Van Buren. Ne-at YoKK, Saturday, 18th February, 1832. To £e^&^yt-M. M. Noah Sam.. Gonveru._r^^^^ I' ''Tif^lsTo ;Sro?:c?ort Tf i -tl^ batnJe Iif tVe'^aker is S652 50 cents, for which SnrclSlnce/lTgaiTfme. As I did not either cont.ct^^^^^^^^^ with Mr. Hoe, the maker of the Press, except my exertion >" ^°™f Z^^,,^ „,„, fj^f, ,^„ner paying them over, I shall of course ^<;'^'\.'^'' -I'lZtto j^^^^^^^^ P^'^^'' ought not to be ^bjected^to an ^"^--''^'^'^."'^^fj^J.l-i^fo Mr Blair, are in honor bound, ;^^rr^:5^it;:^^on StTS;:^ ^Kf ]4est that you meet ^r the purpose, at the Bank Coffee House, on Tuesda^^ej^emng^at^J^o do^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ JACKSON.t He concluded bv savin.-- do not entail upon posterity the calamities of a national bank note currency, and lay ^''^^^!^l:^:^:^:r; Adl^:ir"tC^i^^^^unt of Tibbets's " v.KV ooor> PL., o. . bx.k," which Canihrelenssecretly desired and puMiclydenouiv^ed. signed bv " Eusha Tibbets, for him- " Splendid Bank Project.-We observe an "dvertisement in the papers ineay ^^ .^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^_ self and Associates," giv.n, notice oi^ an «PP -f;'"" ^" ';^,^;,'^^, ^ ^W, e^^^^^^^ known by the name of the .ion, for a bank with a capital of thirty five millions to be '"J^^'' '" ";^ ' / f „<,op,ed, save Congress the trouble " Nationd Union Bank." As the f\*" - ;;'^^^^^^"4^^;;; ""e'enti /an in'^.'itution t'o which there are no constitu- ;^:r;robfS " w^SnrLt o^r^^ with the project. It will be seen that it runs on all '^X:;^l::<^a:;^Hs:^ta^:^rthetermination^ five years. Sfconrf-Branches shall be estabhshed •".f;^'^'>,^*ff°.,^^"^rde stock Third-AW notes forcircula- and he citizens of such State shall be exclnsiveb' entitled '"J*^ "^^i,[°'f^'^^;'°^rhev a^rnottoe^ the amonnt tion shall be issued bv the Mother Bank at New York, and made pavalJle l^ere. ^ ""^^ " , government on the of capital. Fourth-The Bank is to collect and transmit the '"";?^V "f^^^^lf ^^^.^.^^e^rdepositf, on condition that "equis'ition of the Secretary of the ^^^--V- ""f » '"J, ,^[:. g^^ef ^ft-TheXL^ of .bis Bank is to he lia- the notes of the Bank be received in payments to /'^^.^'^'^V^f The States which shall authorize branches may 5LVoVerd^o^^e^fmt:ntb7ee?elr^;no^!c: ^ndTl^fthortj^t ,^^^o\'her Bank to make an arrangement with the State Banks for transacting the business of the United States. * See No 93 na^e 18'2, Dr. Joel B. Sutherland. i , i t »™»oi» t ^i^^S:; chief be,,ar for Blair, and one of Van BurenN^reedy sr^ilsmen ^I^^^^^^^^Z^:^ ,n his Plaindealer, .Ian. 1^7.-'; There is at this vejv moment, a str.l^ngp^^ ^^^ ^,^ ,^^ ^j,^. eaters standing at the counter of the Albany manufacturers of the JL"'?. ; '"' 'l^;;, "^.^o ^„, long been in the habit Lee. and thlloud-mouthed Daniel Jackson-of the monopoly clique of « hich the limes uu e Daniel had declared peremptorily, " We must and will have a national bank. iSi ROOT, PISH, SUTHERLAND; WEBB's PRIVATE LETTERS; THE BANK. Cambreleng to Hoyt on Fish, Root, Angel and the Bank. [No. 223.] Washington, 14th March, 1832. Dear H.— You ought not to appoint any representative in Congress. We shall be in the midst of Tariff, Bank, &c., and can't go— take good, honest, and staunch men — send such men as Mr. [Preserved] Fish. Our Friend S whose letter you read when here, is in a great fidget because he did not see his memorial iii favor of the Bank of the U. S. announced in the paper. I had that important event regularly announced! Root will not trouble us much longer. Angel [of N. Y.] hammered him with- out gloves — he had nobody to defend him but an anti-mas(jn. Sincerely yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG. To Hoyt on Webb and Noah's "sincere attachment to the cause of Mr. Van Buren" they put forward a bad candidate— Root goes for the pewter mug— Wickliffe and Daniels, enemies of Jackson — the Bank. [No. 224.] Private. Washington, 15th March, 1832. Dear H. — 1 never doubted the sincere attachment of the Editors of the Courier and Enquirer to the cause of Mr. Van Buren, the President and our party generally — but the course they pur- sue in relaiion to General Root, is calculdted to injure the cause of the administration. I care not for the quarrel with the Argus — or who may be our nest Governor — that matter will be no doubt amicably adjusted — but 1 do care about putting forwurd a ctindidate who is as much opposed to this administration as Joel B. Sutherland t and his votes will prove it, as they have done already. He and Pitcher vote un.formly witli the opp^isiiion — and Root yesterday denounced Tammany Hall, and went openly for the Pewter Mug. Another course is pursued which they will find in the end will be highly injurious to the President— that is, pressing the Bank bill upon him at this sesshm with a moral certainty that if it reaches him the obligation of public duty will compel him to return it — as entirely premature — four years before the charter expires. The charter of the Bank of England expires next year and naa not yet been renewed — the charter of the East India Company was not renewed till one year before it expired— three-fourths of the President's friends are opposed to the Bank — and he can never under such circumstances, do otherwise than to send the bill back — if he had no other motive, the adjustment uf the tariff and the extinguishment of the public debt — both occurring before the charier expires— are alone suf- ficient. It is the enemies of the President, such as Branch, Wickliffe, Daniel, &c., &.C., united With the friends of the Bank, who are determined to send this bill to him, expecting to do him an injury, and kill the bank too — which its friends are certainly doing by presnng it now. Sincerely yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG. Lessons on the proper use of Confidential Letters on Politics. [No. 225.] Mr. Cambreleng's views of the sanctity of confidential correspondence, may be readily inferred from the contents of the following letter, marked " private," addressed to his friend, Mr. Jesse Hoyt, at New York, frotn Washington, and dated May 19th, 1832. " Dear H : I have seen a copy of W 's PRIVA I'E letter to Clayton. It is a de- liberate BUT CONFIDENTIAL attack on me, and was designed to coax the Judge to favor him, which was of course repelled. W — asked to have the letter returned — it was so — but what W—does not know— the Judge took a copy of it. IT'S A ROD IN PICKLE, and will ex- pose some small contradictions of his present statements, and show some little duplicity. The Judge can tell him that he found my statement of the Webb and Noah case too moderate, and that he wrote it over himself. Don't mention about the letter to Clayton— Ac will probably pub. lish it. The Bank will come up in the Senate next week— it won't disturb us before the middle of-fune. Sincerely yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG." Frivate Arrangements for Nominating a Party Governor, four months before a Convention of the People teas called. [No. 226.] Senator Marcy to Jesse Hoyt at New York. — Washington, Senate Chamber, May 26, 1832. — My Dear Sir: I have received your several letters, and feel much obliged to you for the interest you have taken in the matter. Our friends from Albany are here now, and I am to have a lull conversation with some of them on the matter to which our correspondence relates. I have no doubt they have cooled a git-at deal since they left home. I will give you shortly the result of our interview, which will take place to-morrow. J Yours sincerely, W. L. MARCY t See Sonne particulars about the roiloiihtnlile Dr. Sntherlonil in No. 9:t of (his correspondence. t Colonel Voiing. who wn» for Ilenrv Chiy in 1824. presided nt llie Flerkinier Convention, which~nominatea Mnrcy lis Covornor, 8c|)t. 19, 1832. Who did tlio Colonel support for the Presidency in 18-28 ? In 1830 he wrote u poinphlet to prove that state hunk chiirtprs are constiilional, and a national bank charter not so; next bought the stock uf stute hanks on speculation, and ihus became onceinorean active confederate of Van Buren. One great difficulty III the way of a •uccei'sful Democratic government is iMipro|>er i^ystemi of nominations. I am pr«- jwred to prove that even that of England u much more Democratic than ours. THE MYSTERY OF MANUFACTURING A BEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR. 235 How the Party Press prepares the Party to nominate a Candidate who 1ms settled certain quea, tions with the Party Leadtrs and Trading Politiciuns. [No 227] Senator Marcy to Jesse H-yt, at N. Y.— Washington, 3d June, [1832,] My Dear Sir : I have been shamefully negligent of my promise to \ou in relation to the re. suit of the interview with my Albany friends. 1 hoped to be able to convince them that it was right and proper for me to adhere to the determination which I had communicaieo to Cr swell; but 1 failed in dome so. They convinced me that there were more difficulties atiendmg the se- lection of a proper candidate than had presented themselves to n.e. The result was that I nm not to persist in declining now, but nm to be let alui.e it it can be done-as I ihiuk it may with, out injury to the party .t It would seem to imply (il it cannot be) that I am a mighty consequen- tial fellow You or any body else may think so if you will, but 1 do not. , , , , Webb has not modified and publis/ied yovr articles. So long time has now elapsed, and the fever of ihose who called for n,e t.. come out has so much subsided, that probably nothing more will he said by him. How stand affairs in N. Y.? There is a crre a effort making we learn by the manufacturing interest to get up an excitempnt on the 'l-aritf— our friends from Albany and elsewhere thought it «ould not "ucceed^ ^ Bodies of manufactunrs are Hocking in here, and they appe;.r about AS CRaZY A3 1 Hr. N I. LLl- Fi£KS— I think the extremes will unite and deleat all attempts at cnnipromise. Yours, &c. W. L. MARCY. No 228] Senator Marcy to Jesse H..yt, at New York.— Washington, Saturday, ri832 1 'The date, signature, and a few wor.fs of the conclusion, torn off.)— Dear Sir : 1 have this morning received a note from Webb, and I le.ru from the tenor of it that you had written to hitn on the subject which engaged us in two or three conveisations. I find that our npiuiona of him were perfectly correct. Attacked as he is on all sides he is willing to attend to others as well as himself 1 find my intimation to you is well founded that Bennett hnd been too sanguine in the matter referred to and had understood from n.e more than 1 intended to convey. W. bb has undoubtedly every disposition to put things right and he ought to b. permitted to do so to a certain extent in his own way-I have had tull conversations with you and from them you can make to him such suggestions as will apprise him of my views.* He may thinli I ought to wnte *r. 1 1 tv»i,K romork, nn fhp«e letters that " bein» the friend of W. L. Marcy, and entertaining the most haU nev^be^n mt^nutted'dtLugh the Arg^^ h>m for dunng w.th us immediately alter las election '"u^ett joined Croswell in denouncing Marcy for dining with Webb. I copy his remarks from the Plaindealer, vol:^''. pagi 450, June .7, ^^^'^l^l^^^^^^'t^^^l^^^tT^ll^-^C^^^^J^'^^^^^ Webb-s influenc;. as «.';„''r'„T[he r rE 1 andTh leThe ne vlpa^e^ we^ st.U r,n.,ng w.,h ^he story, it^as duly chronicled that Oov- trt'hen unwonhy measure" we surveyTm'wiih-'contempt, and can offer no better excuse for his conduct than that ♦his poverty and not his will consents.'" . , ,. , 16 months-afier which ^e 'I'lvocuted a mod.hed rech^^^^^^^ S. Bank, of §15.000. for Noah, Webb, or some banks whicti were siru„x""o ■" „j.,';.„,„ ,i,e Safety Fund, the Depos tes, and no re-charter— and if so, Webb, scribers a large sum l° =°".^ ""%\° ^^^^"'^"'fd' „„, ha^^ been very strong on the other tack, fur the above letter, as an advocate, chose bis side. Marcy c"" ^. ""1,^^^^,^^" fjl of that year James Gordon Bennett, who was, S^^'^tli^^SngtrcoCp^ottt rf\rbraViN^:rV^'s^!r;!l^ his ^e.^.., (Sept. .0. 1845,, the fol- ouir^ Sy'"g hVco^fidence°of the ^art,; and all concerned, and corresponding with that journal. Mr-^ Marcy " ^=n ,, mpmher of the Senate I had frequent personal intercourse with him on politic» alone. * " was then a member ot tne benaie. i "-^ 1 i ^ j ^ f conversation, one day, during a During 'h-^;--" ^"^,\Vn,rto ;hic1 h^^ the Senator had sometinng heavy on his walk "P P^"".^>';^,",^/Vo S^' ^i,\"e I d scovered that the heavy business on the heart of the Senator was a desire mind which he wished to dsclose. 1 Enquirer as a candidate for the gubernatorial chair of New to be brought forth in ';\«,<=°'""'"/°i' '"^,7" ,,!;," ,„ |,e held in Herkimer in the fall. We discussed the matter York in -"ticipat.on oftheC ntiono the P^^ „,ovement for the Courier and En- m all Its «^P«f^f"'^;;VtCf lend Webb to take up, as he was in rather an awkward predicament in relation «"',r' rtJ'^owttoutofUe X $.52,000 affair of the L'uited States Bank, which had been to the party, g,^;^ "? f"'/' ';Ve en" [n this view of the case. I conimenced a series ol private letters addressed ^'\V° wlhh statin, a ! tL v^^^ ol'l he Marcv's opinions_tl,e position of Webb himself, and the adm.- to Mr. Webb, staling all j'^e v.e«s oi ine ca Enouirer to chenkmate the Jlrgus and ' the regency' on [heL%wrgrnd' ^ht^l^t^rrc^'rllafnld^'^aTi^Ty'Lrth'^^i^ws communicated to me L thatspecial purpose b. II 236 WEBB, BENNETT, NATIVEISM, VAN BDREN AND HOYT. to him — and so I should perhaps — but I have two reasons for not doing so — the one is that if I should go over the whole matter as I did with you in conversation it would make a prodigiously long letter, and I am loo much engaged to afford the time to write it, but the second is I have declined to write to all Editors on the subject (except one [Croswell ? ] which I explained to you.) This resolution was early taken to preserve my position — to keep silent. He will appreciate my motives and 1 hope approve of the course. Col. Webb's notions about Private Letters. [No. 229.] James Monroe, .Esq., to Jesse Hoyt, Wall street, N. Y. Bloomingdale, August 9, 1832. — Dear Hoyt : * * * I enclose you a letter received from our friend Gait. You will see that it contains the last accounts from the Army. You may, if you think proper, give the facts therein contained to some Editor, but not to publish the let- ter, as Webb did mine the other day, much to my annoyance I had written a letter to Gouv- erneur and given certain facts, and he sent my letter to Webb to take the facts — and he pub- lished most of the letter — and you have seen it, you may judge it was not written for pub. lication. * * * * How is Bremner 1 Yours truly, J. MONROE. 'Deadly hostility' of the Van Buren native faction to our brethren from other lands — How long Bennett would stand up for Van Buren — Col. Webb — Bennett suspected — ,^200 in the Big Gun. [No. 230.] James Gordon Bennett to J. Hoyt, N. York. — Philadelphia, 16th August, 1832. t — Dear Hoyt : Your letter amuses me. The only point of consequence is that conveying the refusal. This is the best evidence of the deadly hostility lohich you all have entertained towards me. It explains, too, the course of the Standard and Post, in their aggressions upon me ever since I came to Philadelphia. The name for such a feeling in the breasts of those I have only served and aided at my own cost and my own sacrifice, puzzles me beyond example. I can account for it in no other way than the simple fact that I happen to have been boj-n in another country. I must put up with it as well as 1 can. As to your doubts and surmises about my fu- ture course, rest perfectly easy — / shall never abandon my party or my friends. I'll go to the bottom sooner. The assaults of the Post and Standard, I shall put down like the grass that grows. I shall carry the wnr into Africa, and " curst be he who cries hold, enough." Neither Mr. Van Buren and the Argus nor any of their true friends, will or can have any fellow feeling with the men — the stockjobbers — who, for the last two years have been trying to destroy my character and reputation. I know Mr. Van Buren better — and I loill stand if> in his defence, AS LONG AS HE FEELS FRIENDLY TO ME. I will endeavour to do the best I can to get along. 1 will go among my personal friends who are unshackled as to politics or banks, and who will leave me free to act as a man of honor and principle. So my dear Hoyt, do not lose Senator Marcy himself. I deny that T had understood and communicated more to Mr. Webb than Marcy intended to convey. Indeed, almust everyday, or every other day at that time. Senator Marcy used to meet me in the capitol, and at his own room, and there he would disclose to me all the inturmation which he had received from the regency cam|), at Albany, in order that I mi;;ht be enabled to apprise Mr. Webb of the facts, and (jnalify him to complete the checkmate which we intended to give them. In all this bnsiness. Senator Marcy wished to stand still between the two contending cliques, while I was to work the wires in Washington, and Mr. Webb was to lire off" the big gun in New York. Senator Marcv and I in Washington, used to laugh and chuckle most amusingly over the movements by which, through the Courier and F.nquirer, we accomplished ultimately his nomination — checkmated his personal foes at Albany — and elected him trium|)hantly Governor of this State fur the first time. Before the summer was over, however, Mr. Webb bolted from the democratic party on the United Stales Bank question. and came out against the re-election of (Jeneral Jackson, including also the election of the very man, William L. Marcy, whom he had so much contributed to bring before the public. I stuck to the movement, and left the Courier and Enquirer on account of this bolting." t Mr. Bennett republished this letter in the N. Y. Herald, but dated it a year later (1833,) and tried to explain that the $iUO in sjiecie was not a bribe from the Tammany Hunkers for attacking the U. S Bank, by referring to a letter ol llojt's written twelve months alter, about $200,000. The explanation is lame, clumsy, and built on a false foundation. The following extract from a letter of Hovt to Bennett, in August, 1833, will show that Van Buren and his men believed that Bennett, like Webb and Noah, was retained against their j)luusible plunder scheme; but 1 see no evidence of it. " You have heard me talk to Webb, by the hour [says Hoyt] of the folly of his being on the face of the record a friend of Mr. Van Buren's, and at the s' me time attacking HIS MDST FIRM AM) CONSlSTE.\T KRIEM) ; viz. the editor of the Jirjrua ; anil you stand in almost the same attitude, and there are many here who believe that your friendshi, will end a^ Sir. Webb's has. I will do you the justice to say that 1 believe no such thing, butai the same tune I w ' e.\ercise the frankness to say, that the course of your ))aper lays you open to the suspicion, i know enough o( aiVai. to know that you had higfi authority for the grounuyou have taken on thedeposite question, and 1 thought you im. aged the subject well for the meridian yon arc in. I was told by a person a day or two since, that y«ju wiiuld be aide from another quarter; I could not learn how. Hut you ought not to expect my friend at the north to do any thing, not that he hus an inilisposition to do what is right, or that he would not serve a friend, but }ie is in llie altitude that requires the most fastidious reserve. The people arc jealous of the public press, and the moment it is atlein|.teil to be controlled, its iisefuhiess is not only destroyed, but he who would gain public favor through lis columns is quite sure to fail. I am satisfied the press has lust some |iorlion o< its hold upon public con- fidence ; recent develi)penieiits have had a lendency to satisly the people, that its conductors, or many of them, at l«a^l, are as negotiable as u promissory iio.'c. This impression can only be removed by a firm adherenca to |irinciplu in adversity as well as prosjierity, ; can, my dear sir, only aay, us 1 have before suid tu you, be patient, * luvD lUttui who pumecule yuu.' '' f LOBBYIXG, DESPONDING, ELECTIONEKRING, BRIBING AND BARGAINING. 237 our sleep on ray account. I am certain of your friendship whatever the others may say or do. . fear nothing in the shape of man, devil, or newspaper ; 1 can row my own boat, and if the Post and Standard don't get out of my way, they must sink me— that is all. If I adhere to the same principle.'^ and run hereafter as I have done heretofore, and which I mean to do, recollect it is not so mich that " I love my persecutors" as that / regard vuj own hanar and reputation. Your lighting up poor Webb like a fat tallow candle at one end, and holding him out as a beacon-light to frighten me, onlv makes me smile. Webb is a gentleman in private life, a good hearted fellow, honorable in all his priv^ate transactions as I have found him, but in politics and newspapers a perf:ct child — a boy. You will never find the Pennsylvanian going the career of the C. & E. That suspicion answers as a good excuse to those who have resolved before hand to do me all the injury they can, but it will answer for nothing else. I am, Dear Hoyt, Yours truly, J. G. B. P. S. The S200 in Specie TUput into my big Chm and give the U. S. Dank and Stockjobbers abroadside. I wish you would let me know any other U. S. Bank movement in your city. This is the Battle ground of Bank contest— here is the field of Waterloo. New York now is only the Pyrren/es. Hoyt on Congressional Lobbying, at Washington, [No. 231.] Lorenzo Hoyt to Jesse, his brother, in New York. Albany, Sept. 10, 1832, Sunday.— I should be very much pleased to accompany j'ou to Washington this month ; but as I shall not be able to go more than once, I believe I shall wait till winter, or early in the spring Perhaps I shall have a case o/ CONGRESSIONAL LOB- BYING, by which I can make it a jaunt of pleasure and profit. Marcy desponding — is terrified at the effects of bank dollars — bids Hoyt meet the BankwUh Demo- cratic Dollars if he can. Two letter.s— William S. Marcy to J. Hon, New York. [No. 232.] Private. Albany, 1 Oct. 1832.- My Dear StR : I did not receive your letter of Thursday till last evening. I hasten to reply to it — though ihe answer will give you no plea- sure. I think our chance of success doubtful. Although others are full of courage, I am not. I have looked critically over the State, and have come to the conclusion that probably we shall be beat. I would not say this to you v.^ere I not perfectly confident that it will remain a profo^ind secret. All reports from New York are that we sliall do better than you represent : yet I have distrusted them. Tlie U. S. Bank is in the field, and I cannot but fear the effect of 50 or 100 thousand dollars expended in conducting the election in such a city as New York. I have great confidence in the honesty of the people, but it will notwithstand all temptations. Thecorruption OF SOME LEAD.S TO THE DECEPTION' OF MAVY. You ouglit to look to the Upper Wards. I fear you will find defections among the active electioneerers Though I speak so discouragingly of the result, I do not doubt if money could be kept out of use, we should beat them. But it will not. Yet great efforts without money may save us. I hope these efforts will be made in New York. If I thought that N. Y. would do as others say it will, I should say the chance is in our favor, but I feared .such a result as you predict. My advice i.s — donH Bet YOUR MONEY, BUT SPEND IT, as far as you legally can, to promote the election. We are all determin- ed to deserve success, and do not despair of getting it. Yours sincerely, W. L, MARCY. Van Buren canvassing' the infected district — the factions in Washington Co. split up — a Coali- tion or bargain in Westchester — Matthew L. Davis calculates the votes. [No. 233.] Albany, 4th Oct., 1832. My Dear Sir : Yours of yesterday is received. Before it came to hand I had determined to write you in order to relieve the gloom which my former letter was calculated to cast over vour mind. Information received since WTiting to you has considerably raised .ray hopes. V. Buren wiites from the infected District that we shall gain there as much as we can lose in the other parts of the State. That Ave shall gain (speaking with reference to the last Governor's election) I do not doubt — but the extent of that gain cannot be conjectured. I think it will be 3000 in the 8th District— and about 2000 in the 6th. Our recent news from Washington County is very flattering. The FACTIONS there do not coaksce. There is a reasonable hope that we "shall be better off by 1000 votes than has been calculated. The proceedings in Westchester have dissipated the gloom that hung over that county. We understand that both the Ward and Hunter parties will support our Electoral Ticket and State candidate. The charter election here has nerved our friends and inspired a determination to meet efforrs by efforts. Upon the whole our affairs look prettv weW, and success is in our ovrti hands, but we must labor to keep it. I fear more for you in N. Y. than any other place. Your vigilance and vigorous efforts can alone save you from a disappointment. Davis's calculadott in yesterday's C. & En. is, in many particulars, very wild. I have run over that calculation and made a note of deductions and a'dditions which I think may be reasonably depended on by 238 makcy's advice taken, general \\'AED reports psogress. which I v.uv the results. About 20,000 a pretty material variation. I do not wi«h it ex- hibued. Indeed i believe it is rather an idle employment to be making estimatts^^ The beat rule is to du the work and see the result. I am, with great respect, yours, W. L. MAKOY. Stotirtwout, Iloyt ^ Co. helping the Daily Sentinel and the Tvvih Teller, N. Y. [No 235 ] The following is one way in which party managers assessed them-elves in obe- dience to Governor M>ircy's later of Oct. 1, to carry tne tlecti.m in New York by the tise ot m..ney in 1832. Theirs is a perfectly fa>r mode. They p.id friendly edit ts tor ciicul»ung pnnrrs containing opuiions favorahle to their vicw.s, said editors havmg previously been with tliem, uii'd not iiavi.ig apo-tatized f..r a considerMti.pn ! i ■ • " We the uridc-rsi'Mied agree to pay the sums set opposite our names, towards giving a more extei.ded circula.ion to the Paily .Sen.inel, and ,he 'Truth Tell, r.' Oct. fi 1832.-J. Hoyt $2U-Tibl.eis S2U— S. Swartwout $-2()— Thad's Phelps $!>0— C. VV. L. [Lawrence $20— J. C. S2a-P. Fish $20-S. S^O-C. C. CambreUng S'-^O-C L. Livingston S^^-J- A. Hamilton $20-C. P. White $20-^. Hone $20— .\L Van Schaick $20-D. Jackson $20— J. L C .ddington ^20— Auchincloss $20, &c." [Editors when po r should take all 'he cash they can got from men of all parties, but continue to speak independently or not at all. When I puhli.hed ihe G^izette ar Rochester, :.nd the bx- aniu.er at New York, no man w.ih more wi ing lo receive and thankfully ackn^.wledge, pecu. iiictry aid from whi,:, deniocr,.t, native, loyalist, and conservative— and, lo the hest -f mv recol- lection, I got Jonati ins from them all. If .Utackinsr a fortress and scarce of powder would It be wise in the besiegi.,g officer to reiu-iii rniii. Tn 18:10. tlie lesislatiirs of N'.nv York pn'sed a liiw rpi|ii iritis one ot'llio Suprpini! Toiirt .Imliresfo liolil n Cirroil in Ningnra noiintv, to try tlio indirtinPnts for killing Morgiin f )r writing iiUonl nnsonry. mill iliroctPfl tliiil his expenses slinulcl he iiiiid. Mnri'v " :!■- swiecled. and he k<"|it sn nrronnt of every c.i'ut expemleil, iiinonj which he enninernted ^-T plmiIs to n RiitViilo ImrhiT, nnd •SOcents to n tnilor f.ir sewinj up n very nnsiehlly rent in his lirperlios. Ahout this extra -.indEinj. cxtrii-pav, iinrt hill tnilors nnd hrirliprs' hills, ii liuigli wiis niiai'd. which lie wiis wpakpnouirh or wise enouili to Irenl ns iiliove. If inch cftrefuliipss in ih'tails lind heen his worif fnilt. I would Imvp lipcn ainonir his wnrinest adinirurs. His war puflTniip'-ari'd in due form in llic Arso'^ nnd I'.vpiiinj I'osi, and doiilillps^ aided his elpnfioii. He had said in the United Stales Senate, that " To the Vii-lnrs hfllnns the .'Spoils," and on that iirinriplc iliil he admin stpr the ffovern- ment of N, Y. Mnrev is ovpr (Iftv years of hl-p. I have heard, hot am not sure that It is so, that he is from Mass. BiiJ riime to Troy, opened a ehoe store there, end then tnriied liiwycr, like iloyt. VAN BURENISM TTNMASKED. ALLEN'S TAMMANY BANK. 241 Too harefaced even for Hoyt .' — Stephen Aliens Tammany Hall Bank, to hrins the Democracy under the direct influence of exclusive privileges, in open mockery of their principles. [No. 241.] Stephen Allen, Receiver General of Sub Treasury's advice to Jesse HoytatN. Y. At-BAMy, Nov. 98,1832. — Dear Sir : Nothing is more true than the observation made by Mr. V:m Biiren at the Democratic festival; that the democratic party, in a great meas- ure, owe their present and previous victories to Tammany Hall, the place of concentrated opin- ion and action, and a rallying point of the democracy of the city, or words to that effect. There cannot be a doubt but that the building of that Hall, and thus far preserving it as a Party Es- tablishment, and a rallying place on all occasions for the Republicans of the City and surround- ing Counties, has been one of the means of our triumphs. >:( I was one of the Committee who purchased the ground — made the contracts for buildinir—^"- and raised the money to pay for it. The opperations of that Committee ardious and responsable, as during the progress of the work they were frequently compelled to raise considerable sums on the responsibility of their own names. The whole establishment cost about S>^5,000 ; all of which t^um was subscribed by individuals of the party e.xcept ,^18,000 (if I recollect right.) and for which last sum the premises are now under mortgage. If Me j7rtr-HI. — Mr. D^sLiiry is iiii i.M iiilinhilaiit of this cilv — a firm supporter of the udniiiiislration — and iN THE L.VTK i;i,E(;T10X \VA.