400 
 
 CG 
 v.l-8 
 

 THE 
 
 mm TRACTS. 
 
 CONSISTING OP 
 
 Page. 
 
 No. I. THE TEST, OR PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS 1 
 
 " II. THE CURRENCY 17 
 
 " III. THE TARIFF.. 33 
 
 " IV. LIFE OF HENRY CLAY 49 
 
 " V. POLITICAL ABOLITION - 65 
 
 " VI. DEMOCRACY 81 
 
 " VII. LABOR AND CAPITAL - 97 
 
 " VIII. THE PUBLIC LANDS.. - 113 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY GREELEY & McELRATH, 
 
 TRIBUNE BUILDINGS, 160, NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1844. 
 Price, 25 cents single, or $16 per 100. 
 
 [Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by CALVIN COLTON, in the Clerk s office of 
 the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York.] 
 
 IP" ALL violations of copyright are forbidden. 
 
Look at the BOTTOM for paging of the SERIES. 
 
 vM- 
 
 ID" The following is an extract from a CIRCULAR published in 1843 : 
 
 New York, July, 1843. 
 SIR: 
 
 The New York Whig Trad Committee, organized to promote the dissemination of suit 
 able Tracts icr the next Presidential Campaign, respectfully solicit your personal co-opera 
 tion. The committee are induced to believe, that a general, united, well sustained, syste 
 matic, and seasonable ellbrt of this kind, will be of great importance to the Whig cause. 
 
 With the great Statesman of the West as our leader, and with the principles he holds 
 in common with the Whig party inscribed on our banner, we may confidently expect to find 
 the people of the country with us in 1844, as they were in 1840. It only requires that we 
 be faithful and prompt in setting before fliem the /ads and reasons that should govern us all. 
 
 The Committee herewith send a specimen or two of a series of Tracts by " JUNIUS," 
 author of "the, Crisis of the Country" in 1840, and take leave to urge upon yourself and 
 your political associates, a prompt adoption of measures to obtain and circulate them among 
 the people of your neighborhood, parish, town, and county. The Committee would sug 
 gest the expediency of forming Sub-committees, and establishing Depots, as centres of infor 
 mation and organs of distribution, where Tracts and other publications can always be had. 
 The Tracts by " Junius," which the Committee especially recommend, can be had in any 
 quantity, by orders, with remittances, direct on GREELEY & MCELRATH, Tribune Office, 
 New York. 
 
 To reap, we must sow. 
 
 Inbehalf of the New York Whig Tract Committee, very respectfully your obedient servants, 
 
 HAMILTON FISH, Chairman. 
 A. W. BRADFORD, Secretary. 
 
 ID" The following is part of a CIRCULAR, from the same Committee in 1844 : 
 
 New York, January, 1844. 
 
 The New York Whig Tract ^Committee would respectfully suggest to their fellow 
 laborers in the Whig cause, whether it would not be well to undertake, by a systematic 
 effort, to put the TRACTS of Junius, or such of them as are best fitted for particular locali 
 ties, into the hands of every voter ivho may be willing to read them. The expense is so small 
 that most people would buy them, if they had a chance, and a part of the funds raised for 
 the cause, might be well applied for gratuitous distribution among those who only require 
 information to be induced to vote the Whig Ticket. If the various Whig organizations of 
 the States, counties, and towns, would establish Depots, have an adequate supply of the Tracts 
 constantly on hand, and take pains to accomplish the ends suggested, it is believed, that 
 much the largest part of the expense would be defrayed by an actual sale to those who 
 would be glad to purchase them. In this way, it would not only be practicable, but easy, 
 to send these Tracts to every Log Cabin in the land. 
 
 HAMILTON FISH, Chairman. 
 
 A. W. BRADFORD, Secretary. 
 
 10* It is respectfully suggested, that Whig booksellers, and other merchants, throughout 
 the Union, might do much for the dissemination of these documents, by keeping them on 
 hand for sale. 
 
THE 
 
 JUIIUS TRACTS. 
 No. I. 
 
 Ui 
 
 MARCH.] PUBLISHED EVERY SECOND MONTH. f!843* 
 
 THE TEST; 
 
 OR, 
 
 PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS, 
 
 BY JUNIUS. 
 
 Author of "THE CRISIS OF THE COUNTRY," and other Tracts, of 1840. 
 
 Price, 3 cents single, $2 50 cts. per 100, or $20 per 1000. 
 
 TRACTS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 
 No. I. THE TEST, OR PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS. 
 II. THE CURRENCY. 
 III. THE TARIFF. 
 IV. LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 V. POLITICAL ABOLITION. 
 
 07" NOTICE: Committees, Clubs, and all persons desirous of obtaining these 
 Tracts, are requested to send their orders, with remittances, to the publishers, Greeley 
 $ McElrath, Tribune Office, New York, who will promptly forward them to any part of the 
 Union, as may be directed. Remittances by mail, post paid or free, at the risk of the propri 
 etor. Price for any one of the series, $2 50 cts. per 100 copies, or $20 per 1000. 
 H7" Postmasters are authorized by law to make remittances under their frank. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY GREELEY & McELRATH, 
 
 TRIBUNE BUILDINGS, 160 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1844. 
 
 (Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by M. McMichael, in the Clerk s office of 
 the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.] 
 
 10" EXTRACTS in Newspapers, for purpose of review, are allowed, but the republication of this 
 
 Tract is forbidden. 
 
 [One Sheet Periodical, Postage under 100 miles 1 cents ; over 100 miles 2J.] 
 1 
 
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH (WHIG) CONGRESS. 
 
 Its position. 
 
 IT was a singular one in history perfectly so in the annals of this country. The 
 Government had been for a long- time in the hands of their political opponents, till 
 a once prosperous nation had been reduced to an extremity of misfortune, and rose 
 at last to demand a change in public policy. With a majority unparalleled, the 
 Whigs came into power, and a suffering people looked to them for relief. It was 
 fair They should, for it had been promised, though the expectations of immediate 
 result were doubtless unreasonable. 
 
 The first inauspicious blow. 
 
 None can deny that the death of their Chieftain was an astounding event. It 
 was striking the sun from the political heaven. 
 
 The second blow. 
 
 The constitutional successor was little known, altogether untried, and was never 
 expected to be called to that place. Diffidence towards him was the first state of 
 feeling ; concern the next ; which ended in utter and hopeless disappointment. All 
 know how that turned out ; and we need not dwell on the painful history. 
 
 An unforeseen result. 
 
 In the constitution of our Government, the Executive occupies a commanding 
 position in relation to the other branches. It seems never to have been anticipated, 
 that he could be opposed to the legislature appointed by the same constituency, 
 nor would such an event occur, if good faith in these high relations could at all 
 times be relied on. It is manifest, however, that an Executive, not acting in har 
 mony with the legislative branch of the Government, but opposing it, is a derange 
 ment of the machinery as to its intended operation. His power is sufficient to 
 paralyze legislation, and to nullify any system of policy aimed to be established by 
 legislative functions. 
 
 A thing to be considered. 
 
 Since it has been discovered, that the second on the Presidential ticket of 1840, 
 who succeeded as principal by the death of the Chief, is not the man he was taken 
 for, but utterly opposed to the great and leading principles of the party that raised 
 him to power if he has any principles at all it must be considered,,, that the 
 legislative branch of the Government, the majority of whom were true to those 
 principles, were rendered powerless as to that system of policy that was designed 
 to be established by the political revolution of 1840. 
 
 The question to be tried. 
 
 It will follow, therefore, that the 27th Congress cannot fairly be put on trial for 
 not having done impossibilities, but only for what they could do and have done, under 
 the peculiar circumstances in which they were placed, to redeem the pledges by 
 which they were bound. 
 
 The difficulties of the Whig Congress. 
 
 In the grave of General Harrison was buried the Whig administration. Could 
 any one expect, that the effects of many years misrule could be repaired in thirty 
 days 1 There was not time to begin to do it, before the adverse winds of Executive 
 power were blowing strong against the tide of reform. Treason was hatched, and 
 began to peep and strut abroad, before the successor of the Fallen had been in his 
 seat ten days. 
 
 Another difficulty. 
 
 The expectations of the nation were great, and the people demanded relief 
 epeedily, earlier than in any case it could possibly be obtained. A country which 
 for an eighth of a century had been operated upon by causes of ruin, till it was 
 prostrate, could not be raised again suddenly. 
 
 Another. 
 
 Nor was it possible for Congress alone to do the work, against a plotting, sub- 
 
 2 
 
3 
 
 verting, thwarting, and opposing Executive. They were paralyzed, and their 
 power of restoring public prosperity was stricken down. Even their investigating 
 committees, whose functions were designed to ferret out corruption, were met at 
 the threshold of their undertaking by the agents and abettors of corruption, who 
 held in their hands the keys of the knowledge that was sought for, and whom tho 
 Executive still retained in their places, thus refusing to furnish the necessary 
 facilities of reform. Deep and large as the fountains of corruption that have been 
 laid open, are, it is believed that most of them, by this cause, yet lie concealed. 
 
 The difficulties encountered on the currency question. 
 
 All know that this was the question on which the country had been wrecked . 
 that it was the great question. And all know with what patience, self-torture, and 
 self-immolation, the Whigs of the 27th Congress waded through the Extra Ses 
 sion, struggling with ceaseless though useless endeavour, to save the party and the 
 country from such unexampled perfidy. Giving up half, or more than half, and 
 trying in every possible way to surmount the doom that was cast in their face, 
 once, twice, were their large concessions baffled by the arbitrary interposition of 
 the veto power. What they could, they attempted ; what they could, they did. 
 " Who does the best his circumstance allows, 
 Does well, acts nobly, angels could no more." 
 
 The Exchequer. 
 
 And why did not the Whigs of the 27th Congress adopt that 1 ? Can it have 
 been forgotten, with what argument and eloquence the vices and tendencies of the 
 Subtreasury, political and other, were denounced by the Wliigs in the campaign 
 of 1840, and how their reasons prevailed with the people ] Is it not in equally 
 vivid remembrance, that the Subtreasury was repealed by popular demand and 
 acclamation, as conceded by its friends and advocates ] But the Whigs believe, 
 and have demonstrated, in the report of the Committee of Ways and Means, con 
 temporaneous with the vote of 193 to 18, which sealed the doom of the Exchequer- 
 m that document they have demonstrated, that it has all the vices of the Subtreasury, 
 and many more to boot; that it is the most hideous government bank scheme that 
 could well be conceived ; that, if carried into effect, it would enhance Executive 
 power to an extent hazardous to liberty ; and that, in the hands of an unprincipled, 
 aspiring Executive, of strong and influential character, it might be seized upon for 
 the overthrow of all liberty, and for the establishment of despotism. It is futile to 
 rely on the power of repeal, when the whole history of our Government shows, that 
 the Executive will can defeat any movement in the form of legislation. The people 
 cannot contend against this " fixed Constitutional fact," except by a revolution ; 
 and the only safe way is to keep out of its power. 
 
 The Whigs, with good reason and sound argument, had denounced the Subtrea 
 sury as a Government Bank in embryo, while it was in the process of incubation, 
 and opposed it as such when it was hatched, and because it was such because, 
 confessedly, it provided a good currency for office-holders, but for them only, and 
 left a bad currency for the people. How, then, could they, in the face of such facts, 
 and in fealty to the principles avowed by them in 1840 principles so often and so 
 widely promulged, and still maintained how could they adopt the same institu 
 tion identically the same, except that it was presented in a perfect stage of matu 
 rity, and therefore in its most objectionable form ! 
 
 But what is a Government Bank 1 
 
 It is Government stepping aside from its appropriate functions, and setting up in 
 trade ; for banking is nothing more or less than trading in money. It is, so far, 
 laying aside the proper uses of Government, and usurping the rights of citizens 
 commercial rights. A Government managing banking concerns, is a Commercial 
 Factory. No Government ever went into trade, in money or any thing else, with 
 out injury to the rights of citizens ; or with gain to itself, except in the augmenta 
 tion of its power, which is always its object. It is sure to sacrifice the commercial 
 capital invested. 
 
 The insurmountable objection. 
 
 It is a very important point of difference, that a Government Bank has no Master 
 
because it is a part of Government, and an arm of its power ; whereas all other 
 banks have a Master in, the Government. A national Government Bank, to answer 
 the purposes of such an institution, aims to regulate and control the currency of the 
 country, and in doing that, it that is, the Government brings within its power, to 
 deal with at pleasure, every possible commercial or trading interest of the country, 
 from that of banking in general, down to the vocation of a grinder of knives or a 
 retailer of brickdust. It would be a supreme commercial power, in the hands of the 
 supreme political power, controlled by none, but controlling all, itself master in 
 trade, and master of the authorities under which all trade is carried on. This is 
 the sort of thing which the 27th Congress rejected- spurned, as in duty bound, if 
 they would respect themselves, arid have the respect of the American people. 
 