^ .VCIIVE A.M) l.NFLUENTiAL. " t In llciinctrs Kitchen Cabinet laid open, Xo. :), lie says, " I advocated tlio removal of tliedeposit< :" Imt he had •-tilted in his Pciinsylvaiiiaii, July 'JO. M-'X\, (liat it seemed to him probable that nothin;; would lie done till (^ongress met ; and for this the New York Van llurcn editors, whose speculating upholders wanted the bank plunder, denounc- ed him, while Van Buren himself fNu. S5-iJ disliked '■ the evident tendency of lii.s paper." kendull wrote him from Haltiinore that be was sorry ho bad said ' thai the deposites would not be removed '" — adding, " I <-liall want your most prudent counsel when 1 " KEEP HONEST ! 245 in New York, WORKING NIGHT AND DAY FOR THE CAUSE OF MR. VAN BUREN AND HIS FRIENDS, surrounded, too, as I have been, with those who were con. tinually talking against him, and poisoning me to his prejudice, the treatment which I have re. ceived from him and his friends during this last year, and up to this moment, is as superlatively heartless — and if I could use any other word more expressive of my sentiments I would — as it is possible to conceive or imagine. By many of those whom I have supported for years I have been suspected, slandered, and reviled as if I had been in bitter hostility to Mr. Van Buren for years, instead of supporting him through every weather, and even sacrificing myself that 1 might retain the same feelings towards him — for I assure you I might have continued my connection with the C. and E. last year, very much to my advantage — retained my share in the printing office of that establishment, if I had not differed with Mr. Webb on the points that you know so well of. I sold out however to Hoskin — saved a small pittance from the wreck of the Globe — came here and invested it in the Pennsylvanian, which is now entirely under my control, provided I could find a friend anywhere between heaven and earth to help me along, and enable me to carry out MY FIXED PURPOSE IN FAVOR OF VAN BUREN and his friends. But that friend God has not yet made, though several of the opposite character the other gentleman has put his brand upon, and fondly says " this is mine." / except you, DEAR HOYT — I am sure you would help the cause if you could. I find no fault with you, although what fault vo" .,iid with me about the deposits is nonsense, and only a clamour raised in Wall street by a lew of the jealous blockheads hostile to me, who have not brains to see that in this city we can use the deposit question very efficiently in the October election. I do not blame even the jealous blockheads or any others in New York — I blame only one, and that is the Vice President himself. He has treated me in this matter as if I had been a boy — a child — cold, heartless, careless and God knows what not. By a word to any of his friends in Albany he could do the friendship I want as easily as rise and drink a glass of Sara- toga water at the Springs. He chooses to sit still — to sacrifice those loho have supported him in every weather — and even hardly to treat me as one gentleman would treat another. / scarcely knoic what course I shall pursue, or what I shall do. I am beset on all side.'! with importunities to cut him — to abandon him — What can I do? What shall I do I I know not. You will excuse this letter — you can easily appreciate the situation of a man confident of suc- cess if properly supported — but nothing before him but the abandonment of his deliberate pur- poses or a shameful surrender of honor and purpose and principle and all. Yours truly, J. G. BENNETT. I do not know whether it is worth the while to write to Van Buren or not — nor do I care if you were to send him this letter. The past and the future placed before Jesse Hoyt. [No. 251.] Same to same. — Philadelphia, I5th Aug't, 1833. — Dear Hoyt : I iiave not heard from you for a week. I hope that my old friends — if I ever had any — which I begin to doubt — will not forget what I have heretofore done or what I may do. Do let me hear from you again for good and all at least. I am, Dear Sir, Yours, &,c. JA'S G. BENNETT. Van Buren will not lend his friend Bennett one cent — but will bestow his good wishes upon him as long as he keeps honest .' .' .' — Van Buren dare not venture to trust himself on paper to his 'riend — Cannot Philadelphia uphold one Van Buren Press? [No. 252.] Vice President Van Buren, to Jesse Hoyt at New York. Sakatoga Springs, August 19, 1833. — {Free, M. Van Buren.) — Dear Sir : I return your Mr. B's letters, [i. e. No. 250. &c.] / have never doubted his personal friendship for me. I would al- ways have been happy to do him good, but I cannot directly or indirectly afibrd pecuniary aid to his press, and more particularly so as I am situated at the present moment. If he cannot con- tinue friendly to me on public grounds and with perfect independence, I can only regret it, but I desire no other support. Whatever course he may pursue, as long as it is an honest one, I shall wish him well. He does not understand the relation between the Editors he quarrels with and myself, or he would not complain of me for their acts. They are as independent of me in the management of their papers, as I wish him to be, and remain. I had intended to have said thas much to him, but the , your letter, and the evident tendency of his paper, render it prelerable that I should not. I did suppose that he would have found no difficulty in obtaining money in New York as others get it, if our friends in Philadelphia could not all-together make out to sustain one press. If you happen to meet him I wish you would make these explanation.? to him, BUT KEEP THIS. I am, in haste, your friend, M. VAN BUREN. [No. 253.] Vice President Van Buren, to Jesse Hoyt, N. York. Albany, Sept. 7, 1833. — Dear Sir : General Vance, with whose good character and respect- ability you are well acquainted, goes to New York on business in which our State is deeply in- terested, and in respect to which you may perhaps be of service to him. If you can do so, I hope you will — and am very cordially yours, M. VAN BUREN, 240 SILAS WRIGHT INTRIGiriNG — JOHN VAN BUREN CURSING. Stocks, Checks, Shirts, and Drawers — Swearing, Spelling, and the letter S. [No. 254.] Attorney General John Van Biiren, to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Albany, Dec. 19, 1833. — ' My Dear' Hoyt (as some rascal writes lo ' Webb') — I enclose you your check, for your comfort — it was deposited in the Bank for collection, and, of course, is returned to you without inconvenience. As for money, I don't know that I shall be peculiar short (not physically but pecuniarily) unless Boston and Providence should go down to a mere anatomy. Jn that event I fear the ex-Danish Commissioner and myself will be a ' below-par nobile' of sufferers. Please to let Willard of the City Hotel be apprised that I want two flannel shirts, and as many pairs of drawers, to be had of Tryon for a trifle alias, credit. I am not a ' Councellor' and be d d to you — and if I were I should spell it with an ' S' in the middle. Yours ' to sarve,' J. VAN BUREN. P. S. Since the foregoing effusion was poured forth, I have enquired at the Bank, and find your check has been sent to New York. I suppose the easiest way ' to work it,' is to enclose you, as I do, my check on this bank for the same amount, payable at the same time. J. V. B. [No. 255.] J. A. Hamilton, to Jesse Hoyt, on supporting ' the Standard.' New York, Dec. 30, 1833. — Dear Sir: In reply to your enquiry whether I am willing to unite with other friends in raising money to sustain the Standard, I have to say — that if 30 persons will agree to advance $250 each, the repayment to be satisfactorily secured upon the paper, 1 will agree to advance $250 whenever the arrangement is completed. With very great respect, &c. JAMES A. HAMILTON. Governor Silas setting the wheels in motion — contracts to he kept hy Farmers with Patroons, but may be broken at will with National Banks — no thunder from the city — Plunder's our game, and ' our state leads' — the legislature is a party organ ; let it play up ' Judas's march' — Instructions from Washington how to manufacture public opinion at Albany, for effect at Washington — also for country use I [No. 256.] Silas Wright, U. S. Senate, to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Washington, 3d Jan'y, 1834. — My Dear Sir : Your letter and the enclosure came to me this day, and I have this evening sent both to Mr. Flagg, with such suggestions as occurred to me. Nothing can be clearer, in my mind, than that the friends of the Administration in your City should not attempt to get up a popular meeting upon this subject. The legislature is the proper organ to speak for the people upon this important subject, and there is not a doubt that they should act without one moment's delay. It is too late to fear any effect from the allegation that our Slate leads. The subject is now before the Virginia legislature, and I think it quite likely they will recommend a restoration of the deposits. The legislature of Ohio have acted, and go strona; against the Bank — in favor of the removal of the deposites — and against the land bill. I say they have acted. The mail to-day has brven the impenitent Hoyt about this lime, and partially effected that which even the Pious B. F. Butler's calls iiave failed in— as witness the following receipt—" Mr. Je.s.«c Hoyt— To the Church of the Ascension, Dr. To Rent of Pew, No. 38, 1 May, 1B34, to 1 May, 1835, $28. Received Payment, &c. WILLIAM DONALDSON." ^ Relieving the Cobntry. — The junior Van Bureu refers hero to Marcy 'e Messiige of the previous day, [March 24, J advising the people lo niorigage tlieir farm-, and lend I he safely fund and pel hanks the other six millions, to re- lieve the country. Mr. Parke (iodwlti, of ihe N. Y. Customs, has given an honest ojiinion abotit relieving the country, which w« copy from his news[)Bper, The Pathfinder, of April 22, IHiS. Electors of New York, is it not tnicl Read aa4 judge. Uudwiu speuks tbe ktoguage of a true patriot, a luan who felt for the distresses and EDWIN CROSWELL PARKE GODWIN. DEMOCRACY. 261 Buy the Standard of Hoiie for S30,000 — CrosvKll puffs Marafs Six Million Loan Message — talks of bank patriots and, selfish monicd men — imagmanj distress, and stock not to be sold! — but will do to tuLk about — Jackson tf« Co.'sicn million ba7ik scheme smothered as impolitic at the time. [No. 26G.] Edwin Croswell of the Argus to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Albany, March 23, 1831. — My Diar Sir: If t/ie Simlard can hi purchased of Mr. Hone, unincumbered, for S20,000, our friends ought not to hesitate to get possession of it. Aside from the importance of the step, politically, it could scarcely fail, if managed with reasonable tact and economy, to prove a matter of pecuniary profit. I do not think of any one precisely qualified for the charge of the paper, who is at this moment free from engagements of another sort, but I have no doubt the man may be found, and soon, if our friends will take the refusal of it for a given period. You have undoubtedly read the Governor's message. Allow me to ask your opinion of ill The Bank and opposition press gros.'^iy misrepresent the proposition. That was expected of course. The Bank has produced the "distress" and its incendiaries have contributed to it ia all possible ways. R,eal or imaginary, it is their only hope. Hence any proposition, calcu- lated to produce relief either by inspiring confidence, or by providing means, is their bane, and will he fought and lied dowii, if possible. But I am satisfied the project will be approved by the legislature, and by the people, and that it will result advantageously to the pecuniary and political interests of the state. Attempts will be made by the bank patriots and by selfish monied men to decry the stock in the foreign market. But rely upon it, IF ANY SHALL BE EVER ISSUED, it will find a sale without difficulty. sorrows of the poorest of his countrymen. He is the son-in-law of Wm. CuUen Bryant, and were all the offices in Lawrence's dK|iartrai'iit as well bestowed as his was, by Van Ness, who is there that could complain ? [From the Pathfinder, by Paike Godwin.]—" It [meaning the democratic party] has talked until it has not only exhausted its bieath, but Its life. What is it doins; to carry out its priuciiiUs ? What leal vitality is there in any of its pniminent measure.s 1 Whiit genuine manhood in iiny of its prominent men 1 Is it not, at litis mo- ment, a grand imp"Sition and falsehood ? Is it not a vast collixiive deatJi's head, an illusjcjn, a deceiver, -a. A. aiiti-chrisi 7 We ourselves answer these questions in the afiiiniative. We dn so, because we conscientiously believf that our politics and our political parties are slupendiius and cruel humbugs. The democratic partj, par- ticularly, is liable to this ci.arge, because it piofefses to be f;uiiled by lolty aims. Its ends are rij;ht, but its means are delufive. Not that the mass of its members are aware of tliis — not that a whole people would voluntarily agree to mislead and cheat themselves — but that the leaders depress stocks rapidly and seriously, which is hardly possible, sell out ana save me from loss. Yours truly, ' "J. VAN BUREN. Pearce an the Rhode Island Election — Potter an old fed. in his dotage — Whip the Dank Men — Gapernor Francis, a Van Bnrenite of 1st ivatcr — a hint about fcanily connexions, Jcromiis John- son like. [No. 275.] t Dutee J. Pearce, M. C, Rhode Island, to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Newpokt, R. I. Sept. 18, 1834. — Private. — Dear sir: Yours of yesterday I have. It our men do not act like fools, we can elect our Senator by a decided majority, say a majoritj- of five or si.x. In a vote between Potter and Burgess, the vote would probably stand 41 to 41. thus giving to the Gover- nor the casting vote in favor of Mr. Potter — but to give Mr. Potter 41 votes, he must get three votes in , and this three we are afraid he will not be able to do — and it is moreover well understood that if there would be no probability of Mr. P's having a majority of one over Mr. B., Mr. B. will be withdrawn and the Atto. General, Greene, taken up, who would un- doubtedly beat Mr. P. three or four votes. I think it will not do to run Mr. Potter, who is now in his old age and dotage — cannot forget his early associations of federalism and Hartford Con- v€ntionkL,is-ni. It is hard lor the Ethiopian to change his skin. Mr. P. will be the cause of our defeat, if defeated we should be ; and, if disposed, can put our success beyond a doubt — in other words, if he will give up his pretensions where In's friends tell him there is no chance for him — and this we must do, and support another man with the same zeal we would support him. If we co-uld support him with the hope of success, tee tvoadd give the bank vien a severe whipping, and send to the Senate the best man we have, in my opinion, in our .state, Governor [John B.] * I'erish C. P. C. Beardsley was the whig nickname to Saniutl IJeKrdsley. of Oneida, who was a violent sup porter of the Safety Fund Ijcagiie of Banlis, and an enemy to the I'nited ^StHie< Bank and biai)che>\ He sot it bv a speech in Congress, January. Ie34, in wliich he said — " IS'o 1 sooner than retrace our steps— perish the slate banks — perish credit — perish commerce." t IHUee J. Pearce, an influential lawyer of Rhode Island, was apjiointed liy Miniroe, in ]8-i4, its U. S. iJislrict Attorney. He entered the iilth Conirress, in Deremlier, ]i*25, with Tristram Burgess : and John Qiiinty .^dauis thus concrHtiilatis him on a re-election to the iMlh Congress, ten years atler, i;i a letter dated Uuincy, ."Sepi. 7, 1835. " I heartily congratulate you upon your re election to Con?ress--alihous;h upon many important public iiieasnres, I ditfered widely in 0|>inion from you in the last Congress ; and although I do not ilatter myself that we shall agree much better in the ne.vt, I am yet convinced that the party which has been these two years strugglinj.' to break you down, the base conipnund of Hartford convention lederalism and royal arch masonry, is so rotten with the corruplion of both its elements, that I hail with joy the victory which you have achieved over it; 1 rejoice also that the same people have repaired the injustice done by the same party to Mr. iSprague, and have returned him to I'onsiress as your colleague. Of that party, treachery is so favorite an instrument, that I have heard Mr. Bursess complain that they have used it even with him. It Is their nature ami their vocation. I welcome the result of your election as a pledge that their chalice is rctuniin!; to their own lipa." 254 butler's wanton abuse of the mayor op PHlLADELPtitA. Francis. He can -ceilauily be elected against any man the bank party can name, by a major- it}' of liw, reserving his outi vote as the presiding officer of botli houses. Mr. Prriiich is my confidential friend, and would support the administraiiim. He is more de- voted to Mr. Van Buren tlian anil other vian in Rhode Island. He was my classmate, and the classmate of Governor Francis in College, and is also your Governor [MarcyJ's personal friend. Mr. Francis is not anxious ibr the place, but / know would run if he would receive tlie support of our party. With these prospects before us, it will be too bad to have them blasted — and blasted they will be, by Mr. Potter's pertinacity and obstinacy. What can we do? i hardly know. I have written lately to Mr. Woodbury fully, in regard to our difficulties, and have at times thought I would -WTite Mr. Van Bm-en, and Mr. Wright your Senator, in relation to them. 'i^Mr. P. [Pottei'] is binder fj-cat ohlif^ations to Mr. Wright. If Mr. Wright would, l^without bringing my name into question, or in any way refeiring to it, urge Mr. P. to with- Jl^draw when he finds success hopeless, and throucH all his weight into the scale of Mr. PYan- g;;^is, our victory would be a glorious one. Mr. P. Avould rai.se himself in the estimation of i;^tho administration, and if he on earth would not receive his reward, some of liis friends and i[:^"family connexions may. Truly yours, DUTEE J. PEAIICE. Perish C. P. C. Beardslcy no ' Bank slave' only a Van Buren vmnl! [No. 276.] Samuel Beardsley, M.C. to Jesse Ho}1;, N. Y. Private. — Washington, September 24, 183-1. — Dear Sir : Your favour of the iGth, reached me here to-day. I am well aware of the feeling of your bank* merchants, and all other bank worshippers towards myself. That is of little moment to me, and less still to the public. I dare not venture any opinion to you about mv disti-ict, altliough I believe our political fi-iends hope that it will be lor the country rather than for the Bank. Personal feeling aside, I mu.st say that I hope such may te tlie result: in other words, I would prefer being a freeman to being a banlc slave. I do not give any opinion for my.self about the Disti'ict. I however believe that our friends not only hope for a democratic majority in Oneida and Oswego, but they expect one of from 5 to 10 hundred. My opinion is, that General Root may have 400 majority in Broome, but that in Delaware he will be behind some 800. I presume Governor Marcy will be re-elected by mure than ten thousand. In haste yours, 8. BEARDSLEY. Va7i Buren' $ Profanity set off by Butler's Piety. [No. 277.] Attorney Gen'l J. V. Buren to J. Hoyt, N. Y. P'm'k— " Avon, N. Y. Sept. • 28" [1834] — franked by "M. Van Buren." My Dear Jesse, — I make use of a frank the old man left with me, to let you know that I am abo^it at unhappy a d 1 as you wmdd wish to sec — -from, the fear that you have purchased me some Patterson R. R. Stock, on which lam to lose a large sum. of vioney. I .see that on Wednesday it left ofl'at 8li, which is 8 or 1) per cent, lower than it was when I authorized you to buy for me. I know nothing of the d d stock, except that Bremner was dealing in it,t and it had been rising for a month, and I hardly thought my * When P;iinupl Bf^arilsley \vr\s elfcted to Congress, from Onoidn, he resigned the office of U. S. Ilistrirt At- torney, was succeeded hy N. S. Benton, now Secretiiry of Stale for N. Y., and in ]83(), appointed liy Governor Marcy Attorney General. He was a lirni supporter oi'the safety fund hank system, opposed to Yonnp, and one of four to l]uy Croswell's three-walled house, out of which job the Kvening .lournal extracted much amuse- ment at the expense of the knaves who made the liarfrain. Beardsley entered the senate of N. Y., in 1823, was a rigid partisan, thorouf;h for Crawford, and, as Hammond thinks, very honest. Marcy nominated him to lie Attorney General, late in 1830 ; anil when a senator, he could not brine his conscience to consent to tlie sendinj of Bishop and Kemble back to their constituents. Like W'riiiht, in 1834, he thought that popular ajipeals may be made too often. 1 Butler's Pietv. — .Tohn Van Buren is said to have remarked, when in New York, some time since, that he sutiered less for his profanity than Butler did for his piety. 1 anne.x another specimen of the latter. It is well known that .). G. Bennett took part with Van Buren, Lawrence, Butler, Morris, Edmonds and Ste- venson, in the Glentvvorth alfair of 1841). In the N. Y. Herald, of Oct. 2tilh, we find the report of n N. Y. in- di'.'uation meetintr, held, at nixni of the '24th, in the I'ark, David Banks beinfi; its president, and \\'ri|,'ht Hawkes, now of Paris, the mover of resolves. Mr. B. F. ButbT was the orator of the day ; anil, had lie really been a pious man, his pathetic appeals to God and Providence would have been passed over by me without remark — liHt look at the impudence, covetousness, and hypocrisy shown in his letters, which compare with his descrip- tion of )iis opponents, and the then mayor of Philadelphia lie said, " that frauds extensive and atrocious were practised by the Whigs In 1H38 and 183!), is now aliund.intly proven. These frauds were successful in the lirst instance, and nearly so in the last. The reason that they were not so in the latter instance. Is not from the want of exertions on their part, but from J):^ the direct interposition of an overruliu'.' Providence. J^ .... 1 shall do all I can. iindeierrerf by threats of prosecution, indiclnient. or ,issassiii:iiinn, which have been held our, to go on and brinjl these perpetrators to justice, even if my life lall in Ihe ellort. I look on this as a special iiilerposiiion of that providence — that ruler of truth and ju-l. Jifse Hoyts and John Van Durcn's Bets, Sept. and Oct., 1834. [No 278 1 I have compiled the following statement from Mr. Hoyt's memoranda of his bets, on his own and Jolm Van Buren's account, previous to the fall election in New York. With James Jfa'son Webb.— $500 on Governor (Marcy vs. Seward), evcnr-$oOO on 7000 for Marcy— S50 lo S25 against Verplanck's nomination for governor— $50 on Cambrelcng — S250 on MemlxTs of Congress in N. Jersey- S250 on Governorof Ohio— $250 on Governor of N'^w York— $100 each, on 3, 4, 5, 0, 7, and 8000 majorities for Marcy— $50 against 'JOO majority 1st ward, N. Y.— $1000 on 750 majority for Congress in city ot N. Y.— $1000 on 1250 majority for governor, in do— total $4500. , ^, , With Geo.F. Talman.— $100 to $200 on Marcy— $50 on Beardsley— $50 that Marcy does as well in Moirtgcimery as in 1832— $50 that the whigs would have 2250 in Washmgton Co.— $200 that Young and Cramer weuld be elected— $200 that the wlxip would not elect M.C. s in ]S[ Y city— $100 on 7th district— $10 on Marcy— $100 ag'st $200 on Lucas as governor, in Ohio— $iOO each on 6, 7, and 8000 majorities to Marcy in N. Y.— $100 each on b 7, and 800 majorities tor Marcy in city of N. Y.— $10 on majority in Ulster Co.— $.50 on 250 for Gover- nor in 14th ward— $50 on New Jersey Congress ticket— total $1570. WUh Alexander Hamilton, on Governor, $250. ^^. ^,«„ o,->/.« -With Brcmner —on Governor $500— on Members of Congress $25— $100 on 2000 majority for Lucas in Ohio— a hat ($10) on governor— $500 on 5000 maj. tor Marcy— total SI 135 With D S Jones,— $\00 on 15,000 whig gov.— $100 on gov. even— $25 on each 1000 un to 6000 on whig majority in N. Y. city— $25 on each 1000 whig maj. in state ol N. Y.— $200 to $100 that Scwar' would not have 5000 majority— $700. ^,n,-v.x,,.. With Moses]- Grinnell, $100 on 5000 maj. for Marcy— with John A. Kinsj;, $100 that the hunkers would beat Stilwell 750 in N. Y. State— with Ellsworth on Beardsley $25— with G. W. Bruen a hat ($10) on Marcy— [Josc^^A ?] Kernochan $50 on Beardsley— with if. K i7r;-c;/. $50 on governor, and 2 bales of cotton ($90) on city M. C's &c.-with £7. Curtis xhsX Geii 1 Root gets no majority in Broome Co. $25— with same on governor, $100 against $200— with Dudhy Seldcn on Beardsley &c. $100— with John Hone $150— with Thnddcus Phelps,3 cases of champaigne, and cash $50 on Bergen— with T. Carpenter, wheat, wood, hams and apples S44_with H. Ketrhiim, boots $7— with John C. Crugcr $150 on fall election- with J. L. Joseph $200 on Lucas of Ohio and on Congress— with Draper $100 to $200 on majority ot Congress^ from Ohio and $100 on assembly in do— with J. G. Pearson $100 on legislature ot Ohio— with Geor'^e S. 'Dou^hti/ on 750 average maj. on Congress ticket in N. Y. city $200— with John Duer a suit of'clothes $50, on 10th ward— with O. Moran $100 on Congress maj. in N. Y.— wilh'jacob Little $100 on 5000 maj. for Governor Marcy— with CterZcs L. Livingston, ihal AUe-hany and Orleans would not both be against V. Buren and Co. for governor $100, Oct.. 6th— increa.sed to $'250, Oct. 2Gth— another bet $100— with Christmnss, a ham $3—2 cases ol champaiffoe with G , on Ohio election— with Cornelius Bogert $50 on Beardsley. With J Blunt —$100 on Gov. of Maine— $100 on Gov. ot Ohio— $100 on Gov. Marcy against Seward— $100 on W. Jersey Congressmen— $100 on aggregate majorities o! officers, concocted and marshaUed a system which was successful in cnablins men to come here and jleposit S votes in our biillut bo.xes. What is ,lue to these officers of justice, n.en sworn to preserve the course Ktice pure, and to do all to detect all oflenders against justice, and to prevent the porvrrsion of the CO. r^errr These police officers and this John Swilt, one of the sworn vicegerents of the God of justice ^ on eahlTall sending on men to vote, and some comins on to vote themselves and ^.vm;; to those sent ^ the character of thS greatest desperadoes their city contained, sending' them here to be dressed ,p In IhTcomnitree rooms, and to vote at all the ward polls, if possible ! I ask y>n, I ask our opponents, I a,U all hones en whether' these officers of justice ever'sent to the state prison, the l''-'"';;^"''"'-^' ''^ '^''''''^Xf;,^^^^^^^^^ to lirison or the gallows, any men so culpable, so criminal, or so deserviu!; the gillows, as they ^^ ere thein- selves" (Loud and continiU;d cheers and cries of '■ No, no.") Mr. Butler denied having asserted tha on Oc 15 h he would make disclosures that would settle Mr. Van Hureu's election-" yet, [said he,J strange to tell o, that very day? Mr. Stevenson walked int., my office and t<,ld me of all these Irands. I then remembered it was J^he 15lh r f October. (Cheers.) ^T VVho, then, shall charge n.e with fanaticism or supers^tition, when jS^I sav tha I ca see in this the fii^er of the God of truth and justice who onlers all things we 1; ^ who' will protect the virtuous and punish the guilty? And strong in this beliet.^and undismayed by ?^ threats, I shall continue to go on, and honestly do my duty to him and my country. H;-.r.,.fo,i On this same far-famed ].5th ..f October, at a great National Hall meeting Mr Prn-scott Hall thus dissccte.l the demerits of Butler. " This individual, with no merit of his own, but wliat be derives from shadowing for'th^?^^ Van Bnren's opinions, whilst he was decrying the credit system was hm.se a borrower of S"6 000 from the Manhattan Bank, without any security. He expended it all in sp ecul.ilions 1 h e com S called on hm. for security. 'vVhat did ho give 7 Why Chicago ^^'l:^'^:^^'^^^^^:^"^ only cost him $200, and that was as much as they were all worth I (Checr^,) and )et he t.ilks about tne aristocratic borrowers and speculators on the credit systcj..." 256 ANOTHER VIEW OF A |^^^DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEY GENERAL OP N. Y. democratic Congressmen from N. Y. S. — $100 on 6000 majority I'ur Marcy — $50 on Con- gress ticket in Mr. Hoyt's handwriting being bad, I may have made some mistakes, but think not. It ap- pears to me that these bets, amounting trom $12,000 to $15,000, are but a part ol'his wagers on the election ol' 1834 — but liis other memoranda are less clear. He seems to have begun betting early in September, and to have kept on daily till the elections were all over. A reve- nue officer told me one day at the custom house here, that J\lr. Hoyt's bets on the fall elections of 1840 were enough to have ruined a dozen of men who had not extraordinary resources, but he gave me no facts, so I do not vouch for his statement, though very probable. Mr. Hoyt"s betting did not enrich him, as witness Warren's letters of Dec. and Jan. next. John Van Buren may have cleared through Hoyt alone, on that election, $9000. He had access to the whole correspondence of the central junto at Albanj', and the returns by which their gambling on the elections M'as regulated. [N. 279.] John C. Cruger to Jesse Hoyt.— CharlcstoAvn, Nov. 27, 1834. My Dear Sir — On my arrival here I wrote to my brother-in-law Mr. Pell requesting him to pay vou tliree hundred dollars 150 for yourself and the same sum for Mr. Wilson. I send this letter by the steam packet as it Avill probably be in New York as soon as that. When you receive the S300, please pay the 150 to Mr. Wilson whose bet is the same as yours. Although the result of this election must be very agreeable to you, I cannot congratidate you, for I trast that you will look upon it as a source of regret before many years. I am truly yours. JOHN C. CRUC4ER. Sneers at. Ihc poor WMgs — Bd iip to $5000 — Marcifs Election " as sure as G — d." [No. 280.] Attorney General J. Van Buren to " My Dear Hoyt," N. Y. Aleak v, Oct. 7, 1834. [Tuesday.] — My Dear Hoyt — They say " the blood of the mart}Ts is the seed of the Church," and heaven Icnows I have been freely tapped in the good cause. THE REM. [re- moval] OF THE DEP. [deposits] cast me a fortune, and now i don't see but I must lose anotlier hunk of my little earnings. My impression is that Stocks will go up till Election, and fall immedic^tely after. If the poor Wkigs could carry a Constable somewhere and get up a Jubilee, stocks would rise. New Jer- sey may go for them, and give them a fdip — but Penna. will knock them stiff" next Aveek — so will Ohio — and so will N. Y. If you could get the difference bet on Marcy, I should say " Sell by all means," and any how 1 don't know but you had better sell. Do exactly as you see iit. I shall be down belbre it falls due probably ; meantime I should be most particularhj obliged to you, if you, can get me an even let against Marcy to any amount kss than FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. 1 think I would bet $100 on each lOQO majority up to 5000. I would bet $1,500 against $1,000 on an even election. I consider Marcy's election, by fro)u 7,500 to 15,000 majority, AS SURE AS GOD. You know best how mucli ihc Patler.son is worth, ancl you must do exactly as if it was your own, and I shall be satisfied. Make me some bets if possible. Yours, truly, J. V. B. P. S. The Whigs may gather pluck after some meetings or some things. Wiigcrs, letting, speculation — Boston and Providcyice — Ntd Livingston. [No. 281.] Attorney Gen'l J. Van Buren to J. Hoyt, N. Y. Albany, Oct. 12, 1834.— My Dear Jes.se — I should think you right about selling the Patterson, if it will not do to hold. By the looks of Webb's paper, {although it is intended no doubt to operate on New Jer- sri/,) the opposition gained confidence. Con you- tempt them icilh A WAGER on 3, 4, and 5d6o Majorities; $200 on each or $500 oh $4000? If neither of these can be got to- morrow, BET them $500 on 5000 majority. There will bo no betting ajtcr to-morrnic. Save the order for Bost. and Pro\-. open ; the Moh. is all right. We have nominated a strong ticket, tho' Ijivingston (Ned) is the Assembly man, contrary to all expectation. Yours ever truly, ^ " J- VAN BUREN. ' Don''t be UMasy,^ Jesse, go ahead ! Bets on Marcy and Lucas of Ohio. [No. 282.] Same to same. Albany, Oct. 14, 1834. Don't be 'uneasy' Jesse; go iihead. I wrote you by Sunday's l)oat: but I suppo.se as there was no mail the letter mis- carried. 1 think .stocks will fall ihis week. Sell if you think best. Can ymi gci BETS on three, Ibui-, and five Ihousanii majority foi- INIarey. two hundi-ed dol- fars on each '! if not, I will bet live hundred dollars on lour Ihousaiul; ]ierhaj)s, if we lose New Jer.sey, you can get this. Jfvou can't do better, I slumld. like a bet ef three hundred dollars on free thtnisond majority fa' Mora/; unless we lose N. J. : in that event I will wait to get better terms. "\'ours truly, J. VAN BUREN. P. S. I WILL BET on live tliou.saud majority for Lucas in Ohio. MORE MOCKING OF THE TRUE DEMOCRACY. 257' [No. 283.] Senator Tallmadge to Jesse Hoyt, at New York. Po'keepsie, Oct. 14, 1834. — My Dear Sir : I received your letter of the 11th, and had an interview with Judge Ruggles, who holds the Patnam circuit this week. He will talk with the genllcmen referred to on the subject mentioned. Such an inteivicw will have more effect than any thing else. Every thing looks well with us. We have renominated the " POKER" for Congress. Our whole ticket is a strong one ; we anticipate a greater vote than in 1832. Yours ti-uly, N. P. TALLMADGE. Patterson Railroad. The Setting Ring. S500 on Marcy. [No. 284.] Attorney General John Van Buren to J. Hoyt, N. Y. Albany, Oct. 15, ' 1834. — My Dear Hoyt — You have worked the Pattenson Rail Road very well. I am shocked at the shares only being $50, having become reconciled to at least double the loss. Tell Wil- \ son that I have an impression that he promised to invest S500 or so, for me, provided I kept \ out of the 'betting ring,' so as to encourage the enemy to give him a fair chance. If I am j right, and even if I am not, I count upon his nobility to spare me S500 evtn on Marcy, out of i his big investment. I shall be in New York the last of the month — let me know what W. | says. Youi's truly. J. V. B. ( P. S. I dont care to bet on 5000 majority for Marcy just now ; if it is not too late to back out. Van Buren pities the poor Whigs — thinks they mil change their names. [No. 285.] Martin Van Buren to Jesse Hoyt, New York. Kinderhgok, Oct, 21, 1834. — My Dear Sir: I send you with the greatest pleasure the letter you desire for our friend Phelps. I have been here for a few days where the Enemy is using very desperate efforts. I almost begin to pity the poor Whigs. Their next cognomen will be Democrats — remember what I say. I think you ought at some of your meetings, to call upon them, as our friends have done in Philadelphia, to give notice by what name they mean to pass next year. In haste, very truly your.s, \ M. VAN BUREN. Van Buren introduces his friend Clay to his friend Hoit. [No. 286.] Vice President Van Buren to Jesse Hoit, New York. Washington, Nov. 22, '34. — My Dear Sir: I take much pleasure in making you acquainted with my friend the Hon'ble Mr. Clay of Alabama [Clement C. of U. S. Senate,] who makes a short visit to New York before the meeting of Congress. I laiow it will give you pleasure to do what you can to make his stay in New York agreeable, I am, dear sir, very truly yours, ■^ M. VAN BUREN, Old Le Foy, Die Auctioiieer, nominates Governor Marcy direct from the N. Y. Custom House! [No. 287.] In a letter signed by Cornelius W. Lawrence, Thomas Herttell, John Lori- mer Graham, and George D. Strong, addressed to S! Svi^artwout, dated 8th Dec. 1834, at N- Y. they .say: " Mr. Le Foy from that time to the present has been an active, zealous, and efficient advocate of democratic principles, and has very materially aided in sustaining the pre- sent administration, and we believe ihat no individual who has been selected as an Inspector of Customs has presented stronger personal or political claims to your favourable notice." That honed and steady patriot, Wm. M. Price, thus adds his testimony (Dec. 10, 1834). "I am not acquainted with any individual who presents stronger personal and political claims to your consideration than Mr. Le Foy. His appointment would afford great gratification to a oi-eat number of vour personal and ■political friends, and confer an especial favor on your-s ft;.uly, WILLIAM M. PRICE." Le' Foy, an old auctioneer, was installed as a Custom House officer, proved himself a use- fixl tool— and, as a pretended representative of Ne^v York democracy, nominated Wm. L. Marcy as Governor, at the Syracuse Convention, Sept. 1836. New York therefore had a gov- ernor dictated by the Custom House— and when Throop was no longer endurable as a ruler, the Custom House opened its doors to him. Samuel Swartwout, Esq.— Dear Sir— Mr. George S. Messerve of the 11th Ward is an appli- cant lor the appointment of Inspector of Customs. Mr. M. has been A STRONG PARTY MAN, and is at present an ardent supporter of the General and State Administrations, and I have no doubt his appointment would give general satisfaction. New York, April 30, 1835. WALTER BOWNE. ^ Selling R. R. Stocks and buying High HeeUd Boots. [No. 288.] ' Attorney Gen. John Van Buren to J. Hoyt, New York. Albany, Dec. 17, 1834.— My Dear Jesse— Please sell me 100 shares Boston & Providence, deliverable in 60 days, at 107i or l07i. I shall be in New York this week. Can you send an order to and KimbaU, No. 3 Wall st., to make me. forthwith a pair of neat winter Boots with heels an inch high ; I want them to wear when I shall come to New York, and that will be by Thurss day. Yours truly, J, VAN BUREN, 258 HUNTING IN COUPLES. lOBBYING. CLUTCHING THE SPOILS. Hoyt's Deersldns — Jackson escapes Assassination. [No. 283.1 Vice President Van Buren to Jesse Hoyt at New York. Washtngtov, Dec. ^ 1834.— Mr Dkar Sir : I am obliged by your attention to my small concerns, and upon men- tij'ain'^ the circumstance in the presence ofilie President, he has requested me to ask you to send him afsQ a pair of the skins. 1 will pay aU. Yours, truly, M. VAN BUREN. FNo. 290.1 Vice President Van Buren to Jesse Ho)^, New York. No date (1834.)— Dear Sir: I forgot to say to you that the President cheerfully accepted your present ol the skins, and to make you my acknowledsrments fjr your attention. The President is in ftae health and spirits. His escape was parfictly miracilous. Providence lugged in witk Providence R. R. gambling.— McKoun <^ Van Buren's happiness is "-to do anijbody's dirty work." [No. 291.1 Albany, Dec. 30, 1834.— Dear Jesse : Enclosed is your note. If the order to Nevins and Townsend to sell me 100 shares Boston and Providence at lOTi to \ at 60 days and Interest should not, providenlially, have been countermanded in season, I take it they have effected the sale : if so, let them close it at the present prices, so that I may recuperate a small portion of my losses. tt .-ivt t^ttot-ivt Is Leggett wicked or crazy 1 Yours truly, J. VAN BUREN. P S I have formed a partnership in law with Col. McKoun : one of us will attend all the Courts', and we shall be HAPPY TO DO ANYBODY'S ' DIRTY WORK.' J. V. B. Speaker Livingston invites E.z-Comnmsioner Hoyt to join tlie Lobby. [No. 292.1 My Dear Hoyt : The U. and Schenectady rail-road passed our House this mornino-. I h'avc just inquired of De Graff his opinion of its fate in the Senate— he is not con- fident of success, but thinks, with a full Senate, it may pass. As this is a matter of some impor- tance to yourself, I loould advise that you come up and lend a helping hand to those already engag- ed in carrying it through. Yours, C. L. L. [No. 293.] Van Buren's Pet Financier, Collector and Stockjobber, at fault. Two Notes— Jolui Warren, Broker, Wall street, to Jes.se Hoyt. " New York, Dec. 27, 1834. —Dear Hoyt: You will find by the enclosed account, made up to 21st inst., a balance due us of ft'2997.24 cts. Will you do us the favor to have it settled 1"—" Ncav York, Jan'y 12, 1835. —Sir • Not having received the balance due our late firm, I feel myself bound by the regula- tions of our Board to hand in vour name unless settled by lOj o'clock, to-morrow." [Thus stood the successor of Swartwout in 1835. In a few months thereafter, through Van Buren's influence, he, his friend Butler, and their comrade W. S. Coe, were the hoard of Com- missioners to examine into and settle all claims relative to duties, arising out of the great fire in New York ! ! !] The Madness of the Merchants and Auctioneers— the Victims of the Panic— To tlie Victors belong the Spoils ! [No. 294.] Gov'r. Marcy to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Albany, 26th Jan'y, 1835. Private.— My Dear Sir I received your letter this morning on the subject of L. M. M. It is proper that Mr M. and all other office holders in N. Y. whose feelings or whose conduct has gone with the T-ri-^s should be fully apprised of my situation in relation to their appointments, and that they should be nxade sensible that they have contributed to bring about a state of things which prevent me from doing towards them as I have done heretofore and should under other circum- stances do now. The principal auctioneers partook of the madness and infatuation which la.st year seized the great ma.ss of the Merchants— they aided in giving success to our opponents in the Common Council— they countenanced and .some practised the proscriptive policy of that body —turned away their clerks, carmen, &c.— upheld the course pursued by the Wig naper-s— and cheered on the Common Council in sweeping the decks of all our political friends. The very men who have been proscriJ)ed in N. Y., with the expressed or im])lied approbation of those who wish reappointments, now surround me in great numbers, asking the places and commissions of the proscribcrs. What shall I say— what ought I say to these applicants'? Shall I send these victims of proscription, and victims of the panic, home, empty handed, to be"- employment of those who have deprived them of it, and give commissions to those who are the authors or even the silent approvers of the course pursued by the Common Council and the panic makers ? If I had but one hour of official life to live I should consider it my solemn duty to employ it diligently in protecting my political friends from persecution. My friends in N. Y. ought to look at both sides of this question before they advise a course of liberality which would be injustice to firiends, and, as past experience shows, returned with in- gralUAiL. Yours, &c., W. L. MARCY. AARON BURR NOMINATES ANDREW JACKSON. 25S BUas WiigU appoints a very suitable Lmvi- Agent. [No. 295.] Governor Silas Wright to Lorenzo Hoyt, Lawyer, Albany, Canton, 11 April, 1835. — My Dear Sir: I believe I some time since appointed you MY LAW AGENT in Albany. I cannot say now that I shall have any thing for an agent to do, as 1 have little expectation of doing any thing as an Attorney while my annual absences are so long. I wish you, however, to present the enclosed papers to one of the Justices of the Supreme Court, and get an order allowing to the clerk therein named the time shown to have been employed in classical studies, and then that you would file the papers, and send me copy of the order I am, very truly, &c. SILAS WRIGHT, Jr. Andreio Jackson' sjirst nomination as President, by his Old Associate, Aaron Burr. '• [No. 296.1 From the Memoirs of Aaron Burr, vol. 2, page 433. Extract from Burr's letter to Joseph Alston, governor of South Carolina: New York, November 20, I8l5. 'A congressional caucus will, in the course of the ensuing month, nominate James Monroe for President of the United States, and will call on all good republicans to support the nomina- tion. Whether we consider the measure itself, the character and talents of the man, or the stale whence he comes, this nomination is equally exceptionable and odious. I have often heard your opinion of these congressional noviinations. They are hostile to all freedom and inde- pendence of suffrage. A certain junto of actual and factitious Virginians, having had posses- sion of the government for twenty-four years, consider the United States as their property, and, by bawling ^support the Administration,' have too long succeeded in duping the Republi- can Public. * * The moment is extremely auspicious for breaking down this degrading system. The best citizens of our country acknowledge the feebleness of mir Admiiiistration. They acknowledge that offices are bestowed merely to preserrc power and without tlie smallest regard to fitness. If, then, there be a man in the United States of firmness and decision, and having standing enough to afibrd even a hope of success, it is your duty to hold him up to the public view: that man is Andrew Jackson. Nothing is wanting but a respectable nomina- tion, made before the proclamation of the Virginia caucus, and Jackson's success is inevitable. If this project should accord with your views, I could -wish to see you prominent in the execu- tion of it. It must be known to be yaur loork. Whether a formal and open nomination should now be made, or whether you should, for the present, content yourself with barely denouncing, by a joint resolution of both houses of your legislature, congressional caucuses and nominationi, you only can judge. One consideration inclines me to hesitate about the policy of a presevi nomination — it is this : that Jackson ought first to be admonished to be passive; for, the moment he shall be announced as a candidate, he will be assailed by the Virginia junto, with menaces and with insidious promises of boons and favors. There is danger that Jackson might be WROUGHT UPON BY SUCH PRACTICES. If Eu opcn nomination be made, an express should be in- stantly sent to him' &c, AARON BURR. Young Dlenn^rhassett hastens from Montreal to ask an office from S. Swarfwout, his father's col- league in the Burr Movement. [No. 297.] Harman Blennerhassett, to Collector Swartwout. New York, April 15 1829. — Dear Sir: I respectfully take this liberty to remind you that I am a candidate for aii appointment to any situation in the Custom House which your goodness and circumstances will allow you to offer me. As reference to my character or abilities, I beg to mention the fol- lowing gentlemen from whom I can submit a written recommendation, should that be neces- sary, and will offer any further testimonials you require. Robert Emmett, T. A. Emmet, Jr., David Codwise, William H. Harrison, William H. Maxwell, Cadwallader D. Colden, counsellors at law; Doctor M'Neven, Broadway; Doctor Ludlow, Hudson street ; B. M'Evers, Walter Odie, John Griswold; merchants ; Gerard Beek- man, Bleecker street; Robert Stewart, Benjamin Romaine, Hudson street, gentlemen, I was born on my father's island in the Ohio, and have spent the principal part of m.y life in the United States, with the exception of a few years that I lived in Canada, where I completed my education; AND CHERISHING THE HIGHEST SENSE OF YOUR FRIEND- SHIP FOR MYSELF AND FAMILY, and with the ardent hope that you may find some post in your department in which I can be useful, I have the honour, &c. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. ^ The old Burrite aid-de-camp in direct correspondence with the chief manufacturer of revolt in Texas. [No. 298.] Collector Swartwout to General Samuel Houston, Texas. New York, 18 May, 1835. — My dear General, I am most happy to make you acquainted with the bearer, Mr. Fortime, my very good and highly esteemed friend. Mr. Fortime has business on hand of some importance in respect to the JPelasola grant in your country. Give him all the aid ^&60 SWARTWetTT. HOBTSTON, NEVILLE AND TEXAS. you can in his honorable and praiseworth)- efforts to settle your delightful Texas. Mr. For- tune is intimately acquainted with the details of the Cartiajal purchase. He was a witnessto the whole transaction, and will give you all the particulars. Unite loitA him to get vie my giant, and, as in duty bound, I will ever pray. I remain yours, my dear ?™^7^1 „ S. SWART vv OUT. [No. 298.al Major Morgan Neville, to Collector Swartwout, N. Y. Cincinnati, Jan, 15, 1830. My Dear Swartwout: * * * I thank you for the pledge you give me, of inter- esting yourself for me at Washington, * * * My wife, who is a niece of Capt. Heth of Richmond, one of Burr's securities, ♦ * * I would have gone to Mexico, but not as Charge • 1 know I am better qualified for the station than any man of our party in the west. * * *' " I would prefer goin? to Texas, if that province be ceded. Under the administra- tion of Jackson I can accept of no minor office— 1 know too well my own claims and my own standin<' At the time Clay's feelings were the most bitter against me, a Senator high in his confidence pressed me to accept the Charsre-ship to Sweden at Somerville's death. Ot course I declined There is somethin? preposterous in i!ie ofler of a similar office under an admin- istration for the success of which I have done as much, at least, as any man in Ohio. A Caucus is now holding at Columbus. An officious devil of the name of Watson is gettmg recommendations from every source he can. * * * Since the election, abstract Jackson- ism (the true spirit of reform) has not been sufficiently cherished in our state ; faction and im- pudence have pushed themselves into office. Those among us whom public opmion placed in the front rank of the party, have not been consuhed, and the state of Ohio has been degraded to make room for the dorification of Kentucky. * * * I have been told that THE OlA) BURR BUSINESS has been used osainsl me. Believe me, as in boyhood, sincerely your fi-jejifj '^ MORGAN NEVILLE. SioartwaiU pai/i court to Jackson hit carrying out Van Buren's views— so far. [299 1 Samuel Swartwout to Col. Frost Thorne, Nacogdoches, Texas. New \ ohk 18 May 1835.— My Dear Colonel: I take the gi-eatest pleasm-e in making you acquainted with my friend Mr. Fortune, who socs to Texas, in company with Mr. Bossie, and young Mr. Zavala* on business for a Compaiiy in Khich I have an interest. Both these gentlemen are en- titled to your perfedt confidence and respect; and I shall esteem it a great favor if you will receive them all as my confidential friends. Mr. Fortune was a witness to the Cuabojal afiaii-, and wiU give you such information as will enable you to press the justice of my claims. I ^ylst^ vouto insist upon the precise tract surveyed by Newton and Strode, as I consider iha^a^yalua- ble tract: Do all yon can for mc, and oblige Yours, most truly, SAMUEL S W AR 1 VV O U 1 . A qu£cr and curious Epistle, considering its date. [No 300 1 Collector Swartwout to Collector Brecdlove, New Orleans. (Private) New York, 6 Nov. 1835.— Dear Sir: This letter will be handed to you by James Morgan, Esq., who is on his way to Galveston Bay, Texas. Mr. Morgan is deeply interested in the cargoes of two vessels which have lately sailed from this port for Galveston, with lar<^e and valuable cargoes on board. These vessels have been ordered to rendezvous at the southwest pass of the Mississippi, and there wait for convoy. The war between Mexico and Texas renders the passage from the Mississippi to Galveston a very hazardous one. Mr. ■Morgan is therefore desirous of procuring the protection of the U. S. Revenue Cutter as lav as the mouth of Galveston Bay. As his vessels have no contrabo.nd goods on board, I have thought it possible that you might be able to grant him this favor. Should it be in your power to do so you will render the parties concerned a most acceptable service aiidpersonaliy oblige SAMUEL SWARTWOUT. SwartwouVs interests very large in Texas— Neutrality PraHised. FNo 301 1 Collector Swartwout. New York, to Col. Fro.st Thorn, Nacogdoches, Texas. New York November 11, 1835.— Dear Sir : General John T. Mason has been requested, bv me to deposit with you a certificate or grant of eleven leagues or land in texas which I purchased from him, and which he has kindly agreed to procure to be recorded at Nacogdo- ches and get the commissioner to natJie a surveyor for. I have also given James Morgan a letter or o?der to receive the same, which order I will thank you to honor on presentation, as Mr. Morgan is to locate the same for me, and is a citizen of Texas.t * VVa.s this the koii of Zavala xvho liad so steadily supported Poinsett, when in trouble in Mexico, and whom Santalina finally subdued 1 Yea. He was a land contractor. t Thi:. not..' was printed in th« Lives of Hoyt and Butler, with the words Johii Y. for John T. M.yon, and so I read Mr. Swartwoi^fs manuscript. Having beon since assured th:it it xva^s Mr. Mason the father ol a Governor oAlic iigan, and not Mr. Mas..n the cabinet unni.ter, that .peculated in T.xas iMnds, I offer this .-xplanatum of II e all 'ration now made. Can Mr. Swartwout alienate his Texas lands 7 Has lie done so 1 Are they .-.vailable TEXAN ESTATES. BEERS, VAN BUREN AND WETMORE. 261 [No. 302.1 The Same to the Same. New York, 11 February, 1836.— My Dear Sir: I received a draft from you yesterday tor 1000 dollars at 60 day.-, Avhich was promptly accepted, but there was no letter of advice accompanying it. This I regret, as I do not know what it is for, although I presmne it is tor the Texan cause. If so, please to inform me by the return post— General Mason leaves this for Nacogdoches to-morrow morning. He goes on lor the purpose of locatincr his grants. I have requested him to .speak to you about Carahairs business, about which I will thank you to MTite me ; I have paid your third draft, or rather my third note due 28th January. Mv interests are now very large in Texas, and 1 pray .you to do all vou can to sustain Mason.*" You must not forget that v:c who have hitherto purchased and paid for our lands were in a great degree the"cause of your getting so many gallant men into your country. I received a newspaper of your place of the 'id January, this inorn- ing. and thank you for it. We all feel that Texas'is now Indcpcn(knt But, my dear Sir, do not'let your new government run into extravagances, let them confirm all the land grants, and it will give confidence to those who inav become purchasers, or residents hereatter. Lee them decree that holders in the states shall have their rights preserved, and they \\\\\ increase the value of their public domain. Let tliem also authorize tbreigners or people m the states and in Europe, to hold real estate as if they were on the soil. Nothing would so tar give cha- racter to -i'our country. As you are an old and respected citizen, your advice ought to have weight. "Therefore speak. "Do, my dear friend, let me heai- liom you what is my Atogue now worth, that is Avhen you shall have made and maintained your independence I Write me all about that and ntlier matters. Believe me very sincerely yours, arTWOTTT Wdmore and the Board of Brokers. Joseph D. Beers the dishikrested (,.') retired Fmaiuiu: [No 303 1 C4eueral Prosper M. Welmore to Ilenrv G. Stebbins, Esq., Wall street, \ew York. Assembly Chamber, Ali^.^nv, February 6, 1836. :My Dear Sir: An unttsual pressure of business, "resulting from my recent absence, lias prevented an earlier replv tc your letter Two of the requests contained in youx first letter cannot well be complied With in consequence of my distance from the city. I should have been most happy to vi^it vour board, and to possess myself of such lacts as would enalile me successful y to defend them. As to the form of the memorial, it is usually the letter eour.sc to ma.ce ir brief and moderate iu tone. Show no warmth of feeling— seek to com^mce by the force of reason— avoid irritation. This is the best advice I can give you. It might be well to -^ct forth some prominent facts connected with the positive good done by the Exchange Board; such as the attraction of Capital to oiu; city the confidence gjven t o CaiiUahsts abroad BY THE PERMANENT AND STABLE CHARACTER GI\EN TO OLR LOCAL STOCKS resuUins from vour dailv qiwfotwns, &c. I would certaiiily advise the presence here of some discreet", intelligent aJi'd respectable member ol the board, at an early day Much benefit will ensue from complisnce Aviih this suggestion. 1 would lurther recom-^ mend the earlv transmission of your memorial. Could you not '^end up a Committee oi 'hx-ee, AND LET J. D. BEERS BE ONEl / name him as one Mehj to 5'i-«J;^"f^^ ^<^ foxh a demtMion, as well from his general .stauding, ffs from tnej,>cm''r,t he has RLllRED from the business, and vuuj therefore elniw, to be disinltrested m 4;; orts. 1 write m ex- ti-eine haste, in the midst of the most urgent engagements. ' ' ... . . ., It will afibrd me pleasure to render you any service in ray power, consistent with other associations. With respect and regard, I am very truly --j^p^.^ ^^ WETMORE. Patriot Cuttins- joins Jesse, and Jnh,i V. B.. i>i speculating out of the Deposites—Vem Burr,>. puis ill for double profits. FNo 304 1 Attorney General Jolm Van Buren to Jesse Hoyt, New York. _ Alb.\ny, Auc- 93 "1836 Mv De«i"Jksse: On inquii-y I find that I can get one of the BaiiKs in this ci v^'to deposit, subject to their own order, such sum as maybe requisite to make the ar- rSgemen of 'wWch we spoke, in any Bank in New York (say the F"llon)- tl>a you may choose ■ this will answer the purpose provided yo can get the Bank selected to loan you he money on vour note. All our Banks are nearly up to their Imiit, and I cannot borrow he mone- The Bank here .vill charge the Bank there 6 per cent. int. on the Deposit, and you will pay 7 probably. If this meets your vieAvs you will please advise me by return mail. If ZlI^eJt!^,iv: me half the profits of tiic e^erpri.c for making inis ar>a.,gcment, please send me a %ipidalio>i to that, ejfed, signed by yourself and CMing,whcn ym wnie. »,M,n T Ma^oii at ?n earlv a-e, left Vireinia for Kentncky-an.i, many yoars .incL-, reiuovcd irnm tl.ence to Mid,'" n Hi^so : Joh^r , becau.e socrelary ofihe territory. of IVl.clujaa : and -'.'-' '^---^..'^.f;!^^^ ':^J^^ JL.«t.dhi„Uhe..o.;ernorJI«wa^ KS" d'liiXltu '^S^^^:^^!^^^^^^^^^ •" Texa., and l>r..ide.u Tyler appointed him j i;om!u3«c->nur under soiiif- Indian treaty. 262 VAN EUHEN BEGS JESSE TO HELP HIM UP §(^FOR GOD S SAKE n Your noie might be made payable uii demand, with an understanding that you should pay it when our Bank calls on the N. Y. Bank lor the Deposit, which will not be till we sec fit. Yours truly, J. VAN BtlREN, ' Bds on 15 jierjcctlij safe!' — ' For God's sake' secxirc vie the Presidency, snid Martin Van Buren ! [No. 305.] Attorney General J. Van Buren to E.x-Commissioner Hoyt. Albany, Nov. 11, 183G. — My Dear Hoyt: I'll do the justice to say (and .so does my fa- ther), that you have stood the d d lies from Pennsylvania better than most of our friends in N. Y. I hope the fright from this dictates the letters l(i us, saying that all of our tickets besides Register [I think that's the word], are in danger. I don't believe we .shall lose one. In this State our majority will range from 15 to 25,000. Bets on 15 arc per/eetli/ safe. For G — d's sake let our friends turn all their attention to New Jersey, and net be caught na^pping there, as in Connecticut. Mi/ father wishes me to say so to you. Yours truly, J. VAN BUREN. A pair of Gatnhlers betting on Elections — the Pcictcr Mug — Cornelius put in Chancery. [No 30t}.] Collector Hoyt to Collector Lawrence, [not .sent.] New York, Nov. 21, 183G. Dear fcjir: As the excitement of the election has in a great degree passed away, it is proper that I should pay attention to those incidents in which 1 am concerned, connected with it; though perhaps I ought to apologize to you for not having done this .sooner. You will re- collect that when 1 was reproached by you for having voted a " split ticket," that I proposed to bet ymo SilOO, that you vot-ed what was generally called. " tJu: Pewter Mug Ticket," and that I would take upon my.self the burthen of proof to establish the fact. Your reply was that you " would take the bet, if I took upon myself the burthen of proof, for you had never told anyone how you had voted." I ansv.