 THE EXTRAVAGANCE AND CORRUPTION OF THE LATE ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 WE begin with Congress, where reform in Government must first begin, if it 
 besrins at all. The people will doubtless be astonished at the extra vacancies of this 
 
 people will doubtless be astonished at tne extravagancies of this 
 body for a few years past, in the administration of its own internal economy, and 
 at the corruption practised and tolerated in its own bosom. Could a body, prac 
 tising such things, and conniving at such things, be expected to institute reform for 
 other departments of the government 1 
 
 Cost of the printing, binding, engraving, and lithographing of Congress. 
 
 This is, in any case, a large item of expense. The subject had been under 
 investigation for two or three years, having been started by the Whigs while in the 
 minority, and in 1842 much information appeared in the form of Congressional 
 reports, to which we are indebted for the following results : 
 
 It was found upon investigation, that the average annual expenses, under the 
 above general head, were $261,459, and that the average annual saving under the 
 new system, proposed and recommended by the Committees, would be $132,761; 
 and consequently, that the average annual unnecessary expense, or waste in this 
 item, is equal to this saving, viz. $132,761. (See Senate Doc. No. 332, 2d Sess. 
 27th Congress.) In other words, the waste is 50 per cent, on the cost. That is 
 to say, the Government not only permitted such extravagance to grow up in its 
 own domicile, not only tolerated it for a long succession of years, but sanctioned it 
 by solemn acts of legislation, to provide for it. 
 
 Contingent expenses of Congress. 
 
 This is an atrocious item in the history of the past, and shows how little depen- 
 dance could be placed in a national legislature for general economy and purity, that 
 would be guilty of such a lack of both these useful qualities in the management of 
 their own household. 
 
 The custom of supplying members of Congress with stationery, &c., or the 
 cust tti of members voting themselves a supply out of the people s money, on a 
 rea&~"nable scale, might not be very objectionable. It would be thought mean to 
 oppose it, though when well paid, they might as well afford to provide for them 
 selves as the people do in their own case. But the extent of wasteful prodi 
 gality to which this custom at last arrived, will no doubt awaken some surprise in 
 the minds of the people who paid for it all, and whose private habits of economy in 
 such matters, are somewhat different. 
 
 For stationery used by the 25th Congress, the first under Mr. Van Buren, we 
 find such items as the following in the report of one of the Committees on retrench 
 ment (by Mr. Summers), 2d Session, 27th Congress, House Doc. No. 30 : 
 
 For 3,079 reams envelope paper, 
 " 3,610 do. quarto post, 
 " 2,316 do. foolscap, - 
 " 172 do. note, ... 
 " 493 gross of steel pens, 
 83,700 quills, 
 M making of pens, ... 
 " sealing-wax, 
 " tape, - - 
 44 106 doz. penknives, 
 
 $12,603 
 21,059 
 9,951 
 1,559 
 4,569 
 3,953 
 448 
 3,931 
 2,739 
 2,602 
 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 50 
 39 
 12 
 00 
 62 
 30 
 00 
 
 For wafers, ... 
 " ink, 15 barrels, 
 
 - $1,332 
 
 528 
 921 
 
 01 
 50 
 00 
 00 
 00 
 00 
 72 
 87 
 
 78 
 
 " seals, - - - 
 " pencils, 
 " folders, ... 
 " twine, ;, 
 " 1,197 memorandum books, 
 
 Total, - 
 
 1,080 
 562 
 615 
 312 
 
 746 
 
 . $69.514 
 
Which, divided among 242 merribers of the House, shows, that the cost for station 
 ery, for each member of the 25th Congr*ess, for a period usually about nine months, 
 was $287.25. 
 
 How much is the average annual cost to professional men, lawyers 1 , for example, 
 for the above-named articles of stationery 7 ? The writer of this Tract thinks his 
 occasions for these may perhaps be equal to those of a member of Congress, and he 
 believes they do not cost him over $2 J a year for nine months $15 which leaves 
 $272.25 for each member of the House of Representatives, in the 25th Congress, 
 unaccounted for to the people in all $65,884.78 a pretty round sum of waste for 
 one branch of the national legislature, on the above-named articles. 
 
 How many penknives did they use severally ] Divide 1C6 dozen, or 1272, by 
 242, and we have the answer thus 5 T 6 2 ^. The average price of these penknives, 
 it will be seen, was $2.04 and a fraction each, which, of course, makes a bill of a 
 little less than $12, to supply each member of the 25th Congress in penknives for 
 nine months. His sealing-wax cost somewhat over $16; his quarto post paper, $80 
 and some cents ; and so on. We leave the rest with the curious. 
 
 We suppose the excessive price of these articles results in the same way, by 
 which the Clerk of the House of Representatives of the same Congress, Mr. Gar 
 land, contracted with a favorite of the President, Editor of " The Democratic Re 
 view," to furnish stationery to the amount of $25,000, whereon the said favorite 
 cleared a profit of $7,000 to himself, over and above a fair profit in trade, as was 
 proved and reported to the 27th Congress. In this way, of course, a penknife, 
 which, in a fair market, costs $1.50, would cost the people over $2 ; and so with 
 all the other articles. But when there happen to be two intermediate agents, each 
 to make an extra profit of 33 J per cent, on the same articles, that helps to run up 
 a bill fast. It would be difficult to account for these bills, except in such ways. 
 
 It appears from Mr. Summers Report, before referred to, that the whole contin 
 gent expenses of the House of Representatives rose from $106,000, in the 18th 
 Congress, till they attained a maximum in the 25th Congress, of $595,000, increas 
 ing nearly 6 to 1 in sixteen years. 
 
 It also appears, that the contingent expenses of the Senate for the year 1838, 
 under Mr. Van Buren, were greater, by the sum of $86,000, than for 1828, under 
 Mr. J. Q. Adams ; and greater, by $24,000, than for the whole four years, under 
 Mr. Adams. A like result turns "up in comparing the contingent expenses of the 
 House for the same periods ; viz. that the aggregate, during Mr. Adams s four 
 years, was less, by $89,000, than the same item for the one year, 1838, under Mr. 
 Van Buren. (Compare No. 17, House Doc. 1st Sess. 26th Congress, with No. 39, 
 House Doc. 1st Sess. 24th Congress.) 
 
 FINANCIAL PRODIGALITIES OF THE FLORIDA WAR. 
 
 The profuse and wasteful expenditures of public money, as partially disclosed 
 under this head, and one or two others, might alone account for the startling 
 expenses of Government during the two administrations preceding the one now 
 current, as compared with our former financial history and the level of public 
 expenditures as reduced by the 27th Congress. We have room only for a few quo 
 tations from the volumes of public documents on this and other kindred topics, 
 which may serve as a clue to the rest. 
 
 Extravagant hire of steamboats and other vessels. 
 
 From the beginning of 1836 to 1841, the number of steamboats and sail craft 
 employed in the transportation service for the Florida war, was 737, for which a 
 very extravagant hire was generally paid. About fifty of these are named in House 
 Document No. 458, 2d Session 27th Congress, and their rates of hire specified, 
 We give the following as specimens : The steamboat, John Crowell, estimated to 
 be worth $15,000, was hired at $300 a day, provided for and insured, till the 
 ompensation amounted to $82,555. The Reindeer, 42 days, at $175 a day being 
 $7,351). The Georgiana, 32 days, at $200 a day $6,400. The Charleston, 10 
 months, at $4,400 a month $44,000. The Mobile was paid $11,625 for 25 days. 
 The Minerva, 73 days, at $300 a day $21,900. The Merchant, 85 days, at $450 
 a day $38,250. 
 
 Many other vessels were hired for short periods, at rates, which, on settlement, 
 
 5 
 
6 
 
 quadrupled the price at which they might have been purchased in the outset, so 
 that much money would have been savedj if they had been bought and manned, 
 and then burnt in the end. 
 
 The cost of a wagon. 
 
 Grant s concentric wheel wagon cost the Government $2,363.50, of which Mr. 
 Grant was paid $654.50 for superintending the construction of it, and $15 was 
 paid for engraving plates on the wheels, to travel in the sands of Florida. Ibid. 
 
 Cost of 206 oxen. 
 
 The purchase and delivery of 206 oxen was made to cost $12,187.20 for the 
 oxen, $9,170.00; to the agent, $1,980.00; and for expenses in the transaction, 
 $1,037.20. Ibid. 
 
 Cost of house-rent and saddles. 
 
 A house at Picolata was rented at $3,600 a year. For 30 saddles, $50 each 
 was paid. For 12 do. $87.50 each. Ibid. 
 
 At Pilatka, in 1840, when the end of the war was everyday expected, more than 
 $100,000 was expended in public buildings, on private lands, when there was 
 government land hard by. It is of course sacrificed. 
 
 Probable collusion in fraud on the public. 
 
 The foregoing items of extravagance are hastily selected from heaps of evidence 
 of the same class brought before the 27th Congress, by which it is proved, that the 
 Florida war was generally carried on, in whole and in particular, at a rate of most 
 astounding prodigality. All the public agents in these transactions, from the 
 Treasury Department at Washington, down to the last recipient of the public 
 money, were perfectly familiar with this daily round of facts, for a course of years. 
 Can it be imagined, that in any state of society, however corrupt, such extrava 
 gance and waste would be tolerated, under the eyes of so many agents, if there 
 was no collusion among them, and if they did not all profit more or less by it 7 Do 
 not these facts reasonably account for the protracted period of that war, when so 
 much money was to be made out of it by all engaged 1 
 
 Great frauds in the removal of Indians. 
 
 The removal of 16,533 Creek Indians was made to cost the Government 
 $590,448.58. It is proved pretty fairly, by the Committee on Public Expenditures, 
 that these 16,533 Indians might have been removed for $186,530, thus making 
 a clear saving, in this single transaction, honestly done, of $303,909.42 nearly two 
 thirds of the actual cost. (Doc. No. 458.) 
 
 It is proved in House Document No. 454, 2d Sess. 27th Congress, that Captain Buckner 
 was paid $37,749 fordoing nothing, after having been paid a very exorbitant price for what he did 
 do, in removing Indians; and the most remarkable part of the disclosure is, that a high public 
 functionary received $18,000 of this as a loan from Capt. Buckner, apparently for his company 
 and presence at the Treasury Department when the requisition was being made out. Whether 
 such company silenced the. scruples of the Auditor, this deponent cannot say. The evidence 
 before the Committee standeth thus: Witness (Capt. Buckner) asked "What he could do for 
 nim?" Ans. "Witness could loan him some money. Whereupon witness agreed to loan him 
 $18,000." 
 
 All these accounts were allowed at the Treasury Department ! 
 
 It is also proved that Captain Collins was entrusted with large sums of money, 
 as disbursing agent, to the aggregate -of $582,290, after he had proved himself a 
 defaulter to one-third of this amount, and that the Government lost by him in the 
 end the sum of $215,369. If settlements had been insisted on according to law, it 
 would have been impossible, in any case of the most wilful fraud, to lose more than 
 a small fraction of this amount. (See No. 453, House Doc., 2d Sess., 27th Congress.) 
 
 Remarks on these facts. 
 
 Speaking moderately, it may be presumed, from the volumes of evidence of this 
 description that have been filed by the 27th Congress, that by an honest and prudent 
 administration of these affairs, the Florida war might have been brought to a close, 
 and the Indian tribes all removed, at one half the actual cost to the country. 
 Moreover, from what has transpired, there is also a reasonable presumption that the 
 period of the Florida war might have been abridged by several years. 
 
 6 
 
Can any one suppose there was no collusion, no connivance among those who 
 had the responsibility in these great concerns, for the advantage, pecuniary or 
 political, that might accrue to them personally ] With some the profit was pecu 
 niary, with others political. 
 
 Defalcation and frauds under the Subtreasury system. 
 
 We mean the system of entrusting the public funds in the hands of individuals, 
 instead of keeping them in banks. It is not easy to collect an exact account of 
 this, but from the reports of Mr. Secretary Woodbury a reluctant witness of 
 1834, 1888, and 1889, on this subject, we obtain the following result from his 
 somewhat mystified statements, in connexion with other facts that have transpired, 
 viz : that the Government, since its foundation, had lost by banks, $857,890.85 ; 
 and by individuals, in the various forms of trust, about $15,000,000. 
 
 It is now ascertained, that the loss by individuals in Mr. Van Buren s four years, 
 as the result of his system of Subtreasury, was about $5,000,000, if we include 
 what has since been developed under the operation of that system, and through his 
 appointees ; whereas, the first Whig defalcator in public trust, for two years, is yet 
 to be found out. The annual aggregate of frauds, therefore, of Mr. Van Buren a 
 Subtreasury system, may be put down at $1,250,000. The annual aggregate of 
 like frauds by the Whigs, so far as has transpired 0. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable, that the account between the Government and the 
 United States Bank, as to loss and profit in all transactions for forty years, stands 
 thus: Loss to Government 0; profit to Government $1,100,000, for premium 
 on stocks, besides dividends, and the gratuitous functions of the bank as fiscal agent 
 of the Government for the said forty years. 
 
 A recollection. 
 
 All must remember the disclosures forced from Mr. Secretary Woodbury, under 
 the late administration, regarding the frequency, character, and great amount of 
 defalcations under the Subtreasury, and the concurrent proofs brought before the 
 public of Executive indulgence towards the offenders, in continuing them in office 
 after their defalcations were proved all for partisan, political objects. 
 
 Frauds in tJie New York Custom House. 
 
 The enormities that have been practised in this " Seat of Customs," are prodigious. The defal 
 cations of Swartwout, Hoyt, & Co. amounting to about one million and a half, seem to have veiled 
 the minor frauds. In three years, 1838, 39, and 40, George A. Wasson received $94,430.92 for 
 cartage and labor nearly half for cartage effected chiefly by charging for each package, 31^ 
 to 50 cents, which was the price for a load in that way making a load run up to jive or ten dol 
 lars, according to the number of packages. The Stationery and printing, under Mr. Hoyt, for 
 1838, 39, 40, and 1st quarter of 1841, cost $51,703.22 averaging $275.76 a year to each 
 person employed, being nearly double the average cost of stationery for each member of the 
 House of Representatives in the 25th Congress, that being $287 for 2 years. It was by allowing 
 $22 a gross for steel pens, when they could be bought for $1.50; $3.50 a peck for sand, the fair 
 price being 12J cents; $80 a ream for paper, worth $15; $12 for 1 card of Perryan pens, or 
 $1.50 for each pen; &c. &c. &c. No difficulty in making it up in that way. 
 
 The revenue collected in the first year of Jonathan Thompson, 1825, was $15,754,827 ; em 
 ployed 142 men, at a cost of $211,471 ; or at the rate of 1 34-100 per cent. The revenue col 
 lected by Mr. Hoyt, in 1840, was $7,591,760; men employed 470, at a cost of $563,829; or at 
 the rate of 7 42-100 per cent. 
 
 In addition to the Collector s Salary, Mr. Hoyt, in violation of law, as alleged by the Com 
 mittee on Public Expenditures, took to himself, in all, $29,883.36 for storage of Merchandise in 
 buildings rented on his private account, while the Government is charged $29,294.24 for salaries 
 of storekeeper, clerks, and inspectors, and for stationery, employed and used in said buildings. 
 
 Mr. Hoyt was reported to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, as a defaulter for 
 $226,295.31. But Mr. Hoyt, anticipating this, charged the Government (with his own hand, his 
 clerk refusing) $201,580, that is, 1 per cent, on $20,158,000 paid over by him to the orders of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury that is, 1 per cent, for the banking part of the Collector s functions. 
 
 In two years and four months, Mr. Butler, District Attorney, was paid by Mr. Hoyt, Collector, 
 for services, $62,690.50. Mr. Hoyt s gleanings, it would seem, were somewhat less than a quar 
 ter of a million for about three years service. (House Docs. Nos. 202 & 669, 2d Sess. 27th Cong.) 
 
 We are sorry to observe, that the present Executive has in nowise abated the extravagancies 
 of the New York Custom House. 
 
 Public buildings. 
 
 In 1836 Congress authorized the erection of a new Patent Office, the expense of which should 
 not exceed $108,000. It is now expected it will cost, when finished, between $600,000 and 
 $700,000. The Custom House at Boston was begun under a provision not to cost over $50.000. 
 
 7 
 
8 
 
 It has already cost 696.000, and -will require $156,000 more to finish it. The New York Cus 
 tom House was begun with an appropriation of $200,000, and has cost over $1,100,000. [For 
 more of the kind, see No. 460, House Doc. 2d Sess. 27th Congress.] 
 
 The Branch Mints. 
 
 These were designed, especially the one at New Orleans, to make Gold flow up the Mississippi. 
 It seems they have rather tended to make it flow out into the Sea. That at New Orleans cost 
 $554,470. The three branches cost $822,457. They were established in 1838, and previous to 
 1842 had coined $2,881,708. The Philadelphia Mint cost $209,230, and in 1836 alone coined 
 $7,764,900. The cost of coining at the branch mints has been 28 cents and 3 mills/or each dol 
 lar The cost of coining at Philadelphia 13 cents and 9 mills/or one hundred, dollars. 
 
 Items expended on the New Orleans Mint: $8,099 for 4 bath-houses, flagging yard, and paving 
 side-walk; $3,846 for paving yard; $1,700 for 7 baths and 1 water closet; $818 for finishing 
 water closets ; &c. &c. The voucher list of expenditures, numbering 272, is a curiosity espe 
 cially edifiying to those who pay for it. [House Doc. No. 462, 2d Sess. 27th Congress.] 
 
 Frauds in contracts for mail bags, Hanks, $$c. 
 
 From House Doc. No. 989, 2d Session, 27th Congress, it appears, that the cost of mail bags, 
 from 1831 to 1841, was $336,000; that Mr. Jewett, Ohio, contractor,was paid $68,124.13 for 4,782 
 bags; that, in November, 1840, there were on his (Jewett s) hands 4,020 bags, not wanted, which 
 cost $65,000; that a large overplus was in the hands of other contractors; that bags could be 
 got at 50 per cent, less than was paid in those years; that, for blanks, $300,000 was paid between 
 1829 and 1841, generally at about 50 per cent, more than fair price, leaving a supply on hand for 
 
 twenty years to come ; that storage for these surplus articles was charged and allowed ; that, by 
 these and other frauds, the expenditures of the Post Office Department were made to exceed its 
 revenue, one year, by $386,759.19, and another year by $220,000, thus requiring special appro 
 priations out of the revenue from Customs and public lands, and rolling a heavy burden on the 
 27th (Whig) Congress; that Cyrus Barton, Concord, N. H., for blanks,, from 1836 to 1841, 
 received $13,927.14; Beals & Green, Boston, Mass., from 1829 to 1832, for do., received 
 $51,732.76; Paine & Clark, New York, from 1836 to 1841, for do. do. $18,883.81; S. Penn, Jr. 
 Louisville, Ky., for do. do. from 1830 to 1841, $26,942.58; S. Medary, Columbus, Ohio, in 1836, 
 for do. do. $17,546.34; &c. &c. &c. 
 
 All these, and other like favors, "/or being always at their post, actively engaged" " stopping 
 at no sacrifice that would insure success" " in promoting the interests of the noble cause" which 
 " heartily entitled them to Executive favor" &c., as stated in letters to the President. See Doc. 
 989, as above. 
 
 The same Committee (on Public Expenditures) speak of the establishment of many new mail 
 routes and post offices, not required, at great expense, for the benefit of partisan favorites, and 
 of the "deep, dark, and unfathomable sinks," out of which these facts were fished, where many 
 more of the same kind yet abide, which could not be hooked up. 
 
 Sundries of a like kind. 
 
 From Document No. 756 of the House 2d Session, 27th Congress, it appears, that the Com 
 missioning of Ships, and the increase of officers in the Navy, have been at the discretion of the 
 Executive; that the expenses of the Navy had been doubled in 10 years; that naval officers had 
 been multiplied beyond former example, without sufficient cause ; that the number in 1835 was 
 1,051 and in 1842 was 1512, when 365, with an aggregate pay of $350,000, were " absent on 
 leave, or waiting orders," that is, doing nothing ; that many had been thus unemployed for ten 
 twelve, or fourteen years, receiving pav, and being promoted. 
 
 It also appears : That from 1834 to 1841, sevonty-two naval officers, at different 
 times, had been detailed into the " Coast Survey" service, and while thus occupied, received 
 double pay ; that the Revenue Cutter service, being at the discretion of the Executive, rose from 
 an annual cost of $163,755 in 1830, to $274,803 in 1837, while the revenue collected had de 
 creased about one third ; that the expenses of the Land Office rose in one year from $23,500 to 
 8108,750, and remained in 1841 at $98,500, when the land revenue was only $1,400,000 ; and 
 *iat the expenses of the army had risen from $2,100,935 in 1829, to $4,197,028 in 1841. 
 
 Extra Allowances. 
 
 The above instance of 72 naval officers detailed into the " Coast Survey" service, with extra 
 pay, is an example. This license, unwarranted by law, had pervaded the army and navy, and 
 crept into other branches of the public service, to such an extent, as to amount, in the aggregate, 
 to scarcely, if at all less than a million a year. It was a germ of corruption, of alarming growth, 
 corresponding with the plurality system under the British Government, which the reformers of 
 that nation are fast breaking down, and which has always been allowed to be one of the greatest 
 enormities in the British empire. 
 
 Expenditures without authority of law. 
 
 Liberties of this kind, lo a great extent, were taken, in the progress of the two administrations 
 that preceded the present. A very licentious practice of voting large contingent funds, for the 
 different departments of Government, had obtained, which presented temptations, and opened a 
 floodgate of corruption, to the higher and lower public functionaries. Many hundred thousand 
 dollars had in this way been put at the discretion of the existing Administration, no small portion 
 
 8 
 
of which was squandered for most unsuitable partisan or private ends. The sacred depositet 
 of trust funds of various descriptions, were invaded and exhausted, without sanction of law. 
 
 The new practice of having large outstanding appropriations, lying over from one year to an 
 other, which often amounted to many millions, enough in some cases for the annual expend! 
 tures of the Government, was introduced and carried on ID the last two administrations, and has 
 often been abused by applying such appropriations to objects not designated by law, at the dis 
 cretion of the Administration. In this way, there was never any want of funds, when a partisan 
 object required it, or a private whim was to be gratified, or favorites wanted patronage. 
 
 Secret and partisan emissaries were by this means sent out, under the guise of Government 
 Agents, for this, that, or the other object, the chief errand being confidential. It was only 
 necessary to have a nominal Government design, though unauthorized bylaw, to find an apology 
 for drawing oil contingent or trust funds, or on dormant outstanding appropriations. Special 
 Agents, almost without number, were, from time to time, put in commission for home or foreign 
 missions, on the basis of this practice. 
 
 Mr. George Plitt was sent abroad, as Post Office Agent, under Amos Kendall, at $16 a day, 
 till the expenses ran up to 9,666.64, the payment of which was sanctioned by Mr. Van Buren, 
 as President, without authority of law. In the same manner three young men were sent out in 
 1839, by Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of War, to the Cavalry School, at Saumur, in France, and three 
 more in 1840 all without authority of law. Americans sent to Europe to learn to ride and ma 
 nage a horse, at the public expense, at the whim of a public functionary, and without legislative 
 sanction ! 
 
 An Administration partisan press also experienced the benefits of contingent and disposable 
 funds in the hands of the Executive and his agents. In the two years of 1838 and 1839, Mr. 
 Kendall, Post Master General, contrived to run up bills for advertising and printing in one 
 Newspaper office, the Statesman, Columbus, Ohio, to the amount of $9,848.21. (Blue Bookj 
 And so it was done all over the Union, by the different Executive Departments at Washington. 
 
 Remark. 
 
 It should be observed, that the quotations we have made, showing extravagance and corruption 
 in the Government, are only a few selections, extracted from voluminous and authentic public 
 documents, furnished principally by that laborious and indefatigable Committee on Public Ex 
 penditures, whose toils in the last Congress have brought so much of hitherto concealed frauds 
 to the light of day. The number and extent of them are hardly credible, and we regret that we 
 have not space for more copious extracts. What we give is merely as apcep into the great mass, 
 the entire of which will readily account for the extraordinary and otherwise unaccountable 
 expenditures of the last two Administrations, from whose books our facts and figures came. 
 
 Comparative expenses of our Government at different periods. 
 The expenses of our Government down to the end of Mr. Jefferson s administrar 
 tion, appear to have been frugal and exemplary. The cost of Washington s admin 
 istration, comprehending eight years, was only ... $15,892,188 
 Of John Adams s four years, ... >r , vm , . jvr , ., 21,450,351 
 
 Of Jefferson s eight do., 41,300,788 
 
 As the war with Great Britain came under Mr. Madison s terms of office, eight 
 years, the expenses were of course extraordinary, and mounted up to $144,684,039 
 
 Monroe s eight years, 104,463,400 
 
 J. Q. Adams s/owr do. v 50,501,914 
 
 It may be thought that the expenses of Mr. Monroe s and Mr J. Q. Adams s ad 
 ministrations, were disproportionately large, as compared with the earlier days of 
 the republic. But the growth of the country may account for a part of it, and the 
 grander projects of the nation, suggested by the experience of the war, for the 
 other part. 
 