-ered that it should be considered a bet. There are various ways recognized in legal proceedings of making proof and competent proof too in courts of law, and tbrums of conscience, and which perhaps did not occur to you when you observed you "had never told any one how you had voted." After such a remark, the right more peculiarly be- longed to me to select my own tribunal, through Mhich I would make the proof, I volunteered to make. That tribunal is a court of Equity, or in other words a court of conscience. In England, the country from which we have derived mo.st of our legal forms, certain high digni- taries answer bills in Ecpiity upon honor and notvpon oath. I am perfectly willing to place you on the same footing, and I therefore desire you to consider this my bill in Equity, charging that you voted the ticket referred to, I ask you to answer the charge, and whatever the answer may be 1 shall be perfectly satisfied with. I enclose you my check for the $100, to your order, which 5^ou will use, if under the circumstances you are entitled to, and if not you will please to return it, with your own for an eq\ial amount. With great respect, your obedient serv't. J. HOYT. Mr. Van Buren, having secured the Presidency, orders tlic Plaindealer. [No. 307.] President Van Buren to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Dear Sir — Please to ask Mr. JjSggcU to send me his paper. Please also ask the editoi-s of the Evening Post to send their paper here. It now goes to Albany. Yours truly, M." VAN BUREN. [The above was written on a sheet of gilt post, from Washington, Dec, 183(').] Remark.^. ■ .Mr. Leggett was able and honest; but although he censured Van Buren severely for his svcophantic conduct to the south in his inaugural about slavery at Washington, Van Buren and Butler persuaded him that they were sincere in their etforls to divorce bank and .state. I think it was to gel him out of the way, as much as to please his numerous friends, tliat Van Buren appointed him to a commercial mission in one of the South American states. Leggett died soon after, on Long Island, in his 3i)th year. Vanderpoel proved himself a bitter oppo- nent of the riglit of the sovereign people to petition tlieir hired servants in Congress against slavery. Vanderpoel came into the Assembly of New York a Clintonian — his family were opposed to the war of 1812 — one of Van Buren's sons married his niece. He was for Van Buren in Congress, and is now a city judge in New York. When he ascended the superior court bench, a son of Clinton was clerk. Him he caused to be removed immediately, and gave the situation to his JMother-in-law, Oakley. Owing to the .sonorous style of his elo- quence, he was named when in Congress, "the Kinderhook roarer." Aaron the Judge no prophet — Jackson, the Usurers, a.nd the Treasury Circular. [ISo. 308.] Judge Aaron Vanderpoel to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Washim^ton, Tuesday, 6lh Dec, 183G. My dear Sir — Yours came to hand day before yesterday, and had I been more of a " down Easter," .so that I could have guessed -wWdt course the opposition would take, I •would have answered it more pronrpily ; but all here among ik is doubt and imcertainty as to the tack our adversaries are now going upon. LA.ND SALES TO ACTttAL SETTLERS. VANDERPOEL. VAN BUREN. 263 They all seem to be very good-natured and very glad to bee us, but whether the " treasury order " will be improved as a means of getting ujp another congies.sional panic remams yet to be indicated. The message speaks for itself. It strikes me, that those Mho are now under the power or the screws of usurers and shavers cannot derive much consolation from that docuvtent. The old Chief is unwilling to admit, that the government has by any act contri- buted to the present pressure in the money market. His doctrine is, that it has its origin in the mischievous expansion of the paper system, and the mad speculations and overtrading of the last eighteen months. You know too that the President is in one respect hkc Ri volutions. He -never goes backwards. I will not hazard even a conjecture as to the main point of your letter We have as yet no more facilities for accurate guessing here as to the luture move- ments of the opposition than you have at New York, and 1 cannot therefore do more than subscribe myself youi friend, A. VANDERPOEL. The Special Order. Benton. Talking a Session out. fNo. 309.1 C. C. Cambreleng, M. C, to Jesse Hoyt, Wall .street, N. Y. Washington, I3th Dec'r 1836. Dear H.— I cannot tell vou what will be the fate of the Special Order- though it is not a favorite measure with either House. Benton will, however, make a strong speech about it, and he has besides strong ground. That question, and no other, will be soon decided. We shall consume the session in battles about the Tarili' and Public Lands. Very truly yours, C. C. CAMBRELENG. A Democratic (! !) Congress encourage the Pet Dank Politicians to buy the Public Lands with the Public Money, and refuse to cb:xk speculation at the settlers' expense. Van Buren supposed to be patriotic. A talk about selling the national lands to settlers only. FNo. 310.1 William L. Mav, M. C, to Jesse Hoyt, N. Y. Wa.shington, Dec. 9. 1836. My dear sir: I am inclined to believe that a very general disposition exists on the part of the friends of the Administration to limit the sales of the Public Lands to actual set- tlers : should this be accomplished (and 1 see no reason at present to doubt it) the necessity of keeping the Treasury Order in force would no longer exist, and the President [General Jackson] would thus be supplied with the best possible rea.son for its immediate repeal. All parties, so far as my knowledge extends, deprecate the order, not only as injurious to every branch of trade, but as tending greatly to lessen the number of our puUtical friends. A few more chano-es in Pennsylvania and our party will be in the minority. How important then, not only as it regards the welfare of the coimtrv, but also as it regards our existence as a party, that some speedy measures should be adopted to quiet the public mind, and restore confidence to the trading part of the community. As yet I have had no opportunity of conversing Avith Mr Van Buren on these subjects, and am of course ignorant ot his view's. I am credibly informed however, that HE IS OPPOSED TO THE ORDER; audit may fairly be pre- sumed that his friends will adopt any course not likely to wound the sensibility oi the Presi- dent to °-et rid of it. The plans of the Opposition are not yet developed ; I cannot even conjecture the course thev will be most likely to pursue. *****! remain your friend, ^ " WILLIAM L. MAY. FNo 311.1 The same to same. Washington, Dec. 23, 1836. Dear sir: The Trca.sury Order will not in my opinion, be repealed; but I think that a law, limiting the sales of land to the aotual settler, will be passed. Since I saw you I disposed of a portion of the land I .sold to you at .^1000 per acre, in Philadelphia. I am still inclined to .sell five or ten acres more; but I would be unwilling to take a cent less than $1000 per apre, ior the whole, or any part of the tract. In haste, I remain your friend, WILLIAM L. MAY. Solomon SoutMcick's two Characters of his friend Van Buren. INo. 312.1 Solomon South wick to W. L. Mackenzie. Rochester, N. Y. Albany, Dec. 8th 1838.— I hope, my dear sir, that you are now convinced of ^hat I told you in August last, that Van Buren was 'heartless, hypocritical, selfish and unprincipled. He is the tool or slave of a foul heart and a false ambition, and never possessed a particle of true greatness. I speak not from prejudice— I knew him intimately— very intimately, for seventeen years— and never knew him to act from a noble and disinterested motive; always full of low cunning, dark in- trio-ue and base selfishness. When I told you this in August, you seemed to be surprised— but" are you not now satisfied 1 I fear that the leaders of both parties, with but few exceptions, are af'ainst the freedom of Canada. This is a sensual, selfish, money-making age. It seems to me%ou might have known better than to go to Washington, that sink of iniquity, corrup- tion, and British iirfiuence ! Van Buren and his tools are the .slaves of Victoria. Yours truly, S. SOUTHWICK. [From the Aliamj Register of April, 1812.J In the Middle District, we rejoice in the nomination of Mr. Van Buren. We have long 2C-1 RECOMMENDATIONS TO OFFICE IN THE U. S. CUSTOMS. known and esleenied him. He posi^tsses genius, intellic^ence. and eluqiiencc — ha.s lung been one of the firmest props of the Republican interest, and with a spirit which will not bend to ser- vility or sycophancy, cannot fail to become a distinguished and useful member of tlie Senate. ^ S. SOUTHWICK. Jesse Hiiyt us Van Burois Cnlkxtor of Customs — Henry Ulskoeffcr, ( Ward if- HoijVs Law Stit- ile/U, DnjanVs partner {or editor) for the Eiriiinc; Post, Clerk in ike Cvstvm House, and bro- ther to our first am lUi/ judge,) Custom House Spi/and. Scandal-monger — 'breasting the storm of Wldg'jcni' — how to get raised in the famili/ esteem — the Crocl try-man's Clerk — ' Biyant and ■mysrlf — Bogss too democratic — Westerrclt, ' thoroiighly hico-foco' — Depei/ster damns Van Hu- rcn tj his cost—' Who the devil is Mr. Hoyt ?' — ' the rankest Whig breathing' — a mere drone — Geo. A. Wasso'i gets a comrade — Lorenzo Hoyt's rule of secret defamation, put in steuAy operev- tion — My tiephcio Rose — Dan. Winshlp and son — ' My brother the Judge'— ' let him be rejnoved' — Jio-w to secure a large family interest, [No. 313.] Henry Ulshoeffer to Collector Hoyt. [New York,] ITLh March, lb3d. MEMORANDUM. " George W. Ross has laid before you an application for Clerkship in doors, or the office of 7?i.5/7Ci:f.^7-,Avhichev'er shall appear to be at j^our disposal. I have already stated to you (and I now repeat it for your remembrance) that he is related to me as ncp/iew (by a sister). He has mostly resided in the Seventh Ward, where he kept a ship-chandler's store, as successor to my eldest brother, George Ulshoefier. (They were partners at his death.) My brother, in his will, directed Mr. Rose to go on with the business and pay to my father and mother the full value of the stock at the time of his decease, for their future comfort. Before he accom- plished this he became i!/s;ilrenf,h\.}l acted with good faith to his grand-pareiiis, and paid them for the stock (the balance due at his failure being .small). He then procured a relea.se from his creditors by great exertions, and with, the aid of some friends Avent into the groceiy business in Cherry street, which made ' both ends meet,' apparently. Last May he removed hi.s store into Coenties Slip, and took a partner, and attempted to do a better business ; but the change that came over the business community overset all his calculations, and he has been Avasting his 111 :;ans ever since in necessaiy expenses. To croAv^l all his misfortunes, his store took fire the early part of March, and his whole stock Avas lost. Though the stock was covered by insurance, it had been procured mostly upon credit, and must be paid for; and even if it had been otherwise, the prospect of doing business for a long while is but a hopeless one. Trade is not likely to revive for a considerable period, and IMr. Rose thinks he must finally give up. Under these circumstances, Mr. Rose Avi.shes to withdraw from his business, and take such an appointment as will aflord him a livelihood for a fe.w years. He is a democrat of our skimp — is pcilinacious in argument, and of good education. ' In the Seventh Ward, he breasted the storm of JV?uggery in 1834, and suffered in his business some on ihat account. As to his qualifications, I will a.ssure you he is fit lor any of the clerkships in doors — he writes a good hand — is good at figures and calculations. As to an out-door apjiointment, he is far supi-rior to many Avho are now in oflice. This I well know. Mr. Rose has a wife and one child, and is about 30 years of age. As I have before said to you personally, this is an afl'aii' which I feel an interest in — and if you can appoint him you will confer another favor (among others) on me. as wadl as him. It irill also raise m.c in the esteem of our family, who aflect to believe there is no chance for him. My brother the judge, Mr. Jt)rdan and others, fuiA'e doubtless spoken to you on this siibject. Jo.sEPii Gahmss, with whom I ha\'e been acquainted for years, is applying for the oflicc of inspei;tor. He is about 33 years ol age, and was formerly a clerkof { 'olemar the crockery dealer in Broadway, A\hcrp j-our wife has purchased China-ware l'i<'quently. Garniss boards with my mother-in-law, and ha^ for several years. He Iwards in John street (2d Ward). I know him well — tiis politics are ' is son of Daniel Wiiisliip, huiclier of Fulton Market, and resides in the I7th Ward. He is if course a Democrat, as I know Jrom repealed conversations. You have seen liim at your house, and can judge somewhat of his merits. As to my own knoAvledge of his rapacity, I can say no more than t)iat 1 believe him to be qualified for some situation of small salary. His father has contribiitad liberally in monty Pj tlu: Donwcrcttic party, and- it icould be sccimng q "large fa.mihj interest for th-> administrfiHov. if tlie appointment could he wade, Van buren democracy regulating the political machine. 265^ George W. Shourt wants the place of Carimaii to the Public Store in Nassau street As he has seen you on the subject, and you know his politics, j-ou can form an opinion of ills merit, and the expediency of doing what he Avishes. He has for some time been tlie Cart- man of the Evening Post, carrying daily the mail papers to the Post Office. He is a 15th Warder, and you can take care of him without any urging from me. Edmc.nd J. Gross is an applicant for the place of Inspector. He is of the 10th Ward. Of course he is a Democrat. I introduced him to you one day in your office in Wall street. He is a married man of about 45 years of age", judging from his appearance. He is a lespectable man, and would, 1 have no doubt, fill the place creditably. He relies much on my influence in this business, but I have 7w particular interest in his application,. William J. Boggs is an applicant for the appointment of Inspector. I am well acquainted with him — know his politics to be thoroughly Democratic — and as he depends a great deal on what I say to you, I will be candid enough to say that the letters he has laid before you, signed by Mr. Cambreleng, Colonel Johnson and others, although entitled to great weight, ought not to be conclusive. He took great interest in Mr. Coe's application for the Collect- orship, and wrote letters to Washington in his behalf, and with Ely Moore and others, en- deavored to defeat your appointment. He is at present a letter-carrier in the Post Office, and though / at one time felt disposed to do all I could for him, some things have induced me not to urge you strongly in Iris favor. He is in the lOth Ward, and has a family. !Mr. Coddington can tell you about him. The above applicants are all new ones. Of those who are are alreaaij in the Custom House I will speak as follows: J.AMES Westervelt is a Weigher, and has spoken to me about his situation. He is ihormtghhj loco-foco, and ought not to be removed. There is no objection to his being re- tained that I know of He has been in office about eighteen months. Peter Coutant is an Inspector, and has been in office about a year and an half. I Ivuow him well. He is ■ ■ne of tlie firmest of our party. Old Gilbert Coutant is Ms uncle. He has been persecuted lormerly by the Whigs, and had to abandon his business in consequence. He ought to be retained by all means. He is son-in-law of Daniel Winship. Thomas Kirk is a Weigher, and now in ollice. He has not .spoken a word to me on the subject of his being retained, but I cannot omit the opportunity, while I am making these memorandums, of recommending, cordially, his reappointment. He is a fine old gen- tleman, of our politics; and has been a constant visitor at the office of the Evening Post, where he frequently discourses on politics — and, of course, his opinions are well knox^m to Bryant and myself. He Av^as once of the firm of Kirk k, Mercein, booksellers of this city. Joseph Drevfous is now an Inspector, and wishes to be transferred to the French floor m the Public Store in Nassau street, where the pay is the same as he now gets, and wnich change would enable him (on account of greater convenience in the hours of business) tif pay some attention to other matters, and make his income better — or rather enable him to in- struct his children in some bi-anches of education. In this store he would be attendant upon 'he appraisers. Knowing his politics to be decidedly Democratic, I w"oild recommend, it" nothing interfered in your opinion, his transfer to the Public Store. He is a good judge of French articles, and might be of service in that department. Among those who are opposed to the administration, and in office, there is A. S. Depetster (weigher). He is a thorough Whig, but has urged some Democrats to speak to you for hiin. Look out for him ! He told Mr. Daniel Winship that " Mr. Van Bmen was a damn'd little rascal,'' or words to that eflect — and this too very recently. Sajiuel B. Fleming is a Con- servative Democrat of the rankest sort. He was a strenuous advocate for Coe's appoint- raeni, to the Collectorship — and said before you was nominated, "Who the devil is Mr.Hoyf? Who ever heard of liim .'" ifcc. Hexry K. Frost, a Clerk, I know to be the rankest Whig v.reathing, and ought to be removed without scruple. George Ricard, an Inspector, has been in office several years, and is, I understand, in good pecuniary circumstances, and could live without the office. He is from the lOth Ward. He scarcely ever attends our meetings, ".nd is, in a political point of view, a mere drone. Let him be removed ! Henry W*****t, an Inspector, is a drunken beast, and notwithstanding his politics, he ought to be removed. This is public sentiment wherever he is laiown. Any one in the 10th Ward will say so." Remarks by W. L. M. — The original letter is in the possession of C. S. Bogardus — the au- thor is dead — his remarks are on public matters, and belong to history. Some people say, you nmst not tell any bad things done by the dead. Does the Bible say so 1 Are the histories of America, France, England, and Ireland silent about bad men and bad actions in cases where the parties are dead ? The very first act of the London Times, when the profligate George IV. had gone to his last account, was to review his life, and hold him up to the example of posterity as a monster, scarcely less wicked than Henry VIII., or any others of the worst of England's kings. It is wrong" to speak falsely of the departed ; very xvrong to erect marble mausoleums to meaulv ambitious and avaricious men. 266 WAR WITB ENOLAND WOULD STOF ftEPORM THERE. THOUGHTS ON WAR, TEXAS, SLAVERY, AND OREGON. ) I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, lo fan me while I sleep And tremble when I wake, foi all the wealth That sinewa bought and sold have ever earned. CowpER's Task, Signs of the THmes. — War to crush Reform and uphold Oppression. — England's Complaint in 1814 — America's in I8l5. — Bradford Wood's accurate Views. — III Treatment of American Merchants. — Offers to settle the Oregon Boundary. — IVhy it might to be settled Peacefully — Texas Constitution. — O' Connell on Polk, War, and Slavery. — Intellectual Powers and Bravery of the Negro Race. — Anderson on the IndiaTis. — Washington, Jefferson, and Randolph on Slavery. — The Synod of Kentucky on Negro Bondage. — Van Buren's Bargain with the South for his Office. — H'.s Apology for Outrage, Mobs, and Riots, noticed by Leggett. — New York for Freedom to all, in 1819. — The Missouri Vote. — The Virginia Slave Trade. — Poin- sett made War Minister, and why. — Van Buren's Efforts to prevent Emancipation in Cuba. — Polk and Van Buren for, and not for, European Colonizatum, in America. — Cass and Alien. — Guizot. — Polk's TreatmeJit of Mexico. — Van Buren's Canadian Proclamation. — Channing on Calhoun. — Col. Young on Texas and Abolition. — Wright's Manauvring. — Van Buren's Neutrality in 1^9. — On Slavery in Iviea and Wisconsin. — Greeley on Florida An- nexation. — [Notes.] Bankrupt Laws and Repudiation of Debts. The occtirrence of war between the United States and Great Britain, is spoken of at present as if it were an event neither improbable nor perhaps remote ; and the questions of, peace, may it be preserved 1 or shall we see two great nations at enmity, contending with each other in armed strife ? are of such vast importance, that I think the occasion an opportune one to offer .some observations and to state some facts, both as to the risk the country rims of being involved in war, and as to the chances of success, and other results should a struggle take place. I know, by experience, that when men get angry, and act under the influence of passion, it is too late to reason with them for the prevention of mischief Both parties are yet cool and calm, on this question ; and having reflected on the matter carefully, I add here to the opinion expressed in my widely circulated pamphlet of last September, Ihat peace may and ought to be secured ; and that the great interests of society require, that no stop be put to those bloodless triumphs which our brethren in the United Kingdom are effecting, under prudent and patriotic leaders, whose memories will be sweet in the remembrance of generations yet unborn. If it were a just and necessary war waged against a proud and unsympathizing aristocracy who had trampled to the ground a patient people, by their enormous taxations, military rule, and proud monopolies, in favor of the oppressed, and with good cause of offence, old as I am, I wotild travel from Maine to Michigan, to rou.^e the people as far as one man could. But when monopoly in England lies prostrate; when its ancient champions now range themselves in the ranks of its deadliest enemies; when the cause of the people, that cause for which mcthodist and prcsbyterian, catholic and protestant, have so long petitioned the favor of heaven, is gaining new and glorious triumphs ; when I see tlie defeated uionopoli.sts comfort- ing themselves with the hope of high rents and more delrt, expenditui'c and taxation, through a war with America, I cannot range my.self on the side of the ultra lories and bigots of the old world, against the eflbrts of the Humes, the O'Connells, the CobJens, the Greys, the Mor- peths, and the Macauleys; and although personally speaking, I might have a far greater interest in fanning the flame than in endeavoring to tlu"ow water on it, yet I can see so very little good, and such a Moscow or Waterloo, as it were, of mischief in the approach of war, SIGNS OP THE TIMES — BANKRUPTCY— REPUDIATION. 267 as things now stand, that I gladly avail myself of this medium, to state my views to those whom this volume may reach. The signs of the times are not very pacific, certainly. Mexico, it is said, will have a monarch from Europe ; Paredes is in power there already ; the annexation of Texas is not the settlement of that act for the perpetuation of slavery ; England is arming to the teeth ; a military officer, and not a civilian, is permanently placed over Canada ; preparations for an onslaught are openly acknowledged there ; the landed interest talk as if war was their only refuge from total defeat, in England and Ireland ; President Polk bids America prepare for the worst ; the gambling sections of our numerous banking establishments look to a deranged currency, with usurious interest, baseless paper, a new national debt, and heavy tajces to meet it during the next twenty years, as a national blessing ; others besides R. J. Walker's constituents are ready to repudiate ;* many want Canada ; not a few have bright visions of Oregon ; * Bankrupt Banks. Repudiation of Debts. — On the ]3lh of January, 1842, a meeting was held at the Merchants' Exchange, N. Y.. to oppose the repeal of the bankrupt law, .John I. Morgan in the chair. Messrs. Prescott Hall, Sekien, Tilden, WcVean, John \V. Edmonds, and Butler spoke. Edmonds said, that the laws are lamentably deficient in not affording due relief to the unfortunate debtor, and guarding against fraud — that no civilized community ever invented such a wretched plan as our executions, judgments, creditors' bills, &.c., to drain from the juicket of the unlbnunate their last dollar — that, as our laws stand, a man had better be a thief and steal, than be a poor debtor. The thief may start afresh in life, the debtor never can. He was for including banks, and upholding the bankrupt laws, but for the law whether or not. Butler was opposed to the repeal of the bankrupt law of July, 1841. We had got, he said, the English insolvent law system, with- out Us general bankrupt law system, but with 26 laws, all varying, in as many states. The insolvent law of England took all a man's property, stojjped his business, imprisoned and then turned him out destitute, and pro- claimed to be unworthy of credit, and yet expected him to take courage and make money for his creditors. tSiich a system was had and had bad results. It was really disgraceful that our laws all tended to oppress the honest and unfortunate debtor, and yet do no good to the creditor. Another meeting was held on the 18th against the law, and much said on the other side. The greatevil seems to be, that systematic, beneficial legislation, by Congress, on this and many othir subjects, especially a general partnership law, seems hopeless. Whether too many live by Intrigue — or there is carelessness— or that opposing interests have marred useful improve- ments, I know not.— On June 2d, 1840, when it was proposi d to give to the U. S. government the power to wind up the concerns of every bank, or insurance, manufacturing, or trading corporation, that stopped payment of Its debts, by including such banks, &c., in the bankrupt law, then under discussion in the Senate, Calhoun opposed it, but proposed no remedy for hank suspensions by the hundre ^^ain to shall have us (^^Zlll^lorhnilJ^^^^^^^^ '« England that ^he^annot pronounce my deles auon of hj^imans^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^.^ ^^^ . ^^^^ ^^^ ^^ S^and^rirS^b"^^^^^ price that all rational men wUl assent to, liberty and justice, (great cheering.)" V. A ,Kof ;n pa=;P nf war Ireland will be less in the way of Britain than the south- I apprehend that in case^t war nemna ^^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ever>nhing cm slaves in that of ihei oune.s vvno a e a Y ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^1^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^,ight. that Ban be done is dune o ^^^ Jf^^^^'^ f j^"^^ Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, f''^-. ^^n^f Sisan Is as uneducated as Hottentots 1 If such as they can vote for slavery ^" ^T.^H their bla?S also mTr to see the suffrage extended to any class who over us and \heir J^'acl^ also, mien a i convention who are believed to be the are not educated, I shall ^^^te tor t nose ueie ai northern freedom. There is most willing to ra.se the oppressed African '» J^f '" ' "^ « J„^^ ^^^, ^f ^_ glack men are as a risk 1 admit, but It. son the hone.t^^ ^^^ of encouragement as kind-hearted, as sk.lfu as ingenious a^^^^^ Emerson were asked to lecture ^SeT-^:^£^%SZ:i:y^S:i because negroes were excluded from equal rights. Sumner's refusal contained the following remarks: ^ ,« ^, • •, .u . -, , • ,11 ,„ tv,at ih^ nrpindire of color which is akin to the stern and selfish spirit that Kw'';;'\'htame'btrhet^^^tlTo7 eTpers^ like my.self, to the learned lectures ofSeeeraL and7S)ssi; nor do 1 re.ne.nber observing in the lhn;ng of sens.t.ve young of Uegerantto^ .hpVwere surrounded any feeling toward them except ot companionship and £i5r>e'TaS!;?° Tr,hSe':'x\m?a"lT£ ^i-nld .he propel influence of *e Christian spirit." . v . »,» .k»j,. I intend to support native Americans in their right to self-government, whatever be their 1 ,i,Ln,ave„5P;e^^^^ and apprupnate flags c^-ossed ih k ry J' ^f ha^je • s'.j, t ^^^ ^^^^_^^^^^ ^^ ^^^. ^^^ .^^ 8uch as to afford him daily opportunities to deceive and injure us, and >ct he has never been CHECKS OM VOTING. INDIAN FEELINGS. JEFFERSON ON SLAVERY. 