 But it is somewhat startling to find the expenses of General Jackson s adminis 
 tration of eight years mounting up to . - - - - $145,792,735, 
 being greater than the cost of Mr. Madison s eight years, which had the war with 
 Great Britain on hand. But yet more startling is the announcement of the fact, that 
 Mr. Van Buren s administration of only four years, cost the nation $140,585,321. 
 In eight years, at this rate, it would have been 281,170,642. 
 There are no apparent reasons, aside from the facts disclosed by the investigat 
 ing Committees of the 27th Congress nor are these very satisfactory for this 
 rapid and amazing increase of national expenditures. Besides, that the Florida 
 war was unnecessarily protracted and unnecessarily expensive, as has been shown, 
 by the corruption and frauds involved in it, that, even as it was, will not account 
 for but a small fraction of this great excess of expenditures above all former exam 
 ple. And what else extraordinary was there ] 
 
 Appropriations of the 27th Congress great reduction of expenditures. 
 Appropriations are generally in excess of the expenditures, with a view of grant- 
 
10 
 
 ing a liberal supply.^ The appropriations of the 27th Congress for 1842, being 
 the last half of one fiscal year and the first half of another, fallino- in 1842, were 
 $21,603,784.58. 
 
 It should be observed, however, that the charges of the Post Office Department 
 about/bwr million and a half, are a part of this appropriation, which should be de 
 ducted for a fair comparison, as the revenues and disbursements of that Department 
 have heretofore been kept by themselves, and not reckoned with those of the Gov 
 ernment. Nor was the debt of the District of Columbia, one million and a half 
 (assumed), or the two per cent, land fund and land distribution appropriations, falling 
 in this account, properly chargeable to this administration all of which deducted, 
 would reduce the appropriations for 1842 to less than sixteen millions. 
 
 The appropriations for the six months, between January 1, and June 30, 1843, 
 were $8,166,418.00; and for the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1844, they were 
 $16,332,837.00. 
 
 A comparison. 
 
 Compare the appropriations of the 27th Congress with the annual expenditures of Mr. Van 
 Buren s administration, as reported by the Treasury Department, July 2d, 1841 : 
 
 Expenditure of 1837 $37,265,037 15 
 
 1838 39,455,438 35 
 
 1839 37,614,936 15 
 
 1840 27,249,909 51 
 
 Total - - - $140,585,32Tl6 
 
 The annual average of the expenditure of Mr. Van Buren s ad 
 ministration would be ....--.. 35,146,330 29 
 
 Compare this average with the appropriations of the 27th Congress for the year ending June 
 30, 1844, which may fairly be taken as the level to which a Whig Congress has brought the ex 
 penses of Government, viz. $16,332,837, which is less, by $2,580,656.19, than half the annual 
 average of the expenses of Mr. Van Buren s Administration; or less by $18,813,493.29, than the 
 entire average; or less by $23,122,601.35 than the highest annual expenditure of Mr. Van Buren. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 A RESULT AND FACT of the kind above demonstrated, needs no comment. It will fall a CHARM 
 upon a Government-ridden, long abused, and oppressed nation, and open their eyes to the past 
 and the future. They will see for it is proved that the charges brought by the Whigs in 1840, 
 against the then existing and former Administrations, of profligacy, corruption, and prodigality, 
 are sustained ; and that the expenses of Government for many years were nearly double, at least 
 one third greater than what was necessary. 
 
 Bad Stewardship. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren came into power with six millions of dollars in the Treasury ; he took for the 
 uses of Government the eight millions of United States Bank Stock that was owned by the Gov 
 ernment; he also took the fourth instalment due to the States by the Deposite Act of 1836, which 
 was nine millions; the Treasury Notes outstanding on the 4th of March, 1841, when he retired 
 to give place to General Harrison, were somewhat over six millions and a half; the whole 
 amounting to about thirty millions, which is the amount he expended, during his four years, in 
 excess of the revenues of the Government. 
 
 In addition to this, the outstanding appropriations on the 4th of March, 1841, were aoout 
 twenty-nine millions. These, of course, were so many liabilities of the Treasury, and conse 
 quently so much additional burden or debt on the incoming Administration swelling the whole 
 account to nearly sixty millions, in excess of the revenues of the period of his Administration. 
 It is fair, however, to credit Mr. Van Buren the nine millions of outstanding appropriations that 
 were imposed upon him, when he came into power, March 4, 1837. We have, then, this result, 
 that the expenditures of Mr. Van Buren s Administration, including his appropriations thrown 
 upon the succeeding Administration, were ffty millions in excess of the revenues of his term 
 of office. 
 
 Further than this: The conditions of the Compromise Act of 1832 were about to strike off 
 fve millions of revenue in 1841, and jive millions more in 1842. Yet the Government, in full 
 view of the excessive expenditures of the past, and of this diminishing revenue far the future, 
 had made no provision for this extraordinary and overwhelming state of things, brought about 
 by its own profligacy and improvidence. 
 
 It is manifest, that no Government could long maintain itself under such a. stewardship ; and 
 that in our case, from the moment Mr. Van Buren took charge of our public affairs, till he re 
 signed them, we were descending straight and rapidly into a deep gulf of debt and ruin. Indeed, 
 our momentum downward was so great, when he gave up the reins, that it was impossible to 
 hold up and here we are in consequence. We should, however, have done better, if treason had 
 not prevented. 
 
 An illustration. 
 
 A steward is put in charge of a large estate for a given time, with plenty of money, with a 
 regular income from the tenants equal to all expenditures, with no incumbrances on the property, 
 but large sums due to it and at interest, and is bound so to manage it, as to deliver it up at th 
 end of his time, in as good a condition as it was in when he took it. 
 
 10 
 
id, right lustily did they wield it, with coats and hats off, 
 1. They spared not the estimates sent in by the Execu- 
 
 11 
 
 But the first thing he does, is to spend all the money left in his hands; then he calls in the 
 debts, which were intended to remain on interest, and spends that ; by want of foresight, bad 
 management, and prodigality, the income from the farms and other property gradually falls off, 
 and there is not enough to keep the estate in order ; by the same cause this state of things 
 waxes worse and worse, and the estate is running in debt ; all his employees he indulges in the 
 same habits of extravagance and profligacy, whose influence, coming in aid of his, helps on the 
 general ruin ; he is compelled largely to anticipate his income, and draw on the future ; till al 
 last, when the time of his stewardship has expired, the estate is deeply involved, is greatly injured 
 by bad husbandry, the morals of the tenants are very much altered for the worse; and take it 
 11 in all, the next steward that comes, finds a hard enough task of it, to save the estate from 
 complete ruin. 
 
 The story we have told is that of the last Administration of our national affairs. 
 
 Retrenchment and Reform. 
 
 THE GRAND RESULT of reducing the appropriations to a little over sixteen millions a year, is 
 sufficient evidence of what the 27th Congress achieved, in the way of retrenchment and 
 reform. They found every department of the Government more or less ill organized, ineffi 
 cient, extravagant, and corrupt, exerting a most pernicious influence on the morals of the people, 
 and squandering the public funds by tens of thousands, and by millions. The expenditures of the 
 Government, by such means, had been tripled since the administration of Mr. J. Q. Adams; 
 but the 27th Congress, by applying the axe of retrenchment, with a salutary vengeance, brought 
 the expenditures back again fully back, if we take into consideration the growth of the coun 
 try. Boldly did they take the axe in hand 
 and the result is announced to the world 
 tive Departments, but cut them down by millions. 
 
 The cases to which the knife of excision, or the grubbing tools of eradication, have been ap 
 plied, are too numerous for specification in our limits. We can only speak of them generally. 
 
 Some millions were lopped off from the expenses of the army, by an Act which reorganized 
 and reduced it largely, and abolished numerous sinecures, and the corrupt custom of extra 
 allowances? which sometimes exceeded regular pay, and which, as a whole, were enormous. 
 The abuses that had crept into the army, augmenting expenditures, were flagrant and startling. 
 They were boldly taken in hand, and provided against for the future. 
 
 There was the Board of Navy Commissioners in their easy chairs at Washington, deteriorating 
 the Navy every day, and wasting money in vast sums by their decisions. It was abolished ; and 
 the whole Navy Department was reorganized by an Act of Congress, introducing a new system 
 of economy and efficiency, as well in the machinery of the Department itself, as in the various 
 branches of the naval service thereby retrenching from one to two millions in the general ser 
 vice, and saving many millions from waste. 
 
 An Act was passed amending the organization of the Civil Departments, suppressing the sys 
 tem of contingent and general appropriations; cutting off the power of pensioning a partisan 
 press, by ordering the public printing to be done on contract with fair dealers, in open market; 
 ordering purchases and other Government Jobbings, on the same principle ; reducing and limit 
 ing allowances of various kinds all a saving of millions. 
 
 The vast peculations and frauds in the Indian Department, Land Offices, and Custom Houses, 
 were 2mnted out and reformed an immense saving. The contingent expenses of Congress 
 were cut down to an honest level, and former abuses corrected. All branches of the public ser 
 vice were thoroughly overhauled, examined, retrenched, and reformed to the saving of many 
 millions, as the appropriations demonstrate. 
 
 An instructive fact. 
 
 If the estimates of the Executive Departments, as sent into Congress, had been taken as the 
 rule of legislation in the appropriations, we should have been but little, if at all, better off than 
 before. The 27th Congress thought it their duty to cut thenr. down by many millions. All this 
 will serve to convince the people how little sympathy ihere :s in the Executive for their burdens, 
 and that they must look to Congress, if they have a good one. for retrenchment and reform. The 
 Executive has no interest in such operations, but the contrary. From that quarter come all 
 abuses in the way of extravagance and corruption. At that very moment, and all the while that 
 the 27th Congress were doing this great work for the people, the Executive and his pensioned 
 press were waging a fierce and savage war against them, and denouncing them as the enemies 
 of the people. 
 
 Private Justice. 
 
 It is the highest praise of a Government, that it respects private Justice, A large national 
 debt had been hanging over us for many years, in the form of private claims, which Congress 
 after Congress had warded off, and refused to hear, lest they should have money to pay. That 
 appears to have been the reason that had filled the hearts of widows, orphans, and decrepid old 
 men, with despair for a nation s injustice. It is certain, that former Congresses found enough 
 Other ways for their money. 
 
 But the 27th Congress marched straight into these long arrears, examined the files, heard 
 about a thousand cases, and granted relief in a little less than three hundred, which added so 
 much to the demands on the Treasury. But it was Just. The appropriations for private claims 
 at the last session were a little less than one thirtieth of the whole amount for a single year. We 
 have not the means of exact comparison, but we think the private claims acted upon by the last 
 Congress, were six, if not ten to one of the average of the preceding six Congresses all which 
 were left a debt by the preceding Administrations on the present 
 
12 
 
 The time, occupied *n the Sessions of the Slth Congress. 
 
 It was 450 days, about sixteen months the longest time any other American Congress ever 
 eat, by about three months. This has been made a subject of accusation without considering, 
 1. That they had the Apportionment on a new census to fix, a work the materials of which arc 
 ten years accumulating, for which it would be no more than fair to allow one month. 2. That 
 they had the Tariff to readjust, another accumulation of ten years, which may fairly be 
 put down for three months, on account of the greatness and difficulties of the task, ir the pecu 
 liar circumstances of the case. There were between six and seven hundred articles to legislate 
 upon, each of which was enough fora separate bill. Six plans of Tariff were got up, four 
 passed, and two were vetoed. 3. The currency question, which, including all the hindrances and 
 embarrassments occasioned by the Vetoes, and the new projects in the form of Exchequer plans, 
 probably did not consume less than three months. 4. For the labors in retrenchment and reform, 
 it is proper to allow another month. 
 
 All these will probably be allowed to be extraordinary, not usually claiming the attention of 
 Congress ; and they amount altogether to eight months which is half the time occupied by the 
 three Sessions. 
 
 When, therefore, these facts are considered, in connexion with the grand total of their labors, 
 that the aggregate of the Reports made in both Houses, was 1849; of joint resolutions and bills 
 acted on, 1328; and of laws finally passed, 514; the laws averaging as much more than one a 
 day, as 514 exceeds 450, a far greater proportion than any other Congress ever did in a given 
 time; when all this is considered, the accusation falls to the ground, and the 27lh Congress 
 stands forth, not only vindicated, but entitled to the highest praise, in this particular. Certainly, 
 it can never be said, that, by their protracted Sessions, they have increased the expenses of Gov 
 ernment, when it is proved, that they have reduced them one half. 
 
 The discipline of the 21th Congressi 
 
 Notwithstanding all the clamor about gag-laws, suppression of the freedom of debate, &c\, it 
 is now generally conceded, even by the opposition in the late Congress, certainly it is felt by the 
 country, that the one hour rule, and the assumption in the House o~f Representatives of the right 
 to limit debate in Committee of the Whole, are among the best and most important regulations 
 ever adopted by a deliberative body. It is a great reform, and it was by this, and by this only, 
 that the 27th Congress were enabled to accomplish such a vast amount of business so greatly 
 in excess of all preceding Congresses, in a given time. 
 
 The custom that had grown up, of allowing one speech to be spun out two, sometimes three 
 whole days, was an outrage, that should be scouted from the nation, with the indignant voice of 
 popular reprobation. 
 
 Land Distribution. 
 
 Although, like the action of Congress on the currency question, this also was a failure by the 
 interposition of the veto power, it was nevertheless a prominent and important feature in the 
 history of the 27th Congress. 
 
 The terms of the cession were, that these "lands shall be a common fund for the use and 
 benefit of such of the United States as have become, or shall become members of the Confede 
 racy, according to their itsnal respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure," after 
 the objects of cession shall have been answered. General Jackson, in his message of 1832, 
 says, " as the lands may now be considered as released fi om the pledge, the object for which 
 thev were ceded having been accomplished, it is in the discretion of Congress to dispose of 
 them," &c. 
 
 Besides the equity and consequent obligations of the case, there are four cogent political 
 and eminently practical reasons, which urge distribution ia some form. 1. The States are but 
 integral parts of a whole the Union. If the parts are weak, the whole is weak; and if the 
 parts are strong, the whole is strong. The interests of the parts cannot be disjoined from those 
 of the whole. 2. In the Federal Constitution,. the States have relinquished the right of collect 
 ing revenue from imposts, and it is vested in the United States. This will naturally be regarded 
 as conferring some obligations on the United States to be at least considerate and kind towards 
 the States in their needs, when in danger of being driven to direct taxation for want of this 
 power, and to help them if they can without violating the Constitution. 3. It will always be 
 felt, and we think with truth and justice, and felt more and more, that it was the action of 
 the Federal Government, which brought the indebted States and other parties, and the 
 country generally, into these difficulties. Hence arises the obligation to render assistance, when 
 it can be done in a proper and Constitutional way. 4. The importance of rescuing the tariff 
 frystem from the fluctuating influence of an ever shifting land revenue, and the practical evils 
 resulting from this connexion, would seem sufficient to make it better to give away the public 
 lands, than to have such a disturbing cause for ever acting an the Tariff policy. Onco dispose 
 of this agitating question, and let the General Government depend on a Tariff for support, we 
 may then hope for a permanent and uniform system of revenue and finance. 
 
 Funding the public debt. 
 
 This was a part of the doings of the 27th Congress. It will have been seen in a former part 
 of this Tract, in what an embarrassed condition Mr. Van Buren left the Treasury and the public 
 finances; that he came in with six millions in the Treasury, afterwards took the eight millions of 
 United States bank stock, and the nine millions instalment due the States in all, with their 
 fractions and interest, about twenty-four millions over and above the revenue and that he went 
 out, leaving the Treasury involved with six millions and a half of debt, in the form of Treasury 
 notes, and other liabilities in the form of outstanding appropriations, amounting in all to nearly 
 thirty-Jive millions. Add this thirty-five millions to the twenty-four millions, above referred to, 
 
 12 
 
13 
 
 and deduct nine millions of outstanding appropriations left for Mr. Van Buren to provide for 
 when he came into power, and we have the result of ffty millions run up by Mr. Van Buren in 
 his four years, over and above the public revenue. 
 
 Beside all this, there was a constantly descending revenue, resulting from the conditions of- 
 the compromise act of 1832, and from the misfortunes of the country. Five millions were to 
 fall off by the first of these causes, in 1841, and five millions more in 1842. 
 
 With this astounding state of things, inherited by the new administration, with such a debt, 
 such liabilities of the Treasury, and such a revenue what was to be done? 
 
 The Whigs of the 27th Congress, like all honest men, were compelled to recognise the debt; 
 to call it by its right name ; but what should they do with it, and how provide for the prospect 
 before them ? They took the bull by the horns at once, put a rin g in his nose, and got him under 
 control, instead of hanging on to his tail, and being dragged after him in his wild and furious 
 career, as the previous administration had done. They funded ike debt, or a small part of it, 
 twelve millions, and undertook to manage the rest as well as tliey could, by Treasury notes and 
 other expedients, till prosperity might return under the operation of the contemplated Tariff. 
 
 Providing for the extinction of the public, debt. 
 
 When a man has got in debt, if not discouraged, he undertakes to get out by fresh enterprise 
 and frugality. There was no other way for the 27th Congress to provide for the extinction of 
 the public debt imposed upon them by the previous administration, but by restoring public pros 
 perity by a Tariff. This they put in order, and by it the nation may gradually be relieved of all 
 its burdens, 
 
 Who created this public debt ? 
 
 In view of the facts we hare presented, it might seem very superfluous to put this question , 
 and yet the Locofoco press throughout the country is constantly iterating and reiterating the 
 charge, that the Whigs made it. 
 
 We observe a confession from the Hon. Cave Johnson, of Tennessee, in circulation, of a 
 debt of $7,480,692.18, on the 4th of March, 1841, when Mr. Van Buren retired which he (Mr 
 Johnson) professes to have got from the Treasury. Add to this the outstanding appropriations, 
 not reckoned by him, of 28,906,090.76, (House Doc. 281, 2d. Scss. 27th Con.), saddled on the 
 incoming administration, a.nd it makes the debt thus descending, or inherited, $36,386,782.94. 
 These being the liabilities of the Treasury on that occasion, constitute the true story of the debt. 
 
 The amount of these outstanding or undrawn appropriations, is remarkable. One fourth of 
 this would be an egregious fault at any time. But the out-going administration on the 4th of 
 March, 1841, had used up all funds, run down the revenue, got in debt, and found it convenient 
 to saddle the burden on their successors, who had to provide for it all. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren s furtive mode of creating a public debt. 
 
 There is another cause of national debt which may be called furtive, growing out of the last 
 administration, and stealing upon the present. It was neglecting to provide a revenue for the 
 future, or permitting our only system of revenue to run down or run out. They broke it down. 
 A Government is as much bound to provide for four years to come, as for next year; or is as 
 responsible for breaking down the revenue for four coming years, as for one. By such means 
 it entails a national debt. It is precisely the same as if it had left one. 
 
 It has been seen, that Mr. Van Buren used up thirty millions more than the revenue of his 
 term of office ; that he left more than thirty millions of a positive burden on the succeeding 
 administration ; and in addition to all this, he so managed our financial system, that it would not 
 be possible to get more than half as much revenue in the next four years as he got in his term, 
 without a new organization, the benefits of which could not be realized under two or three 
 years scarcely less than four. All these things considered, the burden entailed by Mr. Vafc 
 Buren on the succeeding administration, could not be less than ffty millions a sum nearly 
 enough to support a prudent administration for a whole term of four years. 
 The worst thing of all. 
 
 It were a small matter, that the expenses of Government should have been raised one half or 
 one third higher than was necessary, by fraud, peculation, defalcation, and extravagance, per 
 vading all its departments, as has been proved in these pages, if the destruction of the currency 
 and other ruinous disasters, brought upon the whole nation and all its parts, by a mistaken and 
 fatal policy, had not rendered the burden so heavy so intolerable; and if, moreover, the Gov 
 ernment had not allowed the system ef revenue itself to be broken down, thus leading to direct 
 taxation of a people, who, by such causes, had been made so poor as to have nothing to pay it 
 with. If they had left us the old state of things, our prosperity and our means, they might have 
 run up the expenses of Government to ffty, or even a hundred millions a year and we could 
 have borne and carried it all easily. 
 
 Confession of Mr. Woodbury. 
 
 In December, 1840, Mr. Woodbury, then Secretary of the Treasury, said in his annual 
 Report : 
 
 "Thustne progressive reduction of the present Tariff, which has been going on since 1833, 
 will, after December, 1841, take effect to a much largei extent than heretofore. Nearly two 
 millions and a half will then be deducted at once. 
 
 r page 6) Omitted rather curious : Tn 1837 Congress made an appropriation of $210,000 to 
 remove obstructions in the mouth of the Mississippi. Various attempts were made at a cost of $223,231, 
 in the bill of which we find the following interesting and appropriate items: for silver watches, 
 $380; for hardware, $3,322; for port wine, $29 25; fines to Sheriff, $14 10; hosiery, $23; hire of 
 carriages, $58 25 ; omnibus tickets, $9,75 ; painting office sign. $9 ; dry goods, $106 ; musquito bars 
 $120 : muslin $77 58 j repairing watches, $45 50 ; &c. (House Doc. 458, 2d Sess., 27th Congress > 
 
 13 
 
14 
 
 "On the 1st of July afterwards, at least two millions and a half more of duties will be re 
 moved ; making an aggregate in six months, of quite five millions. If the imports then should 
 not differ much from those in 1838, this would leave an income from them not probably exceed 
 ing ten or eleven millions of dollars yearly. It will therefore be necessary to make correspond 
 ing reductions in the expenditures of 1842, or seasonably provide otherwise, in some perma.ne.ni 
 manner, to supply all wants likely to happen from this cause." 
 
 This is a confession to be noted, as coming from Mr. Woodbury, whose faculty of concealing 
 such truths was pre-eminent. As a peep into the future from that position, however, and as 
 usual for him, it does not disclose a thousandth part of the difficulties to be encountered, arising 
 out of the improvidence and wastefulness of the Administration of which he was a part. There 
 is, nevertheless, in this confession, a foreshadowing of a coming crisis. That Crisis, induced 
 by the previous administration, the Whigs of the 27th Congress had to meet, and provide for. 
 Mr. Van Buren and his friends, adhering to their principles, would have been overthrown by it 
 They could never have repaired the mischief they had done. 
 
 The Districting Law. 
 
 The Constitution, on this subject, reads thus: " The times, places, and manner of holding 
 elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature 
 thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the 
 places of chooshig Senators." 
 
 Now, it happens, that the law of the 27th Congress, requiring each State to be divided into as 
 many Congressional districts as there are Representatives, to the end that each member may 
 represent his own district, still leaves the detail of these regulations, as to " times, places, and 
 manner of holding the elections, to be prescribed by the Slatelegislatures," as above directed by the 
 Constitution, so that nothing of the power thus vested in the States, is taken away, notwithstanding 
 the right of Congress to " alter such regulations by law at any time," is clearly given in the same 
 sentence. There is therefore not the slightest invasion of the pretended claim of the States, by 
 this law. They are only required to elect by Districts, instead of the general ticket. 
 
 The benefits of the district system are, 1. Uniformity in the mode of elections. Before 
 some, and most of the States, acted on the district system; others elected by general ticket 
 
 2. Fairness to all political parties. It might happen, when the majority of the people of the 
 United States were of one political party, that the adoption of the general ticket in two or three 
 States, should give the opposite party the ascendency in Congress a very improper advantage 
 
 3. The District system is more democratic, and gives a chance to every district to elect a man 
 whom the people Jmoiv, to represent them and their interests ; whereas the other system is con 
 trolled by the nominations of a few political demagogues, who thus control the people of a 
 whole State, and the people of the Union. It is a?ii-democratic. 
 
 If Representatives elected by general ticket should be admitted into the next Congress, it will 
 be against a law of the land it will be nullification in the boldest form, the nullifiers standing 
 up and acting in the capacity of the Supreme legislators. 
 
 The remedial Justice bill. 
 
 In the passage of this bill, the 27th Congress had to grapple with and settle one of the most 
 delicate and most momentous questions involved in the relations of Federal and State Jurisdic 
 tions. All know, that the Constitution forbids the States to make war, or peace, or treaties with 
 foreign powers ; from which it might justly be inferred, that no State has a right so to exercise 
 its independent authorities as to breed war. Yet it is manifest, that such was the tendency and 
 hazard of the action of the New York authorities in the case of Alexander M Leod. 
 
 The object attained by the Remedial Justice bill, is to bring all such questions, involving inter 
 national relations, under the Federal Jurisdiction, and into the Courts of the United States, where 
 they properly belong, so that it shall not be in the power of the authorities of a single State to 
 involve the United States in war. 
 
 Tlie Tariff. 
 
 This is a difficult subject, both in theory and practice. Facts only can decide the questions 
 that rise. 
 
 Tariff axioms. 
 
 1. Free trade means fair trade, in popular phrase. 2. Fair trade requires, that if one nation 
 has a tariff, its neighbor, trading with it, must have an equal one, for self-protection. 3. And 
 consequently, the principles of free trade, require equal tariffs, or none at all. 4. Since other 
 nations, with which we trade, have tariff s, we must have one too, to maintain our own rights, or 
 unwisely suffer disadvantage and loss. 5. Reciprocity in tariffs is a principle of free trade that 
 is, the same practically. 
 
 Specimens of foreign tariffs. 
 