275 detected in any serious fault, nor even in an intentional breach of the decorums of his station. His 'nitiUisduc is of a high order, his integriiy ahove all suspicion, and his sense of right and propriety correct and even refined. It is due to his long and faithful services, and to the sin- cere and steady friendship wliich I bear him. In the uninterrupted and conlidential intercourse of twenty-four years, I hav(i never given, nor had occasion to give iiini an unpleasant word. I know no man who has fewer faults or more excellencies than he." Napoleon said of Toussaint L'Ouverture of St. Domingo: "The black leader possessed energy, courage, and great skill." Thirty-two editors of public journals in the West Indies, are )nulattoes, and not a few of the legislators there are black. The Convention of 1S'3I declared that Senators of N. Y. must be freeholders, but that As- semblymen need not be. If two separate Houses are requisite, especially lor appointments and executive business, why not make a distinction, and give us an aristocracy of intellect 1 To do this, it' is only necessary lo provide that none shall vote for Governor and Senate who cannot read and write, leaving the Asscmbfy, &:c. as at present. This would be a republican check o^ the true sort. Why should one class among us try to estrange the Indian, another the negro another the catholic, and another the European emigrants 1 Is not onir strength in union"? Better the memory of ancient kindness than of ancient I'raud and deceit. iVlr. An- derson of Tennessee, in Senate, Jan. 8, 1841, told of the effects of Butler, Van Buren, Cass, and Jackson's Indian diplomacy, with the Creeks and Cherokees, whose memorials Congress contemned. He said: " Peace ! Peace ! Security with the Indian ! It is but a dream ! He but reposes for a season in the enjoyment of your favors until that day shall arrive when he flushes with the hope of blood and revenge. The recollection of the injuries you have inflicted ; the lands you have taken, the wounded pride you have humbled, the very tribute under which }'ou have placed him, keeps the fire of hatred unquenched, and fiercely burning in his bosom ! He will receive your gifts, extend his hand for your annuities, but instead of turning his face upon the bleak passes of the Rocky Mountains, and descending upon the coast of California, he will Eatiently await the period when events, guided by the potent hand of his old ally, shall call im to the war-path and the battle field. He will then remember, not your bounties, but your triumphs, and he wiU prepare, in a more formidable shape than at any former period, for uniting his kind:-ed tribes in one solid league against your frontier brethren." Are we to make the negroes our deadly enemies also 1 Calhoun tells us (Jan. 1837), that " A mysterious Providence has brought two races of men together into this country from dif- ferent parts of the earth ; the European to be the master, and the African the slave. These relations cannot be overthrown ; and every society founded on the principle of separating them is acting on a basis of error." Polk lugged in Providence into his pro-slavery inau- gural, Van Buren borrowed it for his epistles to Jesse, and even Calhoun conclescends to insult heaven by pretending that it is a party to a daring violation of Christ's commandment to love your neighbor as yourself! " I never mean, unless some particular circumstances shall compel me to it, to possess another slave by purchase, it being |:^ among my fir.st wishes, .:r5 |;;;|=tosee some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law." Thus wrote the great Wa.sh- ington, the father of his country, to Sir John Sinclair ; and although the darling wish of his soul, to remove the blot olslavery from his beloved country, was not fulfilled, he leit his example, as a precept to posterity. The slaves of George Washington were made tree ; and the man- tle of Elijah may have fallen on the chosen Elisha, whose power and energy in a glorious cause, will yet give a universal reality to the declaration of independence, so that our great abolition leader's prayers may have a speedy, peaceful, and glorious accomplishment. The memorable contemporary of Washington, Thomas Jefierson, I'elt the same detestation of this horrible .system ; and, having beheld its effects, from his youth upward, stated in a letter to M. Wareville, Paris, February, 1788, that "The whole commerce between Master and Slave is a perpetual exercise of the most bois- terous passions ; the most unremitting despotism on the one part and degrading .submission on the other. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to his worst passions, and thus nursed, educated and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals unde- praved by such circumstances. What an incomprehensible machine is man ! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose." And when writing, in 1821, the memoir prefixed to his [JeflTerson's] correspondence, he declared, that "nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people [the slaves of the U. S^] are to be free ; nor is it more certain that the two races, equally free^ cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion, have drawn indelible lines of 276 SLAVE OWNERS DESCRIBING SLAVERY. THE CANADA REVOLT, distinction between them." He [an abolitionist of 50 years standing] adds his opinion, that if gi-adual emancipation and deportation are not resorted to, the terrible example of the deletion of the Moors in Spain will be far exceeded here. He calls the slaves his •• suffering brethren," and invokes heaven lor their deliverance. How justly and liberally the Methodist clergy are acting in this matter, and what a powerful impress did John Wesley make of his free spirit upon his successors ! John Randolph of Roanoke, said in his will, " I give and bequeath to all my slaves their freedom, H^ heartily regretting that I have ever been the owner of one. "43 He bequeathed $8000, in trast, for the removal of his .slaves to some other state, to settle them there comfijrtably. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, in the legislature of Virginia, in 1832, declared that Virginia had been converted into §2r'"one grand menagerie, where men are reared for the market like oxen for the shambles."'4J The same gentleman thus compared the African with the Virginia, or domestic, slave trade: "^;;j=The [African] f;^ trader receives the slave, a stranger in aspect, language, and manner, from the merchant j;^ who brought him from the interior. But here, sir, [in frke Virginia,] individuals whom ^^ the master has known from infancy — whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gam- f:^ bols of childliood — who have been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from ^^ the mother's arms, and sells into a strange country, among a strange people, subject to ^:^ cruel taskmasters. In my opinion it is much worse." In the same ses.sion, Mr. Moore declared that slavery was destroying morality and virtue in the commonwealth — that the de- sire of freedom being the inevitable consequence of intelligence, the owners of slaves, from policy, kept them in profound ignorance — that such ignorance prevented the slave from judging between right and wrong, and brought into action all the vicious propensities of op- pressed human nature — that the .slave looked on the whites as leagued in inflicting the many wrongs endured by his race, and thus became revengeful — that " the indiscriminate inter- course of the sexes," among the slaves was very demoralizing — that at no distant day slaveiy Avould " end in a servile war which would continue till the land was red with human blood, and either the whites or the black's wholly exterminated" — and that this war would be com- menced the moment the blacks should become so numerous as to give rise to a hope that they could burst the bands that bound them to the soil. The Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky thus officially describes slavery, as it is daily pas.sing under their eyes : " This system li- censes and jiroduces great cruelty. Mangling, imprisonment, starvation, every species of torture may be inflicted upon the slave and he has no redress. There are now in our whole land two millions of human beings, exposed, deleitceless, to every insult and every injury .short of maiming or death, which their fellow men may choose to inflict. They suffer all that can be inflictedbv wanton caprice, by grasping avarice, by brutal lust, by malignant spite, and by insane anger. Their happiness is the sport of every whim, and the prey of every passion that may, occasionally, or habitually, infest tlie master's bosom. If we could calcu- late the amount of woe endured by ill-treated slaves, it would overwiielm every compassion- ate heart — it would move even the obdurate to sympathy." By the Texas constitution, all free blacks are to be banished for the crime of not being bondsmen. On the l'2th of February, 1837, the H. of R. of our free Congress, voted " that slaves do not possess the right of petition secured to the people by the U. S. constitution ;" thus denying millions of poor, oppressed wretches a right which from infancy to old age is given by "the God of Heaven to the poorest of his creatures, the right of the sufferer, in his pain, to entreat for succor and aid from the hand of wisdom, justice, and mercy. Millions of poor slaves are represented by pretended southern friends on the floor of Congress — this slave representation gives presidents to the republic, controls its patronage, protects .'.essions on the continent of North America, no ca.sc can be made out to show that we should not have every commercial advantage we are supposed now to have, it it were made an inde- pendent state." Neither our manufactures, foreign commerce, nc.r shipping would be injured bv such a measure" Many persons would be inclined to ditler with the baronet on this question Thou-h an Irishman, he represented in parliament my native city, and m argu- ment in private I have seen him go still failher in favor ot independence to the north. It thrown otfby En-land, which is a very unlikely event just now, the colonies could not I tear, sustain an independent character; and 1 trust they will take waniing by die signs ot the times here when applause and high station is reserved tor our Van Burens, Butleis, Walk- ed Ba".crs LaSnces. Marcys: Morrises, Wetmores, Polks Caye Johnsons, Houston.s Wri-hts' Casses and Woodburys, and seek no change but that which education and gradual improvements can secure to tliem. Railroads, canals, revenue laws rightly framed, high- ways, and the Primer, properly taught, are patent and powerful auxihanes to annexation, and withal cheap, and uset'ul to (mrselves. , , -.^ , • ,. r j j c t-t Why did Canadians revolt in 1837 ]-I have read the Declaration ot Independence, of 1 / S, carefully and there is no one cause of revolt slated in it, but what was applicable to the condi- tion of Canada in 1837. The British Parliament, by a solemn act, appointed the Earl ot Crhai^ oneof Englaiid's most eminent nobles, and the son-in-law of the prime minister, Earl Gre\-, to go to Canada as its supreme governor, and inquire whether any rea grievances that would warrant revolt had existed. His report is on record ; and so dark ^re the reci als that had it been possible, its worst features would never have .seen tlie light. His opportune sincerity embittered those whom his statements condemned. Premeditated insult met him on his landing in Britain. The presses of the ottended party ceaselessly calumniated him The royal court is said to have slighted him. His feelings were wounded. His health gradually decUned and bat a lew short months elapsed, ere John George Lambton the Ibth in lineal ae. Sit froin RoI,ert de Lambton, a proud ^aron of 1513, though smrounded by a 1 the comforts which 500,000 dollars of a yearly income can produce or be.stow, had gone to his asti^^t- J wa.s not personally acquainted with him, and only saw him once in my lite, at the liouse of his relative Mr Ellici : but I remember that he was for many years a co-worker with the inde- fatigable Hume aiii Lord Althorp in the House of Commons, in denouncing and exposing oppressLi^iS wakeful extravagance; that he opposed the fettermg ol the press, and iLe de- 286 LORD DURHAM^S APOLOGY FOR REVOLT IN CANADA. tested corn law of 1816, and earnestly urged a far more thorough reform than was obtained in the popular representation in 1832. Perhaps Van Buren has been guilty of more heinous offences than his celebrated invitation to the autocrat of Canada, erewhile "the envoy of Eng- land's queen at the court of the autocrat of Siberia. Lord Durham officially stated to the dueen's ministers, that it would almost seem as if the object of those who framed the Canadian .system of government " had been the combining of |:^apparently popular institutions with an utter absence of all efficient control of the people over their rulers," that the government was irresponsible, and its motives and actual purposes shrouded in mystery from the colonists; that a " family compact," a small body of intriguing men, retain '' a monopoly of power and profit,"' and that even a native of Britain or Ireland, if not one of this combined faction, is " less an alien in a foreign country" than in Canada; that every seventh farm in Upper Canada had been bestowed to uphold one small denomina- tion of christians — that the Irish Catholics, though very numerous, had been excluded from a share in the government — that settlers from the United States had been harassed, and the titles to their lands called in question — that parliamentary elections of high officers of govern- ment had been carried by outrageous violence — that the orange societies, oaths and proces- sions which caused so niuch iirblooJ in Ireland, had been greatly encouraged in Canada by the executive — that the administi'ation of justice was impure, and that a colonist feels that his link in the empire is " one of remote dependence" — that blocks of the public lands had been granted to favorites who had, in many cases, never seen nor settled on them, and that they " place ths actual settler in an almo.st hopeless condition" — that emigrants from Britain are ill treated by the Toronto authorities, and retire to the U. S. in disgust — that many parts are without roads, mills, post-offices, and churches, the people getting poor, education neglected, and the valuable lanas set apart for schools by orders of the Duke of Portland 40 years ago, ever since withheld from that useful purpose — that the U. S. frontier is a picture of prosperity, while that of Canada is the reverse — that unless the .system of government is changed, the people would not long support British rule — that Governor Head had procured the return of a House of Assembly, the members of which were elected under such circumstances " as to ren- der them peculiarly objects of suspicion and reproach to a large number of their country- men" — that '■ in a number of instances, too, the elections were carried by the unscrupulous exercise of the influence of the government, and by a di.splay of violence on the part of the tones, who were emboldened by the countenance afforded to them by the government; that such facts and such impressions produced in the country an exasperation and a despair of good government, which extended far beyond those who had actually been defeated at the polls" — that the legislature thus corruptly elected for one year, had prolonged its existence other three, " in defiance of all constitutional right," and "Such are the lamentable results of the political and social evils which have so long haras.sed the Canadas; and at this moment we are obliged to adopt immediate measures against dangers so alarming as are rebellion, foreign invasion, and depopulation in consequence of the desertion en masse of a people re- duced to despair." England's queen and parliament constituted Lord Durham an umpire between revolted subjects and the authorities. This was his report. Yet was my valuable property scattered to the four winds of heaven — myself declared an outlaw -and at the end of nine years. I do not find enough of nobleness of soul in the great lonntry, or its rulers who caused the wrong, to reverse that outlawry, because I do not choose humbly to beseech a minister, whose predeces- sor better deserved impeachment than some whom England's annals mention as having been so treated. I am, I believe, the only political onilaw of 1837, belonging to Upper Canada. In a secret despatch, Lord Durham to Lord (xienelg, dated Cluebec, Aug. 0, 1838, says: " My sole purpose is to impress upon jour Lordship my own conviction, which has been formed by personal experience, that even the best informed persons in England can hardly conceive the disorder or disorganization which, to a careful inquirer on the spot, is manifest in all thins^s pertaining to government in these colonies. Such words scarcely express the whole truth ; not government merely, but society itself seems to be dissolved ; the vessel of the state is not in great danger only, but looks like a complete wreck." And again, Sept. 2-lth, Lord Durham writes : — " Nor shall I regret that I have wielded these despotic powers in a manner which, as an Englishman, I am anxious to declare utterly inconsistent with the Bri- tish constitution, until I learn what are the constitutional principles that remain in force when a whole constitution is suspended ; whnt principles of a British constitution hold good in a country where the peoj)le's money is taken without the people's consent, where representative government is annihilated, where martial law has been the law of the land, and where the trial by jury exists only to defeat the ends of justice, and to provoke the righteous scorn and indignation of the community. I should indeed regre; the want of applicability in my own principles of government, or my own incapacity for applying them, n3 not yet a litting time to give such matters to the world. So strong is my present convic- tion of the impropriety of adding any inflammatory materials to the Oregon blaze that, although the worthy printer of my " Sons of the Emerald Isle " pressed me to allow him to finish it, I have stopt after the second number, rather than continue just now these e.xciting relations of ancient misrule. I never have played wil- lingly into the hands of the enemies of real reform anywhere, and will not now. The following note was addressed to me, by that true and long and well-tried friend of poor and rich, Joseph Hume, when I was last leaving London. To VV. L. Mackenzie : " Bryanston Squafk, June 24th, 1833. " Dkar Sir : I cannot allow you to leave this country without expressing my sense of the great advantage the people of Uppfr Canada have derived from your exertions which have been unwearied and persevering since your arrival ; and, I may add. comparatively successful in obtaining many alterations from Lord Gode- rich in orders respecting the future Government of Upper Canada. I am sorry to observe by some of the pro- ceedings of Mr. Stanley, that he is rather disposed to promote, than to punish the men who have been re- moved from Upper Canada for improper conduct, and thereby to encourage misgovernment on the part of the public officers of that Province, which Lord Goderich's late preceedings were calctilated to prevent- Jossra Hvuc." 288 THE CANADIAN INSITRRECTIONS OF 1837-38. order to deceive his superiors in England ihrough a modi legislatui-e, obtained on the principle which Lord Durham too truly described when it was too late to recall the past. Sir Francis writes to Lord Melbourne alter this fashion : '' On my arrival in Upper Canada I Ibund my- self not only bounded on the one side by Lower Canada on the eve of a revolt, and on the other side, by the United States, whose GOVERNMENT, as well as people, M-ere secretly usin"- their influ^3nce to exterminate from the continent of America monarchical institutions, but 1° found myself exposed to and opposed by a republican house of assembly." After my re- turn from England I had nothing whatever to do with either government or people in these States ; and thev had no part incausing the revolt ; nor did the native Americans in Canatla take the laboring oar in it. If this country had secret emissaries I never knew of it, nor do (. believe it. The' revolt in 1837 began Nov. 6, in Montreal. That of 1838 never would have bi-^un at all, had Lord Durham been kindly treated by England; but his wliig friends allow- edlaim to be denounced in the House of Peers, for an act of kindness and humanity towards eio-ht Canadians sent to Bermuda ; and in the House of Commons sanctioned the insult his enemies Lad prepared elsewhere. ^lis faults and foibles were manj- — I may not deny that. But he had a manly soul, was harshly treated, meant right, would have conciliated all parties had he been let alone, and his indiscreet removal was the signal for new troubles, in which I had no part whatever, although for several years, I confess it with regret, I would gladly have witnessed war on this continent. Calmer reflections have since returned — and in the spirit in which 1 remained so long in Europe, ever anxious to avert the causes of war do I now write this statement. It is a pleasant thing to see the statesmen of Britain at length pursuing that liberal policy which even a Himie, a Roebuck, and a BuUer cannot fmd lault with. "What honest heart on this side the Atlantic, would darken the dawnings of a better day to mankind, with tlie bitter and bloody scourge of war, as if there were not pains and privations enou<^h in the worlil which are unavoidable, without adding to them a renewal of those deadly straggles for power and dominion, which in the 25 years preceding 1815, caused " counties^ thousands to mourn' for the inhumanity of civilized man more savage than the tenant of the forest 1 I have not a wish left to see Canada incorporated with this Union. If it obtain a direct re- presentation in the British Parliament, on the sagacious plan proposed by the far-seeing Franklin, and renewed by Hume in the House of Commons, it may remain connected willi Britain for ages. Should that not take place, its annexation to these northern states is an event of no remote probability At present, the chances are, that an invasion of Canada from this side (although, considering the facility of transportation of men and materials, it might prove rather more successlul than it did in 1812), would end in a failure, or its equivalent. The clergy generally in Canada are unfavorable to a change — and although in 1837 and 1838, many left them to join in the movement, yet I have never since seen one who was thus engag- ed ei'^ht years ago, that did not confess his disappointment on witnessing the v.orking of the politkral machinery in gear here, and which we had all so much admired. Of the population of the colonics tliere undoubtedly is a large majority at this day who are hostile to an annexa- tion to litis Union — and there are no scarcity of states on this side the St. Lawrence, quite as steadily opposed to an amalgamation with the Canadians. The more I see of the baleful effects of southern slavery, in retarding education and marring useful republican legislation, the more averse am I to witness more of the free north come under its destructive opeiatitm. Those who participated in the Canadian insurrections some years since, were, I think, in error — not because there was no good ground for revolt — nor because there was not enough of disaffection — no, nor yet on account of the impossibility of success, lor it did seem to be at one time within our easy grasp — but because the reasonable probability of a liappy termination was less strong than that of prematiu'c failure. Lord Sydenham, with whom I used some- times to converse at Whitehall, when in London, did maiiy tyrannical things in Canada, but he be'^an to trust the people, w;is experienced and practical, and set up those elective local or countv legislatures among them which answer to the boards of supervisors here. He wntoie- to his bro'ther in England, " I would willingly give land to settlers, but there is, alas ! none to give, except what is rendered valueless by the neighboriiood of those cursed landjobljers who cut off all access to it." And again, " I know that as much as I dislike Yankee institutions and rule I would not have fought against ihern, wViich thousands of these poor fellows the [familyj compact call rebels did, if it w/rc only to keep up such a government as they got." The American people, in two u ars, have as.-,uredly got glory enough. If ihey were d&sirous to establish the fact that they are brave in battle, whether by land or sea, it is so well known as to be undisputed anywhere. But were it otherwise, would tliat be a reason for desiroyiiig commerce, scttingthe whole world a Cghting, killing vast numbers and wounding many more, demoralizing society, creating mammoth national debts, and embarrassing a whole people for an age to come, and all about some barren desert contended for by those who have already land enough for twenty times their numbf^r ! For many years, in Upper Canada, I gave all my energies to the task of instructirg the peo- ple in iho principles of poptUar government, so fur as I kueyv them. To conipiekend the aidui CANADA. DKATH OF COL. MOODIE. COL. W. E. MOORE. 289 ous cnaracter of the course I pursued, the reader would require to have resided in these times, in the colony. Many there were who covertly endeavored to bring about a change. I went .straight ahead. A residence here has fully satisfied my own mind, that I went too fast and too far — that the ideal diflerence is much greater than the reality, and that no one is called upon to encom'age bloodshed in 1846, on the banks of the St. Lawrence, in order that Congress may have longer sessions and more work, by the extension of svtch legislation as they bestow on the ten miles square to the larger area of the two Canadas. It has often been said, here in New York, that I was a party to the Short HiJls Invasion — the Prescott affair, under Von Shoultz, Birge, &c. — the Windsor or Detroit inroad — and the Lower Canada insurrection of 1838. I was not consulted in, nor a party in any way to these enter- prises, nor has any one that was concerned ever said .so. Noah, in the Sun, Mes.senger, &c., insists that I injured the Canadian cause by cowardice, and perhaps I did. I do not fmd that any ■party in Canada have ever said so, however. Sir Richard Bonnycastle, of the Royal En- gineers, Toronto, in a book lately issned from the Londoi, press, plainly, and in the most dis- tinct terms, charges me with having murdered Colonel Aloodie of the British Army, in cold blood, and even gives my alleged reasons for so doing ! Colonel Moodie, accompanied by Capt. Stewart of the Royal Nayy (an old officer who was at the battle of Aboukir), and' Lieut. Crewe, rode up to the rebel lines, dashed past the fost line of sentinels, and fired a pistol at the second, opposite Montgomery's Hotel. Refusing to surrender, he was fired at in return by the sentinel, as ordered by the officer on guard, and died of the wound — Crewe and Stewart were then made prisoners. Stewart swore to a narrative of the facts, which appeared in the Toronto newspapers. About an hour before that, I had left for Toronto, with a guard of four horse- men (one of whom Capt. Powell shot dead) — we arrested Capt. Po\vell and Major A. McDon- ei!, and while I was on my way back, with McDonell in charge, as he states in his publish- ed narrative, a gentleman rode past and told us tha^t Col. M. had been shot or wounded. On our arrival at the hotel (Col. Lount being then in command there), I went instantly to see the dying man, and he told all present that his own imprudence had caused his death. I never saw him before in m.y life ; and as his death was an open, public act, seen by man^', and as I was at the time far distant, in charge of McDonell, a more wanton lie was never told, and that t'-)0 by a neighbor whom I had never wronged, and who must have knoAvn that the tongue of man ne^-er uttered a more wanton or malicious falsehood. T^ie GLueen ^^Tote a letter to the Colo- nel's widow, condoling with her as was natural ; but where can Bonnyca-stle find a shadow of proof to his London story 1 Certainly not in Upper Canada. [No. 314.] Colonel W. E. Moore, of Kentucky, assistant Editor of tlve "Washington Globe, to W. L. Mackenzie, 1G2 Nassau st., New York. Washington, D. C, Dec. 12, 1838. Dear Sir : * * * Should come on, let him have a letter for me, and he will fmd a friend with the will, if not the means, of seconding his views. Of course you aix- aware that Mr. Papineau is here. * * * There are other parts of your letter I do not like. You must know that the only p.\rty in this amnlnj ichich really sympathizes icith the Canadian, fatriots is the democratic. Tlie Whigs, as a party, arc opposed to ynn in principle ; v:e are with you IN PRINCIPLE, 271 /cdi?(i'-, 2» heart, and soul; but circumstances, call them .selfish, .selt-interest, if you please (we call it our first duty to our country), have throion lis into a false positio'i, but that only for a time. Much as we admire the man of our choice, placed by us at the head of the government, yet hoio did every democratic p-ress in the co-untry receive his pro- clamation? Hoxo has it received part of the annual Message, relatim; to Canada? WITH DEEP, DEEP MORTIFICATION. At heart there is not a NORTHERN or WES- TERN DEMOCRAT, from the summit of the Alleghanies to the bosom of the Father of Waters, west, and thence east along the feeders of the St. Lawrence to the Penobscot, who does not regret it ; but we repose in the assurance that such documents were called for by the existing state of relations between the two countries. Yet that part of the message, as well as the pro- clamation, elicited the general praise of the whig press, from Mr. Gales downwards. While condemning everj' other portion of the message, this, most of them can laud. I can assure you that there is a magazine of burning patriotism now buried in the bosoms of the democracy, that wants but a single spark to set it in an active flame. Let the poor Prescott prisoners be massacred in cold blood, and it will light up a torch in this country that all the influence and power of both governments will be unable to smother or quench. But what would you have us do now "? Surely we must not forget our high moral obligations as a government, and we, the people, are the government in reality. We are at peace with England ; why should our, government go to war with her, or take steps to hm-ry herself blindly into such a catastrophe ? It may be tliat our executive may have exhibited too much solicitude to preserve peace ; but peace is the natural position of a republic, especially of an extended and diversified one like onrA, 0°^'HERE ACQCisiTioN WOULD EE A CURSE, ^iH and gloiT but a poor return for the los'< oi blood and destruction of prosperity. It would be difficult to explain myself in a f.