 The British Tariff on Louisiana sugar is 270 per cent. ; on molasses, 400 do. ; on American 
 tobacco, 1200 do.; on our spirits from grain, 2700 do.; on our wheat, 60 do.; on our salt beef. 
 80 do.; on our pork, G8 do. ; on our bacon, 85 do. ; on our timber, 96 do. ; on our staves, 110 do.; 
 &c. &c. &c. British duties on our most important agricultural staples cotton excepted are 
 intended to be prohibitory, and are so. The duties collected in Europe on American tobacco,. 
 are thirty-jive millions of dollars annually equal to the average annual expenditure of Mr. Van 
 Buren s Administration ; and double of the annual appropriations of the 27th (Whig) Congress. 
 Surely, it is no more than fair to get something back for all this which foreigners get out of us 
 at least half of what Europe gets on our tobacco, which would amply support our Government 
 under a Whig Administration. 
 
 14- 
 
15 
 
 Objections to the Tariff of 1842. 
 
 It is said it is too high. The following is a comparative statement (direct from the Treasury 
 Department) of the Tariffs of 1824, 28, 32-3, and 42, in regard to a list of some of the most 
 important articles, by which it will be seen that there is no foundation for this objection : 
 
 Species of Merchandise. 
 
 Rates of duty under the Tariffs of 
 
 1824. 
 
 1828. 
 
 1832-5. 
 
 1842. 
 
 j Cloths and cSssi meres - 
 
 36f per ct. 
 36 " 
 
 27* 
 27* * 
 27* " 
 27* || 
 
 3(>| " 
 3G* " 
 
 33* " 
 3! " 
 3G| " 
 3| cts. 
 33 per ct. 
 
 55 per ct. 
 55 
 
 J8* 
 38* 
 38* 
 27* 
 361- 
 36* 
 3<>* 
 55* & 4 cts. 
 55* & 4 cts. 
 40* per ct. 
 49* 
 5 cts. 
 55 per ct. 
 3 cts. 
 4 
 12 
 9 
 3 
 3 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 3* 
 3* 
 3*" 
 185 cwt. 
 I ct-lb. 
 20 cts. 
 200 
 250 
 
 :?oo 
 
 350 
 400 
 30 
 25 
 25 
 15 
 150 
 
 50 per ct. 
 50 
 
 25 " 
 25 
 free 
 20 per ct. 
 50* & 4 cts. 
 50 per ct. 
 free 
 40* & 4 cts. 
 16 cts. 
 16 " 
 3* " 
 50 per ct. 
 2* cts. 
 3* 
 12 
 9 
 I 
 3 
 5 
 5 
 4 
 3 
 21 
 1* 
 1 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 150 cwt. 
 90 " 
 10 cts. 
 200 
 250 
 300 
 350 
 400 
 30 
 25 
 25 
 15 
 150 
 
 40 per ct. 
 40 " 
 15 " 
 25 " 
 30 
 30 " 
 30 " 
 30 
 40 " 
 
 30* &. 3 eta. 
 14 cts. 
 14 " 
 
 50 per ct. 
 
 2i cts. 
 4 ** 
 o ** 
 9 " 
 3 " 
 3 " 
 3 
 4 " 
 3 " 
 2* " 
 
 || 
 
 I: 
 
 2* 
 125 cwt. 
 85 " 
 Seta 
 300 
 400 
 
 30 
 
 25 
 25 
 15 
 125 
 
 [ Blankets not above 75 cents each 
 " above 75 cents each - - - - 
 Woollen hosiery, gloves, mils, &c. 
 Worsted stuffs 
 
 Worsted yarn 
 
 Other manufactures of wool 
 Wool unmanufactured not above 8 cts. per pound 
 11 above 8 cents per pound 
 
 
 
 
 Clothing ready uiaoe 
 
 OU^al, ... 
 
 4 " 
 12 " 
 
 9 " 
 3 " 
 
 5 " 
 
 5 " 
 4 
 3 " 
 
 27* per ct. 
 1* cts. 
 
 3 
 3 " 
 3 " 
 
 " loaf . . . . 
 
 Cheese ... .... 
 Lard 
 
 
 
 
 v^ . 
 
 Blacksmith s hau mers and sledges 
 
 
 round and Brazier s rods - - - 
 nail and spike rods 
 
 bar manufactured ly rolling 
 manufactured ol.^ieiwise 
 
 150 cwt. 
 SO " 
 20 cts. 
 200 
 250 
 300 
 350 
 400 
 30 
 25 
 25 
 IS 
 150 
 
 Glass bottles, btack, n "by a 1 quart 
 n by a 2 quart ;, 
 Window glass, n by a 8 bv 10 inches 
 n by a 10 by 12 " - 
 above 10 by 12 " 
 Shoes and slippers, silk - 
 prumelle, and other stuff 
 leather .... 
 children s .... 
 Boots and bootees 
 
 It will be seen that the Tariff of 1828 is the highest of the four. It has been called " the bill 
 of abominations." Yet Martin Van Buren, Richard M. Johnson, Thos. H. Benton, Mahlon 
 Dickerson, Silas Wright, an-d James Buchanan all voted for it. Messrs. Wright and Buchanan 
 also voted for the Tariff of 1842, and twenty of the -Loco focos of the House. Indeed, the credit 
 of the bill of 1842 is claimed for these, because, it is said, their vote carried it. 
 
 It is also said, that the present Tariff will operate as prohibitory, and diminish revenue. It is 
 a sufficient answer, to state the facts, that the highest Tariffs we have ever had, have produced 
 the largest revenue, and that every quarter s return of the present Tariff, proves the same thing. 
 These facts are indisputable. 
 
 It is moreover said, that a Tariff enhances ! prices of the goods on which it is imposed. Sup 
 pose it does, it is a voluntary tax, and in a Tariff like ours, it falls chiefly on the rich. But the 
 thing is false, in application to a judicious Tariff, as the following statement, furnished by the 
 Treasury Department, will show : 
 
 
 IE 
 
 16. 
 
 3 
 
 825. 
 
 1 
 
 B29. 
 
 1 
 
 332. 
 
 
 Price. 
 
 Duty. 
 
 Price 
 
 Duty. 
 
 Price. 
 
 Duty, 
 
 Price. 
 
 Duty. 
 
 Braces of 24 bits 
 Hammers, per doz. 
 Cupboard locks, per doz. 
 Steelyards, per pair 
 Hinges, cast butts, per doz. 
 Compasses, rule joint, per doz. . 
 Currycombs per doz. 
 
 s. d. 
 18 10 
 12 
 4 
 4 8 
 3 2 
 4 2 
 3 10 
 
 per ct. 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 
 s. d. 
 7 6 
 7 2 
 2 7 
 2 9 
 2 3 
 3 1 
 2 
 
 per ct. 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 
 O*j 
 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 
 s. d. 
 5 
 5 4 
 1 10 
 I 4 
 1 2 
 2 7 
 1 4 
 
 per ct. 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 
 s. d. 
 5 
 4 2 
 1 3 
 1 
 1 4 
 1 10 
 11 
 
 per ct. 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 25 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
16 
 
 The prices under 1816 show the rates before the Tariff of that year; those under 1825 show 
 the effects of the Tariff of 1816; and so on. Like effects were produced by those Tariffs on 
 nearly all kinds of goods subject to increased duty, cotton and woollen fabrics, &c. &c. 
 
 The Birmingham Factory of pins, in Connecticut, which, before the Tariff of 1842, was able 
 to turn out a million a day, and undersell the imported pins, immediately lowered the prices six 
 cents per pack, after the Tariff, which imposes a duty from 20 to 30 per cent, on this article. 
 
 The following are from the prices current of domestic goods, 4; Lowell, Mass., immediately 
 before and immediately after the Tariff of 1842 : 
 
 Cents. Cents. 
 
 Cotton drillings, before the Tariff, 74 
 
 " shirtings, .... do. do. 5| 
 
 " " heavy, - - do. do. 
 
 " sheetings, - - - - do. do. 
 
 " " wide, - - do. do. 
 
 Flannel, do. do. 
 
 Woollens of different kinds fell from 12 to 20 per cent. 
 
 The Collector of the Customs of New York, Mr. Curtis, in a letter to the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, of Nov. 28, 1842, gives a long list of prices, before and after the Tariff, of articles on 
 which an increased duty had been imposed, which proves, that the prices of such articles had 
 in all cases fallen, except on the best brandies and fallen largely, for the most part. 
 
 These facts prove, that a suitable protection of home industry and labor will enable domestic 
 manufacturers to sell lower, and that home competition is quite sufficient to secure this end. 
 
 Any Tariff, therefore, that is necessary for an adequate revenue, supersedes the necessity of 
 direct taxation, and is an unspeakable blessing to the labor and industry of the country, besides that 
 it lowers the prices of manufactured articles, while the wages of labor, and the staple products 
 of our own soil, everywhere rise. The farmer gets his goods cheaper, sells his products higher, 
 and finds a ready market. By this means a foundation is laid for the re-establishment of a sound 
 currency. It brings in the precious metals, and keeps them here. Accordingly we find, that 
 since the Tariff of 1842, they are flowing in upon us with great increase. 
 
 The truth is, we can never have a sound and abundant currency, till the Tariff shall have had 
 a fair and full experiment. For the want of it, our country had been drained of specie. It is 
 now flowing back again. 
 
 Hence, the re-adjustment of our Tariff regulations, which, by the conditions of former legis 
 lation on the subject necessarily devolved on the 27th Congress, was, in fact, of greater impor 
 tance than the re-establishment of the currency. It was a sine qua non the former being indi 
 pensable as a basis of the latter. 
 
 The Tariff is necessarily the first step in our return to prosperity. Not an inch can be reco 
 vered, but all would be backward and downward still, without it. Hence the importance of the 
 27th, or Whig Congress, as the opposing party would never have granted this boon to the people 
 but would even now snatch it away, if they should dare. 
 
 What we have proved. 
 
 We submit whether the facts we have adduced do not prove, that there has been something 
 bad very bad in the administration of our Government for a length of years; and that the peo* 
 pie in 1840 did not complain without reason, were not roused without cause. 
 To whom we are indebted. 
 
 To the Whigs of the 27th Congress, laboring under the greatest possible disadvantages by die 
 defection of the Chief Magistrate or rather by the betrayal of the insincerity of his pretensions 
 and contending with a powerful opposition that conspired with a treacherous Executive to thwart, 
 undermine, and defeat them to the Whigs of that Congress, placed in such circumstances, and 
 warring with such difficulties, is the nation indebted for these discoveries and results. There is the 
 GREAT FACT, the DOINGS of the 27th Congress, demonstrating what can be accomplished, even 
 against such obstacles, in the way of retrenchment and reform, in bringing to light the hidden 
 crimes of the past, and providing healing measures for the great misfortunes of the country. 
 
 What history v;ill record of the 21th Congress. 
 
 It will say That it was begotten of an injured people, in hope of redress ; that it was the most tal 
 ented ever assembled in the same place; that the majority of that body were men of honest political 
 design, intent on great reform, so much demanded ; that they were born to this great endeavor amid 
 shoutings, lived under a cloud, and died grieving, if not lamented; that they had more important business 
 coming before them, and did more, than any other Congress; that what they left undone, was not their 
 fault; that they were placed in a position most anomalous, and had to contend with difficulties unpar 
 alleled, by the perfidious conduct of the Chief Magistrate; that they came in after a set of men, who, by 
 many years of a ruinous policy and destructive measures, had broken down the currency, run down the 
 revenue, run down the people, and run down the country; that they were required to build all up again 
 in a day ; that they performed miracles for the circumstances in which they were placed, introduced bold 
 reform, and effected large retrenchments, in a Government for a long time not guilty of such works, but 
 the contrary; that in fidelity of purpose and vigor of undertaking, they excelled all example of the kind- 
 and that they began a great and good work, achieved much of it, and put down a stake in Ameri 
 can history, which will be looked to and hung to in all future time, so long as men may hope foi 
 improvement. 
 
 The Future. 
 
 In i840 the instincts of a nation in deep distress, were roused for self-preservation, and they tri 
 umphed. But treason rank treason snatched victory from the victors. In 1844, the last great 
 trial will come, and the weal or woe of this nation will then be settled. There is no escape^ 
 We have only to say to a disappointed, suffering, and half despairing people, 
 
 Once more unto the breach, dear friends ONCE MORE. 
 16 
 
THE 
 
 I JUNIUS TRACTS. ^,^ 
 
 i*o .,,v. No. II. ^^m^, 
 
 MAY ] PUBLISHED EVERY SECOND MONTH. [1843 
 
 THE CURKEICY. 
 
 BY JUNIUS. 
 
 Author of " THE CRISIS OF THE COUNTRY," and other Tracts of 1840. 
 Price, 3 cents single, $2 50 cts. per 100, or $20 per 1000. 
 
 TRACTS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 
 No. I. THE TEST, OR PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS. 
 II. THE CURRENCY. 
 III. THE TARIFF. 
 IV. LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 V. POLITICAL ABOLITION. 
 
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 1844. 
 
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Money. 
 MONEY is the medium of trade, or the means by which trade is carried on. 
 