*w hurried A 290 CORRESPONDENCE OF DEMOCRATS AND WHIGS. lines, but the democratic party in this countr}- stand in this position ; tlieir prayers, their sijm- pathics, their purses, if they xcere rich enough {their personal services too, which would not be withheld on a reasonable prospect of success), are for the patriots, and yet they will sustain their government in a firm, dignified, but not truckling adherence to neutral obligations. We have NOTHING to gain by a war with Great Britain, however successful it might terminate, and this is not the age for republics entering a contest for the establishment of abstract, though correct, principles elsewhere. We of the democratic party throughout the Union, however, are with you as citizens, and shall continue to be so. The federalists will oppose you, in public and in secret, by sneering and by slander, in a word, by every trick, till they see the bones of ihe last victim bleached on the plain, and they will blast his memory after- wards. Excuse these hasty thoughts. I have written with corresponding candor to your awn ; but I have felt that your letter did my party injustice. Happily, it will not be long ere your convictions will assent to all I say ; for, depend upon it, to the democracy alone can yon look for support. I shall be j^lad to hear from you. Your friend, W. E. MOORE. Kdm, Paynter, and Jngcrs'i's Intervicio with Van Buren abmtt Mackenzie's Imprisonvient. [No. 315.] To Messrs. William Gilmore and Robert Christy, Secretaries of the Demo- cratic Union Association, Philadelphia. Washington, December 28th, 1839. Gentlemen : — On behalf of a resolution of the Democratic Union Association, for Messrs. Paynter, Ingersol and myself to call upon the President of the United States and request his attention to a me- morial relative to the pardon of William Lyon Mackenzie, it becomes my duty to say that Ave have fully discharged the desire therein expressed. The President, who is at all times anxious to gratify the desires of any portion of the people, regrets exceedingly, that in the present junc- ture of pending negotiations with Great Britain, it would be improper to interfere with the ac- tion of our courts of justice, and therefore at present could not decisively move in compliance with yoiu^ wishes. Every possible means have been exerted to make the confinement of Mr. Mackenzie a nominal one,: and to gratify his every wish, save his release. My o"mi private views are, that if the friends of Mr. Mackenzie would appeal to the magnanimity of the pre- sent representative of the British provinces in North America, by his request, he would be re- leased, and relieve the question from the embarrassment in which it seems involved. »GEORGE M. KEIM. [No. 316.] George Dawson, Editor of the Rochester Democrat, to W. L. Mackenzie, care of Dr. Cyrenius Chapin, Buffalo. Rochester, Dec. 14, 1837. Dear Sir : — Allow me, as one who admires the sublime stand yourself and your associates have taken against tyranny, to tender you my sympathy. I have watched with intense anxiety the progress of events in Canada, and the intelligence of your revolt was received with irrepressible satisfaction. Before open hostilities were avowed in the Upper Province, that circumstances might hasten such hostilities, was my daily prayer. I knew that she deserved to be free, and belie^-ed that if she resolved upon freedom, it could be achieved. Mv acquaintance with you in my boyhood, and the tales of persecutions that have followed you since that period, have been listened to and treasured up. I knew your wrongs, and eamestl-,- prayed for their redress. I looked to you as a leader, and from my knowledge of your chai icter, expected that you Avould, sooner or later, assume a position at once sublime and noble. Nor have my expectations failed. I have seen your arm raised to strike the first olow for Li'' rty. Would to God that its descent had not, to some extent, been foiled! Bin I still look uji'-in the Sun of the Canadas as but emerging from the morrdng clouds. The day cannot be tar distant when it shall .shine resplendently in the ascendant. In writing to you, I have been requested by .several of our citizens to invite you to visit this city, if yo I could do so with safety, and consistently with your arrangements. We are to have a m 'ting on Saturday evening, as you will see by my paper, which I send you ; and it would aiurd me much pleasure to provide you with the hospitalities of mv house. Please write me. Yours sincerely, GEORGE DAWSON. • General Keim told me himself that the above was a true copy of his private letter to the Association. His cxtraordiimry advice, or hint, must have been Riven in cnnseqnence of what Van Buren had said to the three Philadelphia cimiiressMien. I was advised to appeal to I^uid Syiloiihani or Sir fJeorge Arihur'.s ningnaniinity, in Canada ; and the president of the tJnited States wimlil lie iiuitc ready to pardon in New York, if it met the views of the knif;ht or baron that Miiyht be (loverning for the time at Toronto 1 This, of ciuirse, I did not choose lo stoop to do, and theret'ore had to sillier other live months' imprisonment — but the very day the Baltimore Convention met, Van Huren was made to see that my confinement had been a very preat political blunder, and I was instantly released, aUhouph the following note shows that he had not intended to take such a course. NoTK.— John Norvell, Senator, U. S., to Morgan L. Oape, Michigan. — Wasiiinoton, Jan. 3, 1840. — Dear Sir : In reply to your letter in relation to the case of William L. Mackenzie, I am only enabled to say to you, that upon receiving the petition* for his panlon, as I am informed, they were sent to the fUistrict Judge and the Dis- trict Attorney of Western New York, and that their report on the subject was such as to prevent the exercise by the President of the power of pardon on the occasion. JOHN KORVELL. t Smith Thompson and N. S. Uenton. I False, altoijetUer false.— W. L. >t R. M. JOHNSON. folk's FRIENDSHIP FOR VAN BUREN. 291 [No. 317.] Col. R. M. Johnson, "Vice President U. S., to John Fegan, Esq., Philadelphia. City of Washington, llth May, 1840. My dear Sir: — Your highly esteemed favor has been received, respecting the confinement of Mr. Mackenzie as prisoner, &c., in the jail at Rochester. I feel as deeply as man can feel the misfortune of that patriotic man. I consider his misfortune and his suflering very much like the hard fate and cruel destiny of many un- successful patriots before our time ; and although the la\vs of nations and the la\vs of the land may have condemned him and legally consigned him to prison, I think that the demand of jus- tice is satisfied, and I should not hesitate, with my views of the suljject, to liberate, if I had the power ; and I presume that I shall do, and have done, all I can to etfect this object. I am con- fident, however, that the President [Mr. Van Buren] has acted from his conviction of a sacred duty to do as he has done ; but I hope that he may feel himself justihed, without injury to the diplomatic relations of the country, in exercising the power of pardon in this case. In my delicate position, having no power, and exercising only that reasonable influence which my situation gives me, I do not wish to take any prominent agency in this matter, as it would not do good, and might do harm ; but at this place, as far as it is coiTect and proper, I will do what I can to promote the object in view. Respectfully, Rh. M. JOHNSON. AN ACCOUNT BALTIMORE CONVENTION. VAN BURET'S DEFEAT, AND THE NOMINATION OF POLK AND DALLAS. " As bees on flowers alighting, cease their hum, Settling on places, democrats grow dumb." PoWs Friendship far Van Buren, — Heiss and the Union. — The Globe on Polk. — Ritchie, Heiss, Polk, and Cass. — Significant Votes. — Delegates rercarded. — Marctfs Position and Prospects. — The Syraoise Nominations. — How Cass losi the Game. — Croswell and DickensoiVs Views. — Butlefs NaskviUe Journey. — Van Buren, Threats in the Democratic Review. — Walker wheels Butter round to Texas, condemns Van Buren, and iwminates Wright ! — Flagg set aside. — Marcyh Tact. — Bancroft on both sides. — The Tkoo-third Rule. — Buileron Hard Cider. — Van Buren for Polk, Dallas, and Texas. — Cass and the CMrokees. — Col. Yoking enraged. — He heads the Texas Ticket. — O'SulUvan on Human Cattle (not Polk's Negroes). — George Mifflin Dallas. — Old Dallas and his Bank.— His Son a U. S. B., V. B. Man.— Dallas and Wilkins on the Public Lands. — Mileage of Senators, Are there those who believe Polk friendly to Van Buren 1 Let me undeceive them. When Polk and Ritchie and "Walker saw and read the .secret coiTcspondence of Hoj^ which I .sent on to Washington, in May, and the discovery, and anticipated publication of which so delighted them, would they one and all, as also those of their friends who got copies, had they been friendly, have kept the secret from the Van Burens, Flagg, Butler, Wright, and Dix, and allowed the guilty to be startled by the sudden apparition of my first pamphlet in September last 1 Who can believe it 1 Polk and Jackson's paper, the Nashville Union, kept the name of Van Buren 292 THE BALTIMORE CONVEXTION OF 1344. at the head of its columns as the candidate of the party for Baltimore, while it threatened any Tennessean who would vote for him there. Hearken to Hogau and Hciss ! g^ '• We do " not believe Mr. Van B men will receive one vote from the Tennes.seau delegatiim. If he '•due-s, that delegate who votes knowingly again.st the wishes of his con.^lituents, will be '• marked hereafter, as i;^a man unworthy of their confidence." Why did they keep up Van Buren's name over such remarks as these 1 The Texas letter was seized on as a pretext to get rid of a man whom certain leaders no longer wanted. Had Polk and Van Buren been on the very best of terms, although the latter yielded to the former, Avould language like the Ibllowing. have found its way into the olUcial journal, (Blair's Globe,) on the 19th of Jan. 18141 " I care not how lionorable a man may be, if he is a coward he cannot maintain his honor; and hence it is such a Juan is disqualified for the office of V. President. Now, sir. Col. King has never been insulted dayaUcrdav; and, above all, he was never caught roughly by the arm [by Wise] when escaping from tlie Capitol, pulled round and told that he was the ' con- temptible tool of a petty tyrant !' I pledge my head, if he is ever .so treated, he willre.sent the insult in tlie proper waj'. Will ' A Tennessee Democrat' do the same in regard to Gov. Polk ? What are the facts in regard to Gov. Polk 1 He has been twice repudiated in his own State by large majorities — defeated by an inexperienced politician ; and it is not pre- tended that his name would add one particle of strength to the ticket in any State of this TJuion." There was a clear understanding between Ritchie at Richmond, and Heiss at Nashville, to go for Cass if Van Buren could be set aside, and for Polk in preference to either. This was independent of Texas. Ritchie had made up his mind to have the printing of Congi-ess. He was connected with B. Greene, who had a very deep interest in Texan scrip and lands. He lived in a state that raised men and women for sale and traflrc, into perpetual bondage, as if they were cattle, through the home slave trade. If Van Buren obtained power, Blair would have his interest ; the north, with its Bryants, Sedgwicks, abolitioni.sts, &:c., would compel V. B. to throw cold water on annexation, or oust him ; and Virginia went for the detestable gains of her human shambles. Moreover, Van Buren's chance was very doubtful. That had been proved in 1840. In the summer and fall of 1843, the Richmond Enquirer, in the form of let- ters to the editor, had said much in favor of Cass, and the Nashville Union, [Hogan and Heiss] copied liberally, " by request." Tlie spring elections of Connecticut and Virginia went agaimt Van Buren ; Tyler and Calhoun pushed on annexation, and coaxed Ritchie. Tlie Richmond Enquirer and Calhoun's Charleston organ became more and more harmoniou.'; and united ; and on the month of the Convention, Ritchie gravelj' rebuked Blair for censuring Calhoun, and told his friends that the Calhoun party were with them, and that they had the .same view.s. Ritchie said, that Clay was "an electioneering demagogue, and would prove an arrant dictator," and that Texas miist be had now, and not waited for 70 years. Before tlie Convention met, Hei.ss's paper, the Nashville Union, plainly foretold that Polk would be "hosLjn there, not as Vice President, but as President, although no public journal or meeting In the Republic had named him for the latter office. When the Convention met, Ritchie's .son, William F., was elected its principal secretary, and Virginia and Tennessee went cor- dially together lor the rule that two-thirds of its votes would be required to secure a nomina- tion, tlius defeating Van Buren's nomination at the first ballot. Virginia [Ritchie], Tennessee [Polk], Mississippi [Walker] and Georgia, went together steadily during the fu\st seven bal- lots, for Cass, not giving Van Buren a single vote. On the 8th ballot, Tennessee left Cass for Polk, and in the middle of the 9th, the N. Y. delegation gave way, the farce closed, and the vole for Polk was unanimous ! The result was, that although Jackson was warmly attached to Blair he had to make way for Polk's friends — and the printing of Congre.'^s, which a com- pany of mechanics ofiered to" do, as well as Ritchie does it, and §30,000 a year cheaper, was the fit reward of the intrigues of the Nashville Union, and his new partner of the Richmond Enimirer. Was there a bargain 1 Is it even probable that Jackson really desired the election* of Van Buren 1 Polk knew that Ritchie was an original enemy of Jackson's claim.s, but he aKo knew his influence in Virginia. He .seems to have agreed with the principal, Ritchie, and tlie agent, Virginia, followed of course. If no one bargained for a reward, it is marvel- lous how they ail got it. Polk had the White Hou.se; Ritchie and Hei.'^s, the printing; Woodbury, the Bench ; Cave Johnson, the Po.st-ofiice; Bancroft, the Navv; Marey, the War office; Gillet, [anti-Cass] ilie Registership ; Butler, his old berth; Mason "(from Tyler's cabi- net), the Attorney Generalship. Tyler gave his influent^e, as president of the U. S.and Texa.'^ wa-H annexed. The Van Buren section wanted Coddington for Collector here ; but the Marcy STtion, with the aid of Hoyl's letters, (about the opportune appearance of which there is yet a .v'crel untold.) put in Lawrence. The scheming at Baltimore, in the Convention, began witii I rayer and praise ; after which the clergyman, witii very good ta.ste, read to them the 101st pvilni, " //■■ IhutnuirkctJi dcccU shaU not dwell within viv liov$e : he that tcUeth iiis shall v-ot tain/ in my si:;ht." I would advise stime active and honest editor to take a list of the Convention and compare it with Polk and Walker's appoiiilmenLs, with the names of the director.-; of the pet banks, marcy's intrigues, a peep behind the curtain. 293 with the N. Y. Custom House, beginning with Peter Crawford, and with Oliver Lee & Co. pet banlcers!, Buffalo, and if he does not obtain presumptive proof of a base and mercenary bargain to elect James K. Polk, and of the fulfilment of its personal and pecuniary condi- tions, too, I shall be most agreeably mistaken. Those who have known William L. Marcy long and well, assure me, and I believe it, that he is an adroit, managing man— more so, perhaps, than Van Bm-en ; cautious, but un- der no conti-ol of principle. In the War Department, Marcy expects to make a fortune (for somebody), out of the vast contracts and patronage in his gift. He went into the scheme of Canadian annexation— advised his friends on the frontier— was privy to his wile's brother's junction with us at Navy Island — on the very best terms with certain influential Canadians — came to Bufialo during the troubles in January, 1838, and spoke strongly in favor of the go- ahead policy to certain friends of the Canadians. Walworth and Croswell, and Porter, (then Register), took the same view. When Van Buren saw that the affair was a failure, or likely so to be, he advised Marcy, Croswell, &c., to wheel about, and they did so. The British par- liamentary papers show that Marcy hired emissaries, and was really active in procuring infor- mation for the Canadian authorities, and the Journal of Commerce rightly said, Jan. 10, 1838, '' We have the best authority for stating, that there is a good understanding in regard to the Canada troubles, between the cabinet at Washington and the British minister," Fox. In his present position, in case of war, there Avould be a suspension of cash payments, the banks would lend their worthless paper to the government, and live in clover — the war bm-eau would be the leading department of the administration— the influence of its head would be immense; and he might look with good hope to the reversion of Polk's chair, although I am told he flatters Walker and Polk, by telling them that war would assuredly secure it either to the one or the other. The Sub-Treasury, if worked again, Hoijt fashion, would be a real gold mine. On the 5th of September, 1843, a .state Convention met at Syracuse ,W. L. Marcy, president —79 for Marcy, 40 for Young. The plan was, to name at once, 34 delegates, to represent the State at Baltimore in the Presidential convention, and it was Marcy's wish to have a majority of them composed of politicians Avhom he could control, so as to appear to suj^port Van Buren, but in reality to go for the candidate who would pay best— say for Cass; or lor Polk, if Cass proved unavailable. Failing to get that majority, Marcy was dropt as one of the State dele- gates, and Young taken. A committee to choose delegates was appointed, and the choice of a delegate for each congressional district left to the member of that committee for that district. Oliver Lee, the Buffalo [Polk pet] banker, Erastus Corning, Daniel S. Dickinson, J. W. Brown, Henry K. Smith, John C. Wright, Nathan S. Roberts of the canals, Thomas B. Mitchell, and John "Stryker, were, I believe, strong Marcy delegates ; but when the 3G assembled at Baltimore, B. F. Butler and Samuel Young headed the Van Buren section, and they were the most nume- rous ; that cause alone is stated to have prevented Marcy and his friends from giving the vote of New York to Cass on the 7th ballot, which, with the influence it would have carried, would have secured to Ca.ss the nomination. On the eighth ballot, CTCorgia, Tennessee, the Bancroft .sec- tion of the Massachusetts delegation, Woodbury's interest (New Hampshire), Walker's folks (Mississippi), and two from IPennsylvania (personal friends of Buchanan) went for Polk— on the 9th, all parties took him up ; and Calhoun's men, Pickens and Elmore, who were in the secret, played their parts in the drama, going heartily (not a doubt of it) for "Polk and Texas, Texan scrip, and down with liberty and the ways of seventy-six." The New York delegation, so far as the Croswell, Marcy, and Dickinson section were con- cerned, are generally believed to have desired to throw Van Buren overboard, and to have secretly canvassed against him, and told other members of the Convention, that so much could he said to his discredit, that if nominated, all would be a failure, and New York State lost; which was probably true. Why did Butler and the majority, on the opposite side, prevent the nomination of Cass from Michigan, and call forward Polk, whom his editor, H:eiss, knew and had already announced as the nominee, though he was 700 miles distant ■? In May, 1844, Dr. Beekman, banker, Kinderhook, a friend of Van Buren, and now a senator, was on a visit to Albany ; and he reported on his return, that Marcy, Dickinson, and Croswell \vere undermin- ing him and deserting his camp. Van Buren wrote to Butler itrmiedintely, and the latter set oft' on his well known mission to Nashville, armed with instructions to tickle Jackson's vanity, by asking him to come forward a third time as a candidate, and thus preserve the party from ruin. This he well knew that Jackson would not do ; but the Boston Post, as instructed, declared that his health, just then, had not been so robust for years ; and in the Convention, May 28th, a member proposed him, but it did not take. Van Buren's retreat could not be thus e nominated, Polk should be, in preference to Cass. Is this the reason why Butler was appoint- ed to a S20,000 office here, by Polk, the moment he had the power 1 What is the tenure by which he now holds it 1 Butler, in convention, wanted to take the lead in proposing Polk, when the time had come to drop Van Buren, but Hubbard was before him ; and the man whom Jones, a whig, had defeated in Tennessee, at the then next previous election lor go- vernor, by a plurality of 3,633 out of 112,781 votes, thus became President of the Union, with- 294 BUTLER AND CO. BULLY ' THE SOUTH AND TRADE OFf' THE NORTH. out even a township nomination, and in the teeth of instructions by 16 state conventions to support another. Van Buren never got over 12 votes from the whole of the slave states. In- ■rigiie had been his element, and his own pupils now outshone their master. The Democratic Review tor June looked (as a last resource) to a junction of the free north and west, and the abjuration of the slaveholders, if no bargain could be made with them. The reader will at once see that Butler, and not the Regent (O'Sullivan), must have been thcMTiter ol' the following paragraphs, which are by authority : " It is possible, ver}' possible, that he [Van Buren] may not be nominated — that many of hi.s " owTi personal friends within its (the Baltimore Convention's) members, not loving Caesar less " but Rome more, may be the first to cast a reluctant and sorrowful vote against his name. If '• the Convention should come to the conclusion, on a broad survey of the vjhole ground, that " the influence of this new question [Texas] is really and truly such as to destroy or endanger '■ the hope of his election — that any other candidate, worthily fulfilling the condition of being " a true and trusty democrat, can bring more favorable auspices into the contest with the com- " mon foe — be it so. Though we have never BEroiiE assumed the right to speak; for Mr. " Van Buren, yet on this occasion and this point we do not hesitate to a.ssert, that he " will himself, in that event, be found foremost among the first, and truest among the true, in " support of the decision of the Convention." The writer next specially addresses the slave states, THE SOUTH, telling them the conse- quences that would follow their deviation from the decision of the party, when delivered at Baltimore. These are his words : 1^ " Why, there will be a burst of indignation from the NORTH for which you are little l;;^ prepared. They will abjure you and your capricious, if not treacherous alliance, and ^^ leave you to sustain yourselves by yourselves, against all the forms of foreign attack, |;5= which will then be a thousand fold multiplied and embittered. No son of yours need ^^ then indulge a vain aspiration for that high honor for wdiich the votes of Northern Demo- gj" cracy are threefold more necessary than tho.se of Southern Chivalry. The great free i:^ North and the great free West will then take the matter of President-making into their f:^ own steadier and trustier hands." I On the 23d of April, 1844, in the correspondence of the N. Y. Evening Post, I find it re- ' marked, that " If the cause of our disasters, as many of our best and most constant adv'ocates of republicanism seem to think, is the want of f^^a new name at the head of our ranks,.^ ■we are willing, as individuals, to abandon our fir.st choice, and to rally with equal ardor to the standard of Cass, Johnson, or anybody else." Judge Douglass of Illinois has recently proclaimed the important fact, that the Texas and Oregon resolution adopted at Baltimore, was drawn up by R. J. Walker, and offered to the Convention by his brother adventurer, Benjamin F. Butler, as one of their claptraps for President making. Van Buren opposed to Texas, and his man, Butler, taking the lead for it ! The Rescjlution is in these words : " Resolved, That our title to the whole of the territory of Oregon is clear and unquestionable ; that no portion of the same ought to be ceded to England or any other power ; and that the reoccupation of Oregon, and the re-annexation of Texas, at the earliest practical period, are great American measures, which this Convention recommends to the cordial support of the democracy of the Union." Looking at the corrupt and mercenary character of Butter, we ask the reader if his position as district attorney here, is not presumptive evidence that when he thus shifted round to become Walker's catspaw, there was an understanding, the conditicjns of which Polk hastened to fulfil 1 Walker was Van Buren's most determined enemy at Baltimore; Butler his |)rofcssedly warmest friend. He went to Baltimore with Young, to o])pose annexation. Why did he there become Polk's organ for denoimcing as traitors all who would not consent to it 1 Walker vehemently denounced Van Buren because he durst not go for annexation. Why did he propose to the Convention that Silas Wright, who professed the very same creed as Van Buren, and iiad voted against annexation in the senate, should be the candid;ite for Vice President! and why did the Icnaves, who had voted down Van Buren on that .score, vote up Wright at Walker's nod 1 Was there any principle there 1 Butler's resolution on Texas, as adopted, implied a censure on Benton, Wright, and Van Buren, for not going straight with tlic i)arly 7 '1 he understanding, when Polk left Nasliville, was, that Flagg, our Comptroller, should be put at tlie head of the lii'aMiry; but Walker and others influenced him so that he decided that the memlx.T of the cabinet for N. Y. shouUI be Marcv, for the department of war. Marcy, I am well int(ji-med, is much more practical than Bancroft, wlu)m he manages, and thus controls in a large degree, the navy. He may out-general Van Buren yet, although it is but a lottery. He was re-elected governor of this .state in Nov., 183G, with nearly 3,000 majority. In tlie winter of 1H37, the i)arty were omnipotent. Nine months alter they were GEORGE BANCROFT. VAN BUREN FOR POLK AND DALLAS. 295 entirely routed. E. Larned, Marcy's relative, is president of one of the copper companies on Lake Superior. They are all in Marcy's department. He also locates the lands. S. C. Frey, a brother-in-law of Mr. Calhoun, a late M. C. from Mass. wrote me last Nov., that when the insurrection broke out in Canada, in 1837, Mr. Wills, senator from St. La\vi'ence county, was requested to see Gov. Marcy on the subject ; that he did so, and immediate!}' wrote to Morristown to , " Tell your Canadian friends that they may rest assured that Gov. Marcy will interfere no farther than the laws of the country compel him, and that they have his best wishes for their success." " With the example of neutrality law, as admin- istered in the case of Texas, and Jaclcson's unmeaning proclamations [Frey ^\Tites me] we interfered ; but soon found that our rulers were far more anxious to extend the area of slavery than that of freedom ; and that our laws had one aspect and operation on the banks of tlie St. Lawrence, and quite another on the borders cf slave-freeing Mexico." When the time comes, Mr. Marcy and his friends will have facts that may be as inconvenient to hear, as if given now. George Bancroft, like Marcy, has " principle in proportion to his interest." A northern man, he set up for Congress in 1834, with an address to suit the meridian of Massachusetts, of which a sample follows : " Slaves are capital ; the slaveholder is a capitalist. Free labor will be the iir.st to demand the abolition of slavery ; capital will be the la.st to concede it. We would not interfere with the domestic regulations of New Orleans or Algiers, but we may demand the instant abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and should assist free labor to recover its rights in the capital of the country. * * * * GEORGE BANCROFT." Bancroft was formerly a schoolmaster, his associate being Joseph G. Cogswell of N. Y., he was originally much opposed to Jackson, but conformed, as he diet at Baltimore, and now does in the Polk cabinet. He is a sensible speaker, but no orator ; and stuck to Van Buren till matters were otherwise arranged. His best performance is his history. In his eulogy on Old Hickory, delivered at Washington, he offered a specimen of anti-climax, thus : " And Jackson returned to his own fields and his own pursuits, to cherish his own planta- tion ; to care for his servants ; to look after his stcd." Only five entire states, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, New York, and Missouri, voted against the two-third rule. It was evident that Van Buren was believed to be odious among the people, everywhere ; yet, Jiad Ritchie said the word, Van Buren would have had the nomination, such is the power of leaders to combine for the spoils, in the way that will pro- mote their interest. Walker was strong against Van Buren ; and Rantoul, whom Tyler wanted to make secretary of the treasury, spoke against Butler, and for the twc-thirds. Mar- cy said little, but set others forward. Van Buren got 146 votes at first, and went do\vn gradu- ally to 99. M'Nulty, the ex-clerk of Congress, was strong for Van Buren. Frazer of Pa., who was in Buchanan's confidence, canvassed and made speeches for Polk ; and Cave John- son announced for Blair and Rives that they would go for the nominee, be he who he might. Senator Allen, of Ohio, S. Medary, B. Tappan, Jacob Brinkerhoff, and Dr. Alex. Duncan, were for V. B. Senators Hannegan [the son of an Irish emigrant], and Haywood, were for Cass. In reply to Walker, Butler .said " he was very sorry, indeed, to find his friends, Messrs. Walker, of Mississippi, and Saunders, of N. Carolina, referring to the precedent of 1840 ; the log-cabin, hard cider, coon hunting precedent of 1840. He could stamp them under his feet (he was understood to say, stamping violently on the floor as he -spoke)." Walker rejoined that Butler's was the finest specimen of tall vaulting he had seen of a long time. Walker, in 1840, was a Van Buren delegate to Baltimore. I was present at a large meeting in the Park, N. Y., on June 4th, to respond to the nomina- tion of Polk and Dallas, and heard a letter from Van Buren read, which had been addressed to Gansv. Melville and others, from Lindenwald, June 3, 1844 : HV" I have known Messrs. Polk and Dallas long and intimately. I have had frequent '^^ opportunities for personal observation of their conduct in the discharge of high and respon- l:^ sible public duties. The latter has by my appointment represented the country abroad i;;^ with credit and usefulness ; they are both gentlemen possessed of high character ; of un- §3= questioned and unquestionable patriotism and integrity ; able to discharge the duties of the ^^ stations for which they have been respectively nominated, \\ith advantage to the countr)', ^Jf and honor to themselves. Concurring with them in the main, in the political principles ^^hY which their public lives have been hitherto distinguished, 1 am sincerel}- desirous for g^ their success." At a similar meeting held inFaneuil Hall, Boston, Mr. Bancroft said : that man who would agree to a mean submission to England, as to Oregon, let him turn aside and not vote for Polk — that as to Texas, Polk would not be found a lackey, taking his cue from St. James's; that there would be no war with Mexico; and that the convention " looked with one heart to Young Hickory of Tennes.see. Startling Avas the effect v^hen the delegation from Maine an- nounced its vote for James K. Polk ! Cheering, most cheering followed the plumper from 296 CASS AND THE INDIANS — COL. YOUNG. o'sULLIVAN. New Hampshire. And then, ere the final result was announced, came the unanimous vote ofAIassachu.setts, and in succession, tlie unanimous vote of every state." General Cas.s's suc- cess in Geori^ia and Alabama is accounted for by a reference to his efforts to hara.s.s the poor Indians. Half the Globe of March 31, 1834, is filled Avith his strictures on the Supreme Court for its honest decision of the Georgia question. He concludes, " First, that civilized com- munities have a right to take pos.session of a country, inhabited by barbarous tribes, to as- sume jm-isdiction over them, and to ' combine within narrow limits,' or, in other words, to ap- propriate to their own use, such portion of the Territory, as thev tliink proper. Second, that in the exercise of this right, such communities are the j ud'ges of the extent of jurisdiction to be as- sumed, and of Territory to be acquired." He then argues, that this powej- of judging re.sts with 'ite States, tiie legislatures of which may subject Indians, who have not yielded' up their sove- .-eignty, to what laws they plea.se. As Van Buren was of Jack.son's opinion, and as Jackson, Butler, Woodbury, and all the cabinet were of one mind (for so saith Cass), the removal of the Cherokees, and the bloodhounds set upon the Seminolcs was surely glory enough ! The In- dians were driven westward, just a hundred 3-ears from tlie time when Jol'm Wesley had land- •■d at Savannah, a missionary of Christ to convert them. That teacher of teachers got a lesson there. A grand jury of the colonists indicted him as a Jaw-breaker, and the magistrates pro- nounced Ids departure a flight from justice ! Ninety years after, and Avith the express per- mission of the President of the United States, Samuel A. Worcester went to preach to these Indians, was arrested for so doing, ordered for four years to the penitentiary of Georgia, and only released Avhen the Supreme Court of the Union had, through Mr. Justice McLean's excel- lent and logical argument and decision, pronounced a barbarous law ajid the action thereon, null and void. Colonel Young, at Baltimore, was true to Van Buren, and opposed the canvass for Polk as long as he could. A letter from a friend at the Convention, to his friend here, says, " Ccl. " Young is quite in a rage, and even hints that the friends of the other candidates have con- " spired to defraud V. B. Every delegate from Pennsylvania was pledged under hand and ".seal to vote tor V. B., but .several of the most active of them visited Buchanan previously, '•at Wa.shiiigton, who told them to support a motion tliat would be made I'ora two-third rule, " and after tliat do as they pleased. Twelve out of five-and-twentv did so, and when V. B.'s " day had gone pa.st, arrangements were made to bring forward the'Texan candidate. Young "declares that Cass, Calhoun, Woodburv, Walker, and even Johnson, are among the con- " spirators; and that the democratic platform, of fidelity toinstrugtions, is knocked from under II our feet, the party cleft in twain, and Texas and its abominations, tied round our necks like "a millstone. Texas is to be acquired by propagaudism and incorporation, the principles " countries to exchange one set of masters for another— the imperial decree went forth, and " liberty and annexation, of the true Texan stamp, went hand in hand. Where are an- " nexing principles to terminate 1 At Cape Horn ! At the north pole'? Shall we annex '• Cuba, St. Domingo, Jamaica, the whole West Indies, en passant, with .slavery as a sort of " .shade or veil to liberty's brightness, and all to uphold our ' peculiar institutions V If we try "I lear that the example of France will keep good throughout." Young's passion cooled! He headed the electoral ticket which gave the votes of N. Y. to Polk and Dallas, and they owe to New York not only their nomination, but also their election ; nor could VanBuren in 183b, have been elected without New York. He richly deserved his fate in 1840 and '44. Van Buren s Iriend, O'Sullivan, in the party journal here, the Democratic Review, let the cat out of the bag, and confessed tliat the leaders considered public virtue |^ all a humbug I quote the number for April, 1843 : " Since the election of 1840, we have prettv much ceased __ to speak of, or confide in, the ' intelligence of the people.' . . . We confess we could hardly forbear exclaiming in vexation and contempt, ' well, afler all, nature will out ; the poor devils, it we but let them alone, will viake cattle of themselves, and why should we II waste our tiuie and substance in trying to hinder them from making themselves cattle ?' ^ . . . If we wish to .secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of freedom and gofjd govern iijeiit, avc mu.st procure .stronger guarantees than popular suffrage and popular II virtue and intelligence . . . Suffrage rests for its basis, as a guarantee of freedoiu and good governinent, on the a.ssumed intelligence and virtue of the people. Now this may be ■ very beautiful in theory, but when we cDine to practice, this virtue and intelligence of the • p.The nnUtiplication of banks in the several states has so inc^^^^^^ li^^eS lls^ate^ith'^Sn^cetlhe ■■ would be clifficuU to calculate its ^"io^"'V\Hrhlnlt reven this P^^^^^^^^ is *" ^ g^eat measure lost, •• capital on which it has been issued. But the }>,''"; 'l^l^'^^X^^'m^^^^^^^ chain of accommodation, "as the suspension of payments in specie at most of t.hebank^^^^^^ ^.^^^^, .^ ^_^^ ^^^^^ .^^^^ •• that previously e.xtended the credit and 'he J^ "''^''"" "L^^^^^^ exists at this tim-, no adequate •• every state in the Union. It may in general ^« ^f ""?;'• /^"^'"^^ transactions of private life are ::r^'j;L'n"f •TntrheS'Vp^i'a^lo';;^ ^convenience. It is impossible -* that such a state of things should be long endured." ,„„j With the above official statement, addressed to J. W. Eppes, chairman ot the JVa^s and be at stated P« "'^tVl'^'/.^^,^; .'J^.V-^f^ the United States government 30 millions of dollars at made paper, W"™ " '=^V 5k?irtSe''asThe Ciiaoms revinues, which even a Jesse SKoXo^tre ttw";fmUHon^M^».»^ inwar«„>.s. I meMion these S;rrt^Wjhep,„s^ro».^awarn SCiS agliis. the veto and thauhe bm was co^^^^^^^^^ 298 DALLAS, WILKINS, THE MILEAGE, AND THOMAS RITCHIE. Ike south, and failed. It obtained the state stocks of Michigan and Indiana, and pledged them ill London for more than they were worth. " The United States Bank, by a suspension of specie payments, had forl'eited its charter. Its effects were about to pass into the hands of Re- ceivers, when a Van Buren Governor [Porter] and Senate interposed, and not only sav-ed its lile and legalized a protracted suspension, but allowed the stockjobbers to receive dividends while the Bank was paying its debts in irredeemable paper!" So .saith Weed. The Schuyl- kill failed at the same time, and such was the moralltij oi ihe legislature and Gov. Porter, that they allowed the Penn.sylvania banks to divide 6 and 7 per cent, as profits, when they were openly bankrupt. If the misery caused to thousands by the sinking of 36 millions of capital in the Schuylkill and U. S. Banks could be seen by the people, no such departures Trom the laws of trade and currency would again be allowed. The Baltimore Convention which nominated Polk and Dallas resolved, that they were op- posed to the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the states. On July 3d, 1832, in Senate, Dallas and his brother-in-law, Wilkins, voted for Clay's bill to distribute the proceeds of the public lands among the states, and that not by instructions, but as their unbi- a.ssed opinion. Clay, Ewing, Bell, Webster, Frelinghuy.sen, Poindexter, and Dickerson were on the same side, and the bill passed. So, too, on Internal Improvements, Dallas went witii Clay in 183-3, against Benton, Van Buren and Jackson — and, in 1837, Van Buren made him his Russian ambassador, offered him a seat in his cabinet in 1839, and in 1844 wrote to the citizens of New York, that he approved of him as the candidate of the anti-bank party for the office of Vice-President! In 1833, Wolf appointed Dallas attorney-general of Pennsylvania. In Senate, in 1832, Dallas voted against inquiring into Van Buren's conduct and in favor of his appointment as ambassador to England. To be true to Van Buren and his confederates, and able to serve the leaders, was the real test in 1837, and something akin to it is the test now. The decision Dallas gave, as Vice-President, in March, 1845, that those who framed the law for paying mileage to senators intended to place it in the power of the President of tlie U. S., by calling a new session of the Senate to-morrow, as a successor to that wliich closes to-day, to pay the .senators over $30,000 frrr travelling many thousand miles to and from Washington, when not one of them had left the city or travelled the first mile, was so iniquitous that I set him down at once as little better than a cheat in democratic politics. When the session termi- nated, March 3, he decided that the senators, not one of whom had left Washington, were en- titled to mileage or travelling charges to and from their homes, however distant, though the new executive sitting began within ten hours of the close of the old ! ! Such outrageous con- duct encourages men in less elevated stations to act dishonestlv. Ashley of Ark. got iflG80 — Barrow of La., S1840— Johnson, $1840— Sevier of Ark., $1680— Atchison of Mo., $1336— Breese and Semple of Ills., $1480 each— Jarnagin of Tenn., $1200 — Woodbndge of Mich., $903 — Bagby and Lewis of Ala., $-960 each — and so on for the others. Had this man not been a profligate pretender, lie had not received the support of Van Buren. I think it was one of Beimetl's Herald correspondents who exposed this iniquity in detail. He stated that Daniel C. Dickin.son, not satisfied with receiving pay for two journeys never performed, tried hard to be paid for three ! How painful it is to have to write in this way of a man who was voted for by millions of men as the V. P. of the republic ! V. P. Dallas is an excellent speaker, a man of prepossessing and dignified depoitment, and winning, courteous manners; and has the reputation of being a good scholar. He is tall, spare, and has an intellectual look, with a high, narrow forehead, thickly covered with long silvery locks. THOMAS RITCHIE. The Editor of The Union, at Washington, is about seventy years of age — tall, thin, spare, and rather bent — has a long, thin face, with a fine, bright eye, and a ver}' prominent nose, but has lost his teeth. His gait is quick, restless, and somewhat tremulous ; he is neat in his dress, fond of talking, and unwearied in industrj' ; pos.sesses tact, talent, great knowledge of men and things ; is a lively old gentleman, affable, courteous, polite ; an editor of 42 years' stand- ing, having commenced the Richmond Enquirer in his native state, on the 19th of May, 1804, and left it with his .sons, William F. and Thomas Ritchie, Junior, in the summer of 1844, when he removed to Wa.shington to take charge of PoUi's new paper. Mr. Ritchie entered active life as a teacher or usher in Richmond, was married on the 7th of February, 1807, to Miss Isa- bella, daughter of Dr. William Foushee, sometime postmaster of Richmond, and who died in 1821, aged 75. In 1807, Ritchie was an enthusiastic advocate of home manufactures. That year, in Decemljcr, Mr. Monroe and family returned to Richmond from abroad, and at a Vir- ginia Welcome given to him, the governor being in the chair, the sixth regular toast was, " American Manufactures, the true .support of genuine independence" — received with tluee GREELEY ON RITCHIE GREENE, DABNEY AND TEXAS. 299 cheers. Next first of June, a meeting was held at the capitoI, Richmond, the governor presid- ing, and Ritchie secretary ; when his (Ritchie's) tather-in-law proposed that a committee should be named " to digest a plan for the establishment of manufactures," and the governor named the late President Monroe, William Wirt, Pej'tcn Randolph, George Ha}^, (kc. The meeting also resolved with one accord to appear at the next -Ith of July tlressed in articles the manu- facture of some of the states. In 1829, Ritchie and his Enquirer had veered round to a nullifi- cation of protecting tariffs — now he is for just enough of a tariff" to keep the wheels of govern- ment well greased. Mr. Ritchie's family is large and well educated, and his daughters are married into wealthy and respectable Virginia families. I can easily imagine the immense in- fluence which an active, energetic politician, all life and soul, all bone and sinew, would exer- cise over an agricultural people he had been intimate with for half a century, by referring to the position I found myself in, some ten years ago, though on a far less extensive theatre of action. Ritchie has always been what is called a democrat, but of tlie truckling, time-serving kind. Leggett told him, through the Evening Post, that he was a political hypocrite and trickster — John Randolph, that he was a man of '• seven principles ; five loaves and two fishes " — the elder Duane (Sept. 1816) described him as the " self-convicted sycophant and tool of party" — Brooks of the Express represents him as a very able, but narrow, contracted, selfish bigot — and Horace Greeley (Jime 3, 1845,) sums up his politics as follows : "When it was Democratic to assail Gen. Jackson as utterly unfit for Civil or Political trust, no man assailed him more fiercely than Thomas Ritchie. But when, a few years thereafter, it became Democratic to commend Gen. Jackson as the paragon of Statesmanship and trustworthiness, no man laid it on thicker than Thomas Ritchie. In 1828, it was Democratic to advocate One Term only for a President, and Mr. Ritchie was very earnest for that. In 1832 and 1840, it was Democratic to support a President for a Second term, and Mr. Ritchie did his utmost on that side. In '2^-30, it was Democratic to advocate the Nullifying doctrines of Calhoun and Hayne, and declare them the very counterpart of ' the Resolutions of '98,' and Mr. Ritchie did this very thoroughly. In 1832-3, it was Democratic to condemn Nullification as utterly inconsistent with orthodox De- mocracy, and Mr. Ritchie did this quite effectively. In 1834-5, it was Democratic to praise the Pet Banks Sys- t«m, and nobody did it more heartily than Mr. Ritchie. In 1838, it had become Democratic to go the whole Hog for the Sub-Treasury and denounce the Pet Banks ; and though this was the hardest dose he had had yet, Mr. Ritchie gulped it down for Democracy's sake. Nobody was more ardent than Mr. R. in support of Van Buren while ' Democracy' smiled on hlni ; nobody did more to crush Mr. V. B. when Southern ' Democracy ' turned against him. Nay, more : our paragon of Democrats can be on both sides of a vital question at the same time when the interests of ' Democracy' require it — can advocate Dorrism for the North and stand fast by Slavery in the South — can sympathize with the victims of 'Algerine' tyranny in Rhode Island, but breathe not a whisper of dissatisfaction at the Constitution of his own Virginia which not only denies any vote at all to a poor white man while it allows his rich neighbor a dozen, but actually vests the Political Power of the State in about one-third of its Legal Voters." Ritchie can scold, fret, and be as abusive as John Van Buren when he likes — can sneer at Noah as " the Swiss mercenary" — mock John Tyler, as being on his return to the path of de- mocracy " now that he knows the whig party" — and hold up Jackson as a tyrant and a mur- derer, a curse and a blessing. One of his subscribers thus addresses him, Sept. 25, 1838 : " I like to show my colors sometimes. I went with you for the gun-boats, and against them, under Jefferson, and for the war, and against the gun-boats, under Madison. I followed you and Jefferson against the bank, ditto to you and Madison when he went for the bank. I read your paper and supported Monroe when you and he went against Jackson, and I turned against Adams, tooth and toe-nail ; and went for Jackson when you did the like. 1 loaded my fowling-piece when they began to talk about light-houses in the skies. I went for the proclamation, and against the proclamation in spots, and, after that, I resolved not to split the party for any- thing, and swallowed the removal of the deposits, the protest, the black lines, and last, though not least, Mr. Van Buren and Col. Dick Johnson. But I confess I'm bothered now. I want light, and would like to know, when it is convenient, whether I must go for principles without men, or men without principles ?" Ritchie has been often chosen printer to the Virginia Legislature, and he pretended great in- dependence of otfice in 1829, because his strictures on Jackson had left little hope of his getting anything valuable then in that quarter. His letters, page 214 to 216, show his views for the public eye. He is poor, lives in splendor, is a speculator, bets high, though not on General Jackson [see page 240], and advocates, through his Union, the turning out of the most upright public servants, if they are not as slavish to party and leaders in power as spaniels to the whip. " A Benjamin W. Greene of Richmond (says Blair's Globe) commenced without any capital except his assurance," became a great speculator and jockey, dealt in Texas lands and every- tliiug ; and when Dabney disappeared, a defaulter for hundreds of thousands, Greene was arrested as having had a large share of the spoil, and sent to jail, but not kept there long. Ritchie, his friend, sympathized with the evil-doers ; Malloiy, a confederate, was arrested, but he, too, had backers. One thing is certain, Ritchie's pecuniary embaiTas.sments were increased 300 RITCHIE, HIS ENQUIRER, AND GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON. by these explosions ; and his errand at Washin.^'ton, like Marcy's, is to patch his pantaloons, or, in other words, make money, by monopolizing the printing of" the executive, the depnrtments, the Senate, and the House of Representatives ; and charging some S50,000 to S'75,000 more for doino- it than regular printers, bred to the business, could fairly exact. In other words, he and his partner are getting some S05,000 a year, over and above an honest compensation, thai beino- their share (in part) of the spoils of party, with the principle of plunder for its grip and countersign, as per last settlement at Baltimore. When Major Lewis and Mr. Polk quarrelled, Lewis had pnbli.shed a letter from Jackson to him, dated April 8, 181.5, which .showed that he was much displea.sed with Polk for dis- cardin'^ Blair. He says, " The Globe is to be bought ; by what political clique, and to sub- serve what interest 1 Is the renegade politician ******* to have an interest ? Who would trust him in politics or for money V 8ome say the seven stars meant General Simon Cameron of the Senate ; others strangely affirm that it was intended for Thomas Ritchie ! One thino- is certain. All other prints taken together, scarcely combined half the enmity and bitternesiT toward Jackson that was manifested by Ritchie and his backers through The ENauiRER, from the moment they knew that he [Jackson] intended to compete with the d)rnasty of Virginia for the imperial purple. [See Burr's letter, No. 296, page 259.] In December, 1818, Jackson was violently attacked in the Enquirer as having set the U. S. government at defiance in the last war, and insulted it. " I do not intend to follow him through the war he conducted against the Creeks in 1813-14. I mention the bloody massacre of Talapooze, only to express my grief for it ; shame and abhorrence. * * * The historian admits, that the general well knew they had ample reason for their desperation ; and the general himself tells the world, in his official despatch, that after the pursuit, or rather hunt (literally with fire and sword), and the carnage had con- tinued till darkness covered and concealed his miserable victims ; after he was apprised, that of their thousand warriors not half an hundred remained ; after a whole night to cool and re- flect on, the 7iext morning the hunt and slaughter ' weie resumed, and sixUen' (all that could be Ibund),'' of the enemy slain, who had coiicealed themselves under the banks' Yet I will not urge that as' a peculiar reproach against General Jackson, which I rather regard as a stain upon mv country. History will record that his blood\' deeds were received by his countrymen with general applause, while the clemency of colonel Pearson was regarded with contempt and re- sentment. Truly, sir, American avarice of Indian lands is equal to Spanish avarice of Indian gold." Ritchie next reminds Jackson that he had got a grant from these poor crushed Creeks ; that he (Ritchie) was sorry to say that which might aftcct his [Jackson's] private character, but that the transaction was such a one as the U. S. Senate had absolutel}' refused to sanction. He accuses Jackson of wanton tyranny at New Orleans in proclaiming martial law ; adding, that " The ready resort to violent measures in all situations of difficulty is generally the result of weakness of 'understanding and wickedness of heart combined." That jfackson " rests his defence upon the tyrant's plea, necessity" — but that, " During the arduous struggle of the re- " volution, martial law was never once proclaimed. Amidst the distraction of a civil war, " when refugees and tories were embodied in the service of the enemy, and their friends and " kindred dispensed over the country. General Washington, though for a time clothed with al- " most dictatorial powers, never proclaimed martial law. When General Green was flying " before Lord Cornwallis through the Carolinas, and his enemy was deriving almost as much " aid from the tories as he could obtain from the whigs of that country, he yet never proclaimed " martial law." Ritchie's journal proceeds to accuse Jack.son of continuing this extraordinary rule " during his ninety days' tyranny," when war had ceased, and of trampling on the freedom of the press, and on the institutions of his country, of insulting a judge on the bench, banishing him, ex- posing his function to contempt. " He demanded [says the Enquirer] leave to abuse and vilify the judge ! The written defence he oflered, being rejected by the court, was printed. I should smile at its sophistry, if I were not alarmed at its audacity, and disgusted at the impu- dence with which he pleads, as his protection from summary punishment, the very constitu- tion and laws he had so long and so recklessly trampled under loot ; and denies his own plea of necessity as a proper foundation for the known .settled practice of our courts of justice in cases of contempt. He was fined a thousand dollars. In the course of the hearing he inter- rupted, insulted and browbeat the judge on the judgment-seat." The ENauiREii goes on to describe the deaths of Arbuthnot and Ambri.stcr as wanton, cruel, unmanly murders. " Thus, .sir, has an American officer [Jackson] destroyed the lives of two of his fellow-creatures, without any rightful power, without any adequate motive, and with such indecent precipi- tancy as hardly to give lime for prayer in the interval between judgment and death. Human- ity bleeds at the recital ; and national pride sinks in the American heart, oppressed with the load of shame and griet'. He has abrogated the known laws of nations, and promulgated a new code of his own, conceived in madnesri or folly and written in blood; he has, in fine, violated all laws human and divine, and violated them with impunity." POLK, JOHNSON- AND MAODUFFIE AGAINST CHEAP POSTAGE. 301 i=IiSlSSra%S;L^£SgHw °"7:f'^mf TMs ?s he ndependent patriot who wouia not be the hanger-on of power him powerfully. The Tribune states, on personal knowledge, that lexas lanas, scrip, o«,. are exercising a powerful influence ove r the press. THE POSTAGE LAW, ^, ,. e r r. i.r.r^^ nf thp o-reatand I trust, enduring improvements of the age. Though no perfection IS ^f f f J^^|^f,J;^f^?' ostma-^ter-geneFal, whose narrow mind or President Polk has g ven us ^^^^ Jomison K Of his administration I can say ijuerest in slavery made 1^"^ OPP^^^ ^^^f^ metiatttoea;e no adequate checks in his depart- but little. Those who ought to ^^^^ J' ^^^j ^^^^^ f JJch f When this excellent measure was at ^fl^^- /' ^11" CoWl SuSlo^s'^., pale anVi^ Tad health, rose to oppose it, because Its third reading, V°^°^*^\t^ . ."Ifr, fnd President Polk sings the same song in his roes- it would be a burthen on he treasury and President roiK^n ^ ^^.j_ sa^. He would " limit its expendituie to ^^^^^^^^^ of 7he skve-owners, and to risk war lions to drive the ^^^^^ ''^Z'^^^ve'^en^^^^ millions of revenue for armies, with Mexico, &c., by the Texas move , waei i ^ ^^^^^ Johnson navies, and the apparatus of ^^■«'^' ^"/"Pf "„;^' JJi^^nc^fo^ all as well worthy a small and and James K. ^-'^^^^f^^^^^^^ffi, to"ii^^neT£Lce 1 Is not knowledge power 1 temporary protection as lh^.othe^^^^^ JJ'.J ^ great means of increasing knowledge 1 The And is not cheap postage '^letters and papers a re^i^^^^^ cost of northern postage is almost '^o'^^^^'^.J. ^ P^^^^^^^^ slave-holding families. Our in the south, where tew receive ^'^.f^'^^^IS^'e^-Xnio^^^^^^ law, o^ the heads of depart- postmaster here has ^^^"f^^i^re "v plaira^^^ ^as an arm'y of auxiliaries, ^hy ments at Washington. His duties are \ er) pi , ^ ^ ^ for ^^ „ ^i i and be should a man at Richmond, Cmcinnati Buflalo or ^^e eaer ge eonvenience to the obliged to paj^hereysUiisum^^^^^^^^ post-office 1 Why tax the ^.'^^''^^^^^^^ j„to an officer's well-filled wallet 1 McDuffie to put an enormous ™isite^^^^^^^^ ,,ith strongly-marked SSSllJSe'ffS^orL^ -^^^ '^ '' '''-' '-''''' ''' perspicuous.^ Morris's income mus exceed Sl^^OOa-^^^^ That is a mistake. When in- ^Silas Wright is erroneously termed an anti-sla.en man^^^ Vennont, he wrote in his an- vited in the summer ot 1837 to a public ^^^^f//' "f "[^e "dUt^^ the age of twenty, for ?