 Currency. 
 Currency is that which passes for money, and, for the purposes of trade, is money. 
 
 Different kinds of Currency. 
 The classification might be more extended, but four divisions will answer our purpose. 
 
 1. Gold and silver, weighed in the scales, and assayed by Chemistry. This is the currency 
 of the world at large, or international currency, established from time immemorial. The 
 stamp they bear is that of the Creator, and the tests applied to them are the Creator s laws. 
 It is the only money recognized, as a common standard, in the commercial intercourse of na 
 lions. They constitute the basis, and are the test of all other currencies. All other curren 
 cies are sure to be proved by this, and none can stand in full credit, which are not converti 
 ble into this on demand. 
 
 2. The legalized currencies of particular states and nations. With us they are the Federal 
 coins, certain foreign coins adopted as a tender, and bank paper. These are all credit cur 
 rencies. That is, the coins pass on the authority of law, and on the credit of the mint as 
 says ; and the bank notes pass on the faith of being convertible into specie on demand. Of 
 the two, it will be found that the faith required for the use of coins, is greater than that exer 
 cised in the use of redeemable paper, first, because paper is tested every day by somebody at 
 the bank ; secondly, because coins are rarely tested ; thirdly, because they are seldom found 
 to be exactly equal to their credit value; fourthly, because, in the present state of Ihe arts, 
 i hey are more easily counterfeited than paper; fifthly, because they are inconvenient ; and 
 sixthly, because they occasion anxiety and hazard. 
 
 3. Ml negotiable promissory notes, bills of exchange, letters of credit, drafts, checks, bonds, 
 mortgages, and a great variety of evidences of debt, are a valid and very common currency in 
 the trading world. Some of the heaviest amounts of commercial transactions are done in 
 one or more of these forms, at home, and with remote parts. These also are a credit cur 
 rency. 
 
 4. Parole currency, or currency of man s word. Among the yeomanry of our country po 
 pulation, more business is transacted by this, than in all other ways. It is the naked and 
 most simple form of credit, and an honorable proof of sound morals. But it is an actual 
 currency, and one of no less importance, than moral beauty. It is perhaps as sound, if not 
 sounder, and as much to be relied on as any other. Certainly it is greatly used. 
 
 Remark. 
 
 These statements may serve to show the practical operation of the great principle of a 
 credit currency, and the foundation on which it rests. They show, too, that society cannot 
 exist, nor trade go on, without it. 
 
 What gives credit to a currency. 
 
 It is indispensable to the credit of a common currency, that it be always convertible into 
 specie on demand. Otherwise its credit is instantly impaired, and it sinks just in proportion 
 to the doubts cast over the prospects of redemption. 
 
 The, reason of this. 
 
 It is because gold and silver, weighed in the scales, and assayed by common laws, are the 
 universal test. 
 
 JVb legislation can force credit into a currency. 
 
 This truth is settled by experience. All governments have tried to legislate credit into 
 their currencies, but without avail. France tried it in her assignats ; Great Britain has 
 tried it in various modes ; we tried it in our Continental money ; despots have tried it ; but 
 it always fails. 
 
 The reason. 
 
 Gold and silver, weighed, is the only common currency of the great commercial world. 
 This test finds its way everywhere, into all countries, and to all currencies, in spite of legis 
 lation, or the will of despots, and says, Pay me that thou ou-est in THIS money, or in that which 
 will command it. Trade is voluntary, as between two parties, and cannot be forced. It is 
 regulated by the scales, with gold or silver in them. The moment legislation or a despotism 
 says, You shall take my currency for so much, if it will not bear the common test, it is not 
 trade, but/brce. 
 
The conventional law of the great commercial world, gold and silver in the scales, is more 
 potent than the legislation of states and nations, or the arm of despots. It cripples both, the 
 moment they attempt to contend against it. 
 
 What constitutes the value of gold and silver* 
 
 It is not the fact that they are money, but the fact that they are in demand for a great va 
 riety of purposes of utility, art, and ornament, on account of their peculiar and excellent 
 qualities. Money is only one of the innumerable uses to which they are applied, and it is be 
 cause they are in demand for these other uses that they have such value in the shape of mo 
 ney. It is this demand alone that sustains the value of g "Id and silver coins, and of bullion 
 employed as money. 
 
 What has given to gold and silver the office of money. 
 
 It is the demand above spoken of a demand existing from time immemorial, and which 
 is likely always to exist. If so, and only for that, gold and silver will always be the money 
 of the world, as they always have been. 
 
 The proportion of the gold and silver used as money. 
 
 It is estimated, that trade requires about one sixth or one seventh of the gold and silver of 
 the world for the uses of money ; and the amount devoted to this function increases or di 
 minishes, according to the activity and extent of trade. When trade requires more, more 
 appears in the form of money ; and when it requires less, the excess is absorbed by other 
 demands, or lies in deposite, waiting for the more profitable uses of trade. 
 
 Scarcity of Money. 
 
 It is stagnation in trade that goes by tbj<* name. There is always money enough, and 
 more than enough, for the demands of trade. When trade invokes money, it is sure to come, 
 first, because gold and silver, used as money, are more profitable than in other applications; 
 and secondly, because there are always traders who can command it, and who will be sure 
 to do so when they can profit by it. It is not, therefore, the non-existence of money that 
 produces what is called scarcity ; but the want of profit in the use of it. 
 
 Where lies the responsibility of stagnation in trade. 
 
 Government can facilitate or embarrass, revive or destroy the trade of a nation. It is fair 
 to hold the Government responsible in this matter. The maxim of Mr. Van Buren, " Lei 
 the people take care of themselves, and the Government take care of themselves," is as 
 destructive as it is fallacious. It is subverting the design of Government. It destroys the 
 legitimate relations between the two parties. It is monstrous. The appropriate function 
 of Government is a parental care of the people and their interests; but this maxim destroys 
 this relation entirely. No wonder at the result. If the Government would let the people 
 take care of themselves, they would. 
 
 The Constitutional fender. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States has wisely ordered, that " no State shall make any* 
 thing but gold and silver coins a tender in payment of debts." The effect, and doubtless the 
 design of this rule, is to keep the way open for the only legitimate test for all currencies, 
 viz., gold and silver weighed in the scales. The Constitution itself goes no farther than the 
 test of coins, which is imperfect ; but the aim of Government in the mint assays, is to keep 
 the coins as near as possible to the test of the scales, which is near enough for all practical 
 purposes, though seldom exact. 
 
 Jl false notion. 
 
 Some aver, that the Constitutional tender, gold and silver coins, is the only Constitutional 
 currency. This cannot be maintained, first, because the rule itself grows out of the fact, 
 and is based upon the fact of the existence and use of other currencies, and comes in to for 
 bid that any other currency should be forced upon the public, by forcing it on creditors. So 
 long as the creditor may lawfully demand gold and silver coins in payment of debts, his rights 
 are sufficiently well secured. Secondly, to put an interpretation on the Constitution, which 
 was contrary to the practice of the time, and which interferes with the necessities of society 
 at all times, would be absurd. Thirdly, the rule, as we interpret it, is all-sufficient, as it 
 leaves all currencies open to the test of gold and silver weighed. 
 
 The political effect of this rule. 
 
 The world is full of traders in money, or in the variety of currencies. The consequence. 
 
 19 
 
tinder this law of the Constitution, is, that every variety of currency is every day and every 
 hour brought to the fundamental standard, gold and silver. This is the practical effect of 
 the law, which was doubtless its intention, and which is as good a protection of the public 
 against laise and spurious currencies, as society can conveniently furnish. 
 
 What the people will have. 
 
 In a free country, and with a trading, enterprising people, it is of no use to legislate 
 against currencies, which the convenience of the public requires, and which the people will 
 have, law or no law. They are the best judges of their wants and necessities. A State, 
 for example, by an act of legislation, forbids the use of bank notes less than five dollars; 
 but if the people want them, smaller notes rush in from other States, and the law is nullified. 
 A State, it may be, thinks it best to try for an exclusive hard money currency by suppress 
 ing banks of issue and circulation. Immediately the country will be flooded with notes 
 issued on the credit of private and irresponsible persons, " payable in goods at my store," at 
 my price, and such like ; or payable in notes of a foreign State, if five or ten dollars shall be 
 presented at once, which is always inconvenient ; and the chances are many to one, that, in 
 the end, they will not be paid at all. Nevertheless, the people will use even such a cur 
 rency, in spite of all law. 
 
 Congress refused to re-charter the Banks of the District of Columbia, and forbade the 
 issue of notes less than five dollars, under severe penalties. The consequence was, that the 
 depreciated paper of banks foreign to the District, rushed in ; private persons set up bank 
 ing without authority, and threw out notes payable in foreign paper, on conditions little bet 
 ter than not payable at all ; shinplasters from unknown persons, of unknown value, and of 
 all denominations, from sixpence upwards, were thick as leaves in autumn ; and members of 
 the Government, law makers and law administrators, were compelled to use them, in the 
 face of their own penalties. 
 
 It is because the people will have a paper currency, however bad; or because they will 
 use it, whoever utters it, or whatever be the terms of redemption. Such is the experience 
 of the country. 
 
 Jin exclusive hard money currency impracticable. 
 
 As we have seen, coins are a credit currency ; but some think we ought to have no other. 
 A moment s reflection will show, that the present amount and activity of trade could not 
 possibly be carried on by such a currency. If, for example, all the trade of the city of New 
 York were forced into this mode, it would probably take all the dealers to count it, and all 
 the porters and carters to deliver it ; if all the trade of the United States were compelled to 
 be carried on in this way. it might require all our navy to protect the many millions of spe 
 cie that would be constantly afloat, and the army to guard the many millions more passing 
 by land, besides all other expenses and hazards of transportation. The bare expense of an 
 exclusive metallic currency, for the present amount of the trade of the world, would in a 
 short time be equal to its entire value. Such a currency would, therefore, be perfectly 
 impracticable. It would stop itself, and stop trade, except in the small way of barbarians 
 An exclusive hard money currency seems to have stopped at the line which separates bar 
 barism from civilisation, freedom from despotism. 
 
 The best currency. 
 
 Except for small cash, in the way of change, and so long as the currency is so regulated 
 as to be convertible into specie on demand, the best currency is that which combines con 
 venience and the least intrinsic value ; and that is paper, which costs almost nothing. No 
 thing is more convenient, and nothing costs less. Hence its use. All that the holders of 
 paper money want to know, is, that it is good for its face, and will pass for that ; in other 
 words, that the bank will pay specie for it ; and that makes it good. The less its intrinsic 
 value, so much the better. When it is too much worn for use, the bank takes it, and 
 nothing is lost ; if it should be burnt, or sunk in the sea, or dropped by the way and never 
 found, still nothing is lost, except to the owner ; and he may be indemnified, if he can prove 
 his loss, and specify the note or notes. In such a case, the bank is obliged to pay him, dol 
 lar for dollar. 
 
 It is apparent, therefore, that paper is the best currency in the world, so long as it is good 
 for the amount in specie. It is-most convenient, least expensive, and the safest. Among 
 the inventions of trade, it is the ne plus ultra of modern civilisation. 
 
 The proper functions of gold and silver as money. 
 
 ^ Except for small cash or change, trade requires but a very small fraction of the gold and 
 silver employed in the office of money, to be in actual circulation ; nor is it possible it should 
 
 20 
 
be, in the present amount and activity of trade. It is more economical, as well as more con 
 venient and more safe, it is absolutely necessary, that the great bulk of it should He in 
 deposit as the basis of the circulating medium. It does not require to be moved at all, 
 except in such quantities as may be necessary to restore the balance of trade between com 
 mercial points, when one has become indebted to another, as New York to Boston, or Phila 
 delphia, or Baltimore, or Cincinnati, or New Orleans, and vice versa. In such cases of the 
 indebtedness of one place to another, which cannot be settled in the way of trade, specie 
 travels to balance the account. In the same manner, present demands are settled between 
 our own and foreign countries, on whichever side they may be. Except for this great func 
 tion, the great bulk of specie lies still, and is represented in the trading world by more con 
 venient and less expensive currencies. Such is and necessarily always will be the actual 
 operation of the commercial world. 
 
 The American Banking System. 
 
 It is natural, certainly best, that the banking system of every country should be adapted 
 to the genius and wants of the people. Hence, banking, as it grew up among us, had re 
 spect to the resources of the country, and the enterprise of our population. " Money makes 
 the mare go." We had great resources, but wanted means to develope them, and thus to 
 augment our wealth. To this end an augmentation of the circulating medium, over and 
 above the specie basis, seemed to be required. How could this fairly and prudently be done? 
 