-J'^^irS l'v.Vl^i:Lt S^& l^i'^^Jr HilD-that van Bnre/Wa. 302 WRIGHT, VAN BUREN, AND THKIR 1^5^ PIP. RUB. SOD. the rignt-Rvm of Tompkins, last war, when he sustained the Union; that " those fanatics (the abolitionists) are already attempting to agitate the pitblic mind as to the e\nl of slavery in the abstract," although '■ they knew well that any attempt to abolish slavery in the district of Co- lumbia, while it exists in the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia, cannot have the effect to give freedom to a single slave, but would compel their transfer to new masters in the slave states." Wright is opposed to the one tenii principle for the presidency. He wrote to Ohio, Dec. 1842, that " the political fate of her [N. Y.] vice-presidents has been satisfactory to her republicans, because they were permitted to serve out the time anticipated by their friends. . . Not so Aiath the Presidents, they have been permitted to present. He [V. B.J served but one term," &c. Wright voted for the Ashburton treaty; and at Herkimer in 1828, pre- pared the resolve for Throop's nomination. He went Jackson as a sad necessity. The harsh correspondence in 1819 between Scott and Jackson is not forgotten. On the 4th of July anni- versary dinner in 1820, at Albany, Van Buren presided, and one of the regular toasts was — " Major-Generals Peter B. Porter and Winfield Scott — they were among the first, and the last, and the best in the field." Jackson's services were not even noticed, nor his name mentioned, not even as a volunteer. Just eight years later, Van Buren was intriguing for Jackson all over the Union. Here is a .specimen : Mr. Van Buren to C. A. Wickliffe. " New York, July 8, 1828. " My Dear Sir, — I have received yours at this place, and thank you for it. You may as- sure your friends in Kentucky-, that the vote of this state will be stronger for General Jackson than his most sanguine friends anticipated. Of three-fotirths t/icre is tiot the slightest doubt. I care not who you show this letter to, but keep me out of the newspapers. In haste, your friend, M. Van Buren." The same to T. P. Moore. Same date. — " Our friends abroad may calculate vntk absolute certainty on at least three-fourths of the votes of this .state. There is 7W d&ubtofit. Nothing short of the death of our candidate can, I think, prevent it. If Barrj- [W. T.J .succeeds in your state, the administration will find it extremely difficult to keep their troops in the field in this. ... M. Van Bcren." I find Thomas P. Moore amongst the Polk appointments of last month — as Indian Agent on the Upper Missouri. The above letters to him and Wickliffe, were intended to operate on the election of the Governor of Kentucky. When President, Van Buren, after making a show of unwillingness, ratified the Seneca Indian Treaty, illegally, for he knew that two-lbirdf? of the Senate had not voted for it. The way in which the Indians are treated renders it any- thing but surprising that they should thirst far vengeance. Van Buren visited Tammany Hall in March la.st. M. V. B. at Tammany Hall ! Mike Walsh in prison ! ! and Butler, Price, Swartwout, Hoyt, Dabney, Greene, Levis, Boj'd and Hawkins, not in prison ! ! ! Is this arrangement IFright? COMMON AND CHANCERY LAW— VAN BUREN ON THE CONVENTION. It was with reason that Lord Coke exclaimed, " Miserable, miserable, is the slavery of that people among whom the law is either imsettled or unknown !" And that it is un.settled in America, any one who has looked at the conflicting decisions of our courts will readily acknowledge. We cling to the feudal jurisprudence of England, and refuse to reduce the rules by which men are to be guided in society to scientific arrangements, with gocxi laws, and the examples beside the precept. We speak of giving thirty millions for a steam navv — much better would it be for us to call togetheV from all parts of the Union, aye, of the earth, men famed for their learning of law, and ask them to solve the questions, Whether it is possible for youths to become acquainted with law enough to entitle them to plead for their neighbors, without requiring a lil)rary of thousands of volumes, filled with the conflicting decisions of' jurists, the statutes, ordinances, and real or supposed usages of the old world and the new 1 Whether it is impossible to obtain for the magistracy of this republic, a clear, conci.se. popular, vet upright code, which its ^.'iOO judges and justices might comprehend and apply in lieu of the COMMON law of England, much of which, according to a learned recorder of IS^cw York (who has since exchanged the duty of charging juries for that of discharging mail-bags), is unknown, never having been either written or printed 1 A my.sterious prescription livthe facultv of medicine, said to be in daily use, is: "R. — Pulv. Pip. Riib. ; Hyd. Chlor. SckI. ; 'Acid. Acet'. ; Mel. Desp. ; Aqu. Fluv., M. Ft. Garg. sig. ; Sum. p. r. n." Even this " pip. rub. sod." is not so metaphysical as our anglo-democratic law, for Drs. Mott or R.Nelson could tell that it is an advice to "take red pepper, salt, vinegar, honey, and water, mix and jnake into a gargle," often useful enough in fevers and .sore throat; but in common law, even the learned professors t-annot agree either as to the mode-s or remedies of procedure to get the good of them. Cliiiioii vai.ily recommended a legal code in 1H*25, to a buckiail lei;islature; I'roiigliam, Romilly, Beruham and Mackintosh are amongthe advocates of a sy.stem or code of rules founded on a natural arrangement of those actions which are the subjects of legislation. Major Green, of the Boston Post, truly remarks, that COMMON AND CHANCERY LAW REFORM. 303 " A citizen may study the Revised Statutes and all the state laws till he can repeat every section, and yet he laiows nothing of the offences tor which he may be tried and punished, un- til he finds out what the laws of England are, and what the judges may think proper to apply to any case, when they can find no ready made law at home. Even the progress of civilisa- tion and common sense in England is not allowed to be applicable to our condition here. An absurd, barliarous. tyrannical law, which may have been repealed and driven from the com- munity in Great Britain, as unjust even in a monarchy, is nevertheless good enough law for the free citizens of the United States!" The wretched condition of the common law, in force here, was clearly shown not many months since in the case of O'Connell and others. They were tried in the principal common law court of Ireland for a penal oftence, kept three months in the penitentiary, pronounced to be criminals by the learned judges and crown lawyers ; and then their prison doors were open- ed; they were entreated to accept of freedom ; the twelve judges of England, with one accord, and on oath, had declared that that part of O'Connell's indictment which the whole of the Irish judges had pronoimced to be good, at common law, was bad, and no law at all ; and that O'Connell and his companions were held in unlawful durance. So also said the House of Lords; Lord Chief Justice Denman declaring that the trial was a " mockery, a delusion, and a snare." I felt the force of his reasoning, for I was twelve months confined as unlawfully at Rochester as O'Connell was at Kilmainham — but for the poor there is but little justice any- where. So expensive is an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, that my friends found it impossible to raise the money. When a railroad is laid out we try to make it as straight and level as possible. Should not our law-road be straight also 1 Lawyers are men of as warm, generous, and kindly feelings as others — they are equally honorable — but if society shall continue to honor legal talent where it snatches a villain of the deepest dye from merited pimishment — if Governors and Judges shall continue to act under an imperfect system — if the art of the Attorney must be learnt, with all its technicalities and barbarous " pip. rub. sod. " pedantrj', by the American scientific pleader — if the student must set up shop, buy an expensive library, and if he then, in nine cases out of ten, finds it impossible to exist as an honest, expounder of royal law, is it wonderful that, Butler like, he joins some stock-jobber to jockey the people through a sham bank ; or Hoyt like, cringes to power till he can perch himself in a collector's office, there to embezzle wholesale, and fee a legal regiment for defence, out of the plunder 1 Governor Wright in his message last January, told the Legislature that " the fewest and simplest laws consistent with the security of the great objects to be attained, and the lightest burthens which their enforcement will permit, must be the best and wisest execution of the trust " they had accepted. Look at their debates and proceedings for the result, and say if a remedy is not required 1 The merchant, farmer, landlord, tenant, tradesman, mechanic — all sufi'er in tiu-n, and often very severely, by our defective law system. Governor Wright's indicator, the At- las, mocks us with its substitutes for an effectual cure. It is men learned in the law, studious, experienced, and practical, that New York must look to for a code — and if we were to pay millions for it, never did any people make a wiser purcha.se. As to the Chancery Court, I never had anything to do with it until the publication of my last book. I opposed its introduction into Upper Canada, as a member of the legislature, not because I thought the system complete without it, but becau.se I did not believe its substitution of secret examinations in lawj^ers' offices, for open ones before the world — its practice, exceed- ingly arbitrary and artificial, depending on rules made by its administrators, and upon no general principle of law — its questionable barriers as to what cases are doubtful, obscure, and therefore fit for equity coiu'ts — its control over money, property, everything, with chancery judges exported from London, not for their fitness, but in payment of debts political, would be an improvement. Here, Verplanck, and other enquiring minds, have .sought to give an ade- quate remedy for constituted abuses, but have failed — and the danger is, that some" quack will. Van Buren like, prescribe a nostrum even worse than the charlatanrie that now obtains. What is wanted is a code of law, a system whereby one judge, presiding in one court, can do all — with rules of practice, not of his dictation, but framed and adapted for his guidance by the community. Common LaAV is built on old precedents — equity also professes to be guided by what has been done. If the one can be codified, why may it not include the other 1 If our laws are scientifically arranged and equitable, why have other conflicting jurisdictions w'ith unconfined powers 1 If they are loose and confused, are not life and property thereby endan- gered 1 " Equity, as a separate system," says Verplanck, " can hardly be said to have worked well anywhere. Its uncertainty, its immense powers, and still more, its delays and expenses, have always been a subject of public complaint. Its mode of taking testimony has been pronounced by high professional authority to be the very worst ever devised ; dilatory, expensive, and opening a door to the gi'ossest perjury, and the vilest frauds. Its advantages are, that its powers are great and undefined — its process strict and starching. So, too, are those of an ar- bitrary judge in a half- civilized country, a iMandarin or a Cadi." 304 FRANKLIN, HANCOCK, GUSHING AND PRIVATE LETTERS. Hoyt has a.^tonished this community by swearing that the letters published in my former pamphlet are genuine, and asking the profits of publication. With profits I had nothing to do. There have been appeals, bills, demurrers, injunctions, hearings, and decisions. I cared for one thing only ; and that was to get the facts before the people. Were their attention well di- rected to the Court of Chancery, a change for the better might take place speedily. Walworth, the Chancellor, I had seen before, when he called at my office, inquiring for his "friend Speaker Papineau — JNIcCoun I had not seen, and only heard of him in the old duel case of Eckford, Decatur, &;c., and when he took the circuit judge's place in 1831, on the equity side. I think the interference of McCoun, as far as copyright was concerned, was a violation of several im- portant provisions in the U. S. Constitution, and that his decision in the Mitchell case (Wet- more vs. Scovell) forms a curious contra.st with the course he took in mine. Being very poor, I keep on the defensive — but had I been involved in such a case twentj' years ago, the folks in Canada are my wimesses, that I would have done battle for the right most cheerfully. The permanence of this government depends on its justice, and if the manly electors of New York will but wake up to the importance of the crisis, the world may yet bless the hour in which the greatest State in the Union called together the Convention of 1846. In 1769 to 1773, private and secret letters were written by great men in Boston to official characters in London, against the people. Lieut. Gov. Oliver WTOte " that some method should be demised to take off the original incendiaries, whose writings supplied the fuel of sedition through, the Boston Gazette." Secret assassination was tried accoiflingly ; Mr. Otis, King's Advocate, a bold liberal, was attacked in his own house with bludgeons, and left for dead. Governor Hutchinson said, '■ The union of the Colonies is pretty well broke : I hope I shall never see it renewed. There must be an abridgment of Engli-sh liberties in the Colonies." Judge Oliver wrote how to harass the Americans, adding, " By such a step the game will be np with my countrymen." Such letters as these induced the king to refuse wise counsel ; Dr. Williamson, an eminent American, then in London, got hold of the letters; he gave them to Franklin, who enclosed them to Speaker Cushing, in Boston ; Samuel Adams and John Han- cock read them to the Legislature of Mass. ; they were published ; the Assembly petitioned their King to remove the slanderers ; the privy council met, and Wedderbum insulted Franklin ; his speech was published in the London papers, and says Franklin, " It was the ton -with all the ministerial folks to abuse them [the Yaiikees] and me, in every company and in every newspaper." The King, Feb. 7, 1774, ordered the Bo.ston petition to be dismissed " as ground- less, frivolous, vexatious, and scandalous;" stopt Franklin's salary as Colonial Agent ; took from him his office of Postmaster General ; and the government backed Whately in oppress- ing this man, whose memory the proudest monarch might envy, with a suit in Chancery before the McCoun of that day, to get back the letters and the profits [ ! ! ] he had made by publish- ing them. Franklin could not .stand this accumulation of persecution. " My finances (says he) are not sufficient to cope at law with the treasury here." He returned to America. In his speech before the Lords of the Pri\y Council, Wedderburn [Lord Loughborough] said ; " Nothing then will acquit Dr. Franklin of the charge of obtaining them [the secret let- ter.sj bv fraudulent or corrupt means, for the most malignant of purposes; unless he stok them from the jiorson who siok them. I hope, my lords, you will mark and l:)rand the man, for the honor of his country, of Europe, and of mankind. Private correspondence has hitherto been held sacred in the times of the greatest party rage, not only in politics, but religion. He has forfeited all respect of .societies and of men. Into what companies -will he hereafter go with an unembarrassed face, or the honest intrepidity of virtue "? Men will watch him with a jeal- ous eye ; they will hide their papers from him, and lock up their escrutoires. He will hence- forth esteem it a libel to be called a man of letters, ho7no trium likraruvi ! " — PinnldMs Mc- vimrs, vol. i, p. 319. He concluded by comparing the great philosopher and patriot of the Western world to Zanga, in Young's Revenge. " I ask, my lords, whether the revengeful temper, atr-,!>i!ted by poetic fiction only to the bloody African, is not surpa.s.sed by the coolness and apathy ni' the wily American." A bill iioiu the Assembly of tliis state was .«cnt, in 1818, to the Senate, for concurrence, which J -o posed to free those who had dealings in .small sums, from the chicanery, delays, and enorrno IS costs imposed by trading attorneys, by allowing a single justice to try ca.ses of $50 and under, whether the action was against an individual, a privileged lawyer, a company, or the officer of a court — authorizing any citizen to explain the nature of the claim or plea of any other citi/en — and annulling and putting an end to that odious monopoly of pleading and de- fence by which privileged attorneys had reaped enormous gains from a pillaged people — .so far a.s debts under S50 were concerned. This attempt to introduce practical democracy was re- garded by Van Buren with horror. lie was eloquent again.st the bill — condemned its princi- ple — wondered how justice.s, ignorant of the law, could decide cases of debt — and when h« li.'und the bill would pass, moved [see senate journal, page 187] to add to the bill the following ciatise : '• And U' it further enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any person, NOT A LICENSED AirOilNEV OR COUNSELLOR OF THE SUPREME COURT Oil COURT OF VAN BUREN AND BEACH ON LAWS AND CONVENTIONS. 305 COMMON PLEAS OP THIS STATE, or who shall not be actually engaged in the regular study of the Law, TO APPEAR AND ADVOCATE ANY CAUSE i:|=FOR AN- OTHER BEFORE A JUSTICE OF THE PEACE," Here Van Buren's party deserted him — the bill allowed those who v.anted attorneys to hire them, and it did not force the poor man, who felt he had been wrongfully prosecuted tor $5 he did not owe, to hire an attorney's apprentice to state his case for a fee of other $3, when his neighbor the machinist, carpenter, or printer, was ready to do it truly and correctly lor nothing. Van Buren's monopoly clause was voted down. Yeas, Van Buren, &c., 6. Nays, Sam. Young, &c., 18. The bill also provided that cognovits or confessions of judgment, for ^100 and under, might be taken before a single justice of the peace, whose fee should be 25 cents. (It was ^12 in U. Cana- da when I first settled tliere !) Judgments were to be a shilling, and so on. Van Buren, Van Vechten, and Young addressed the Senate against the bill ; it would injui'e the profession, ren- der law too cheap, and encourage litigation. The bill pas,sed, 18 to IL See pages 195-6 of senate journal. Among the f^ Nays on the final vote were Van Buren, Hammond, and Samuel Young. On June 12, 1819, it was proposed in Senate to allow county courts to try all cases which do not affect life ; but if it was a case involving the state prison for life, one of the judges must be a councillor of tkree years' standing. Ross said if the law3'er held the rank of councillor it was surely enough ; he would move to strike out the words " three years' standing." Young and other 9 went for that, but Van Biu-en defeated them. On 6th of April, 1819, in Senate, Hammond reported a bill to prevent lawyers from taking too much for foreclosing a mortgage, over and above printer's bill, affidavit, and conveyance recording, &c. Van Buren moved to give the attorney ^25. Lost. Young proposed $20. Carried. But the bill was got rid of. In 1821, the convention made some improvements. Now, 1846, we are on the eve of another convention. To it Croswell was not verv friendly, and Van Buren and Wright could scarce conceal their vexation when the honest democrats and Whigs coalesced in its favor. Here is Van Buren's letter, addressed to Peter Cagger, A» bany: "Lindenwald, May 19, 1845. Dear Sir: ***** I had, however, allowed myself to hope that these amendments, and especially that which would make the State secure against the abuses of the power to bor- row money, from which it has itself so severely suffered, and by which so many of its sister States have been overwhelmed, might, by perseverance, be obtained in the mode provided by the constitution, before any mate- rial inroad was made upon the cherished, and as it was supposed, well established policy of the State in regard to its finances and public works. For that reason, and on account of what I believed to be a well- groimded apprehension of the bad ellects that might result from the disturbed condition of portions of the public mind, upon points not heretofore involved in the political issues upon which parties have divided, I have been very decidedly in favor of a postponement of the Convention movement, and that preference has been unre- servedly expressed to the few who did me the honor to ask my opinion upon the subject. " Whether I would have retained and acted upon that preference if I had been a member of the Legislature and witnessed the passage through both its branches of a bill, which would, if it had become a law, have caused so sudden and so injurious a revolution in what was hoped to be the established policy of the State, upoB a point of prominent importance, is very doubtful. As matters stand, my advice to the meeting and to the Democracy of the State, is to bury their past divisions, and to do all in their power to carry tlio great measure of a Convention to a successful and safe result, by united counsels, and vigorous, but temperate and di.^creet efforts. I am, dear sir, very respectfully and truly yours. M. VAN BUREN." Look at the conduct of the legislature, at its language, at the opinions of members touching the public press and each other — and say, Is it a supervising eye placed on an eminence, and seeing all around 1 Is it a mill for grinding good laws, if .sparely fed with complaints and memorials 1 Or is it the tumult of contending factions, silencing the more patriotic 1 Say which ; and then ask }'ourselves, whether, if laws devised, examined and improved by the best legal talent in N. Y. state, need revision, how much more tho.se laws Avhich were never laid before any legislature, and which are only the opinions of judges dependent on arbitrary kings during the dark ages of English history 1 " Our laws and decisions (said John C. Spencer, in the Assembly of N. Y., Jan. 6, 1820) are numerous and complicated, and it neces.'-arily de- volves upon the judges to expound them ; and if the gentleman dislikes the laws, and the mode of expounding them, he might adopt the recommendation of the late Governor Plumer, of New Hampshire, and propose to have the whole British common law reduced to a code. Let the gentleman from Delaware [General Root] devote himself to the subject, and reduce the whole of our multifarious laws and numerous decisions into a code at once, and render them clear and consistent." In his notes on De Tocqueville Mr. S. takes another view. MOSES Y. BEACH ON TEXAS. INFLUENCE OF THE SUN. The Sun, a penny paper of considerable influence and large circulation in New York, was commenced, as Mr. Beach slates, " on the 3d of Sept. 1833, in a small back room in an ob- scure part of William street," with an edition of 500, and of the size of a sheet of letter pa- per ; " the entire strength of the establishment, intellectual, physical, and mechanical, consisted of one man and one boy." The sale paid expenses, and left profit enough to buy them a sup- B 306 M. Y. BEACH ON POLK, CALHOUN, HOUSTON, MARCY AND TEXAS. per. The present owner, M. Y. Beach, states, that he served his apprenticeship to a cabinet- maker in Hartlbrd ; worlied long and hard, late and early ; and now owns three banks and his newspaper. 1 was his neighbor in 1838, and noted that he looked carefully after his busi- ness. At that time, as now, the paper professed decorum of language and independence of party. Mr. Beach is not much of a writer himself, ^:^ but he employs those editors, and those only, who will faithfully express sentiments in unison with hisown.^H In 183G he had the genuine American feelings of the honest and faitlii'ul class whose patronage has raised him to wealth, and who were delighted, no doubt, at the independent, republican tone of liis cheap and useful sheet. He took a bold stand then against Texas with slavery, and censured with great severity the attempts of Polk, Calhoun, Houston, Jackson, and McDuffie, to crush free- dom in the north, by extending the curse of slavery to the .south, in violation of treaties, not made with a powerful monarchy, but a weak, confiding sister republic. I add (to Mr. Beach's honor be it said) his commentary on Samuel Houston's letter to Dunlap at Nashville, asking aid to dismember Mexico. [From the New York Sun, by Moses Y. Beach, 1836.] " In the earlier days of our repulilic, when a high-minded and honorable tidelity to its constitution was an object paramount to every mercenary consideration that might contravene it, an avowed design of this kind against the possessions of a nation with whom the United States were at peace, would have subjected its au- thor, if a citizen, to the charge of high treason, and to its consequences. When Aaron Burr and his associates were supposed to meditate tihe conciuest of Mexico, and attempted to raise troops in the southern states to achieve it, they were arrested for treason, and Burr, their chief, was tried for his life. But now, behold ! the conquest of a part of the same country is an object openly proclaimed, not in the letters of General Houston alone, but by many of our wealthiest citizens at public banquets, and by the hireling presses in the chief cities of our Union. The annexation of a foreign territory to our own by foreign conquest, being thus unblushingly avowed, and our citizens who are integral portions of our national sovereignty being openly invited and incited to join the crusade with weapons of war, it becomes au interesting moral inquiry — what is there in the public mind to excuse or even to palliate so flagrant a prostitution of national faith and honor in these days, any more than in the days that are past 1 The answer is ready at hand, and is irrefutable. An extensive and well organized gang of swindlers in Te.xas lands, have raised the cry and the standard of ' Liberty !' and to the tluilling charm of this glorious word, which stirs the blood of a free people as the blast of a bugle arouses every nerve of the war-horse, have the generous feelings of our citizens responded in ardent delusion. But, as the Conunercial Advertiser truly declares, ' Never was the Goddess of American Liberty invoked more un- righteously ;* and we cannot but believe that the natural sagacity, good sense, and proud regard for their na- tional honor, for which our citizens are distinguished in the eyes of all nations, will speedily rescue them from the otherwise degrading error In which that vile crew of mercenary, hypocritical swindlers would involve them. The artful deceivers, however, have not relied upon the generosity and noble sympathy of our fellow- citizens, for they insidiously presented a bribe to excite their cupidity also. They have not only falsely repre- sented the Texian cause as one of pure, disinterested liberty and justice, as opjKised to perfidious tyranny and cruel oppression, but they have themselves assumed something more than the liberty which they basely and hypocritically advocate, by impudently promising a fertile paradisaical piece of Texian land, a mile square, to every American citizen and foreign emigrant who will sally forth to capture it from the Me.\ican republic ! l;l- duced by one or both of these objects, many hundreds of our enterprising citizens let! their own ample and unobjectionable country to unite with Irish, English, and other foreign adventurers in a war, from the fullest success of wlilch only some six or eight Land Companies, who have fraudulently and audaciously monopo- lized the Texian territory, would gain an important benefit. And to this shrine of ostensible liberty have many hundreds of our gallant youth been treacherously sacri ficed — sacrificed by a mercenary treachery, compared to which that exercised by Santa Anna, in defence of the Republic of which he was President, was innocence and patriotism. The oliject of the colonizing land agents of the South was to make this prolific province their own, and the field of a new and lucrative negro slavery. To this they still tenaciously adhere ; and if they can induce a strong force of our American youth to shed their blood for the unjust and avaricious cause of slavery, under the name of Texian liberty and indei)endence, they will undoubtedly secure their object. We doubt not the ability of our gallant countrymen to exterminate any ninuber of Mexicans that can be brought against them ; but in nghting for the union of Texas with the United .Stjites, which is the avowed meaning of ' Texian Indei)endence,' thty will be fighting for that which at vo distant period will inevitably dissolve the Union. The slave states, having this eligible addition to their land of bondaire, with ils harbors, bays, and well bounded geographical position, will ere long cut asunder the federal tie which they have long held with ungracious and unfraternnl fingers, and confederate a new and distinct slaveholding republic, in opposition to the whole free republic of the North. Thus early will Iw fulfilled the predictions of the old iwliticians of Europe, that onr Union would not remain a century — and then also will the maxim be exeniplified in our history, as it is in the history of tiie slaveholding republics of old, that liberty and slavery cannot long inhabit the same soil." It is creditable to Beach that he is wealthy, the owner of three banks and a powerful jour- nal. But, I a.sk him to explain, why Thk Sun of 181G claims to be the originator of that dis- graceful act which it denounced in ]83(), as the object of that vile crew of "mercenary, hyp> critical swindlers," traitors to their country, bent upon dismembering the republic ] Mordecai M. Noah, who is hired as principal editor of the Sun, by Beach, now, was in 183(5, (as editor of the Star,^ for Texas and slavery: he has not changed, but why i.s Beach, the independent mechanic, Ix-come the confederate of those M'ho drive a detestable tralllc in the .south, and seek tij add us northerns to their plantations of liondsmen 7 Why is the Beach ^vho once saw a dissoluti(m of the Union in Texan annexation, now ready to grn.sp at all Mexico? Why is it thought essential now (June Ilth) t and Blht, editors and projirietors of the State paper. Then came John Van Buren, ilie son of the President of the United States. Sh-as Wrigut, Jr., a Senator in Congress, tiirough whose iniliience the deposites were placed within the reach of 'speculators,' was a .stockholder in the monopolizing American Land Company. And yet these very men filled the country with their croakings again.st ' speculation.' " Now is the time for its hi.story. Who will detail it 1 Wright, Butler, and Van Buren had tlieir custom house olficers, to collect the taxes at the custom houses — their banks in which to deposit the casli, charging no intcn-st — they and their friends were the directors, and they bor- rowed out the people's millions at New York, Philadelphia, and Bo.ston, bought immense tracts of ihc most valuable of the peojile's lands with their own money, at the very lowest price — and sold tiiem back to actual setters at five, ten, fifteen, and even twenty times what they had cost. This was Van Burenism in 183G, and it is unchanged. % LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 009 937 802 5