 Why thu-s: Here is real estate worth at any time a hundred thousand dollars ; and here 
 are ten thousand dollars in gold and silver. Put these one hundred and ten thousand dollars 
 together, under statute regulations, as a capital held liable for the debts of its trustees in 
 their corporate capacity, and give them leave to issue on this basis not more than thirty 
 thousand dollars of a paper currency, for which this capital is held exclusively liable. If the 
 trust is honestly administered and the penalties of fraud should be exemplary the security 
 is ample, and the public are safe. In case of suspension, the capital is three to one of the 
 claims against it. 
 
 Now, although this case does not indicate all the usual functions of banking, nor in all 
 cases its exact shapes, it is sufficient to characterize the great principle of our American 
 system, to wit, to provide a circulating medium equal to the wants of the country, with a 
 suitable regard to the safety of bill-holders and other creditors. 
 
 How such a system operates. 
 
 With the exuberance of our resources and enterprise, it affords the means of multiplying 
 wealth in a manifold degree. Instead of one dollar to trade with, we have several, and they 
 are all good, being convertible into specie on demand; or if, in an extraordinary crisis, the 
 banks are forced to suspend for a season, the notes are still good, while the capital liable is 
 two, three, or five to one of the demands. 
 
 The hazards of such a system. 
 
 When properly managed and the law should secure this end the only hazard is that ol 
 suspension in an extraordinary emergency of trade. Rightly understood, this need be no sub 
 ject of alarm, as it is known by the conditions of the law, that the banks are allowed to issue 
 more paper than they have specie in deposit ; and consequently, if surprised by a run, or 
 by a demand in excess of the deposits, that they are obliged to suspend. But the abundance 
 of other capital held liable, is a sufficient security. 
 
 The benefits. 
 
 It augments the circulating medium, the soundness of which cannot be questioned, because 
 it is proved every day at the banks, and thus gives scope to enterprise, and increased facili 
 ties to trade. It is to this system of a sound credit currency, that, as a nation, we owe our 
 unrivalled march to prosperity and wealth. By the use of the principle, of credit, thus modi 
 fied and guarded, it has anticipated means, and produced incalculable wealth out of resources 
 which otherwise must have lain dormant. 
 
 The Credit principle. 
 
 Credit is morality, and the exact measure of the soundness of the social state. To think 
 of living without it, is turning the eye and footsteps back to a state of barbarism. Credit is 
 the moral peculiarity of civilisation. 
 
 Origin of the war on the credit system of this country. 
 
 The President of the United States that once was having been used to command, and 
 being little tolerant of opposition, proposed, without any right, a man whom he wished ap* 
 
 21 
 
6 
 
 pointed president of one of the branches of the United States Bank ; but Ihe head and di 
 rectors of that institution, very unwisely perhaps, declined the ofier. Whereupon, the Pre 
 sident of the United States flew into a passion, and swore the destruction of the bank. " Be 
 hold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth !" The said President of the United Slates, 
 when he came into power, as much expected to sign a bill to re-charter the bank, as to do 
 anything else. But this affair altered the case, and he had them in his power. 
 
 Stages of the conflict. 
 
 On the part of the President of the United States, 1. Veto of the bill to re-charter the bank. 
 2. Eemoval of Deposits. 3. Loaning the Deposits. 4. Specie circular. 5. Invoking the 
 multiplication of State banks. 
 
 ., First effect. 
 
 The destruction of that part of our currency that was properly national, struck out of ex 
 istence the balance power, the regulator of the currency of the country, in consequence of 
 which an unsuitable and unsafe number of State banks, and a vast amount of merely nomi 
 nal banking capital, sprung up, like Jonah s gourd, to die as quick. 
 
 It appears by the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, (House Doc. No. Ill, second 
 session, Twenty-sixth Congress) that the increase of banks from 1820 to 1830, was only 22, 
 and the increase of bank capital, for the same period, only $8,000,000. During this time 
 the influence of the national regulator kept the unhealthy growth of State banks in check. 
 But, behold the change ! From the same document, as above, it appears that the increase of 
 banks, from 1830 to 1840, was 392, (including branches, 571), and that the increase of bank 
 ing capital for the same period, was $213,000,000 ! It also appears, that this rapid increase 
 did not begin till the fate of the national bank was sealed. 
 
 Another effect. 
 
 A large portion, of these banks failed, and the capital vanished, as might have been ex 
 pected. The United States Almanac, for 1843, (which we suppose is good authority), states 
 the number of bank failures, as a consequence of the revulsion of 1837-42, at 116; the losses 
 on bank circulation and deposits, $54,000,000; and on bank capital, $248,000,000. This is 
 a heavy reckoning for the loss of a regulator. But the effect on the country, in all forms, is 
 also to be considered. 
 
 Who are the bank gamblers ? 
 
 In the increase of banks, from 1830 to 1840, more than two thirds of them were created by 
 that political party that has taken the lead in denouncing banks ; and well they might de 
 nounce them, for more than half of their own creation have failed, while all but Jive created 
 by their opponents, during the same period, had resumed specie payments early in 1842, thus 
 proving their soundness. 
 
 When a bank failure was rare* 
 
 During the existence of a national institution as a balance power, it was seldom the coun 
 try witnessed such an event as a bank failure ; but since this regulating influence was re 
 moved, the whole country has been devastated by bank explosions; and the United States bank 
 itself, after it became a State institution, was swept away in the general vortex. 
 
 How the United States Bank became corrupt. 
 
 There is no evidence that this bank was unsound, while it was a national institution, but 
 the contrary, if the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It always discharged its functions 
 as fiscal agent of the Government with fidelity, without reward and without loss to the pub 
 lic ; it yielded up the Government deposits on demand ; the Government stock of six millions, 
 and the dividends thereon, amounting to upwards of a million, were all realized ; and it serv 
 ed the country equally well in the various functions of supply, regulator, and conservator of 
 the currency. No man, or woman, or child, ever lost anything by it. 
 
 But, being driven off from its connection with the general Government, it was compelled, 
 with its large capital, to take refuge under the wing of one of the States, where there was no 
 room for it. It was like putting a seventy-four gun ship in a mill pond. Doomed to strug 
 gle against the continued and active hostility of the national Executive, it was tempted, for 
 the employment of its capital, to go beyond the legitimate sphere of banking, into the field 
 of commercial adventure, and commenced buying and selling cotton, &c., thus putting in jeo 
 pardy its capital and credit, till all was lost in the unanticipated revulsion of trade. Perse 
 cution furnished the plea of necessity; necessity led to crime; and crime ended in ruin pre 
 cisely as a man becomes a bandit, when society sets itself against him for a supposed offence, 
 
 22 
 
and then lives on the spoils of his victims. It was the action of the genera. Government, 
 after and because it became a State institution, that tempted it to crime, and the vengeance 
 of Federal power that sealed its doom. 
 
 Some specific results of this contest. 
 
 First, the balance power of the currency was broken down. What followed that, we have 
 een. Next, the public funds, which the constitution had assigned to the custody of the legis- 
 .ative branch of the Government, got into wrong hands. Thirdly, they were used, in the 
 way of their disposal, to carry on this feud. Fourthly, loaning the depositvS was another 
 stage of the same quarrel. Some forty millions, that had thus been forced out of constitu 
 tional custody, into ninety-six banks, were ordered to be loaned equally unconstitutional. 
 A cashier of one of the pet banks, in Wall street, said, (as stated by Mr. Webster in his 
 speech on the currency, at New York, 1840), " he hardly knew what to do, for he was or 
 dered to loan more of the public money than he could find security for." The money was 
 forced on speculators. 
 
 The effect of loaning the deposits. 
 
 It was a temptation, an enticement to general extravagance and wild speculation, and the 
 whole country, individuals, corporations, and States, were seduced by the bait. Banks grew 
 up like mushrooms, States launched out in internal improvements, and the whole community 
 was infected with the madness of the time. The inflation of credit, produced by this cause, 
 was unnatural, and doomed to burst. Ordinarily, trade, in its natural action, though in con 
 stant vibration, will regulate itself; but this unnatural impulse forced the pendulum to a 
 fearful height, and its backward sweep put the whole machinery out of order. 
 
 Jl proof of this. 
 
 The history of the State debts shows, that from 1820 to 1825, the increase of State bonds 
 was $12,000,000; from 1825 to 1830, the increase was $13,000,000; from 1830 to 1835, 
 when this stimulant began to operate, the increase suddenly rose to $40,000,000 ; and from 
 1835 to 1840, it was $109,000,000, nearly the whole of which was issued in 1835 and 1836, 
 before the destruction of general credit. The imports of 1836, tempted by the same seduc 
 tive influences, were $61,000,000 in excess of the exports; and the home speculations and 
 adventures, prompted by this cause, were on the same scale of extravagance. The peoplt 
 -were unnaturally stimulated to excess by the action of the general Government. 
 
 *fl Compact. 
 
 It cannot be denied, that there was a virtual compact in these encouragements to specula 
 tion held out by the general Government to the States and people of the Union. The invest 
 ment of the surplus revenue in State bonds, was publicly talked of in Congress, and a Sena 
 tor, regarded as an organ of the administration, said in his place, " that he was not afraid to 
 recommend such an investment of the national funds, as the States would issue as many bonds 
 as the Government might choose to buy." That the seducer should afterwards turn round, 
 and accuse and berate his victims for the crime of seduction, was not very kind. 
 
 The effects of the specie circular. 
 
 That was cruel. But it had now become necessary to break down all speculators, thus 
 tempted into the field individuals, banks, States, and all in order to break down the prince 
 of speculators at Philadelphia. The specie that was indispensable to sustain even tolerably 
 the excess of credit occasioned by loaning the deposits, was suddenly withdrawn from under 
 this stupendous superstructure, and sent to places where it was not wanted and down came 
 everything. Individuals went down in heaps, banks blew up in scores, States reeled on their 
 foundations and the whole country was prostrated. 
 
 Remai ks. 
 
 The destruction of credit, and the great revulsion of trade in 1837-42, and the consequent 
 calamities, public and private, have been ascribed to criminal overtradincr, extravagant spe 
 culations, and excessive use of credit, not, perhaps, untruthfully. But all the blame has been 
 cast on the people. It was the Government that brought this charge, to screen their own 
 faults, while they were the cause of it all. Nobody ever knew trade or credit hurt itself, 
 when left to itself, except in particular instances. A man, now and then, may commit sui 
 cide ; but a whole community never killed themselves in a heap ; nor did trade or credit, as 
 the attribute of a people, ever commit suicide. It is too sagacious, too vigilant, and has too 
 much interest at stake. It would be a paradox. Nothing but high and overruling causes, 
 independent of itself and superior to itself, can disappoint trade, or destroy credit, through- 
 
 23 
 
8 
 
 out the ranks of an entire community. But trade and credit, with all their sagacity, could 
 never foresee such freaks as the Government of this country has played with them, or such 
 folly and rashness as they have been doomed to encounter in the governing powers. The 
 trade and credit of the country fell before the strong arm of Government arrayed against them 
 in forms unanticipated, and till the facts occurred, inconceivable. It was impossible for the 
 nation to stand up under such fitful and disastrous changes of public policy, on such momen 
 tous matters. 
 
 Result. 
 
 We had a good banking system, a good currency, a prosperous state of trade, and were 
 doing well. But it was crushed. 
 
 One error leads to a thousand. 
 
 It may ruin a world, and has done so. The removal of the deposits was an act of arbi 
 trary power in a momentous concern it was a violation of the Constitution. The great 
 machinery of public finances, once out of order, there was no end to it. It is not rectified 
 even yet. 
 
 The functions of a currency in the body politic. 
 
 ft is as blood to the animal economy. Disturb it, or vitiate it, or impair it, or tie up its 
 veins, or overcharge it, or drain it, or dam up its courses, or put clogs and trammels on its 
 action, or in any way treat it rudely and unskilfully, the effect is precisely the same on the 
 health and wealth of the nation, as is produced by a like treatment of the vital current, 
 functions, and organs of the human body. 
 
 Jl Quack Doctor. 
 
 A certain doctor gave out that a certain great animal was too plethoric, and required 
 bleeding; but the blood being precious, he proposed to infuse it by injection into the bodies 
 of certain other animals of the same genus. But it only threw them into a fever. He then 
 proposed to draw it off again, and infuse it into the veins of the people. But it gave the 
 people a fever. Then he thought it would better suit the bodies of the backwoodsmen, 
 and he gave it to them by a like process. But, unfortunately, all the bodies thus practised 
 upon, rather grew worse, and showed symptoms of a fatal termination. The virus, once 
 communicated, became a raging epidemic. States caught it, cities and villages caught it, all 
 manner of corporations caught it, individuals caught it, the whole nation was seized of it, 
 new and artificial beings started into mushroom life, to get a little of the blood, and, after a 
 feverish existence, died. At last, the fever being spent, there was an universal collapse, and 
 all remedies failed to bring the patients to. 
 
 Can this country do without a bank paper medium 1 
 
 We have shown that it cannot do without a paper medium, nor does any sensible man 
 dream that it can. The question, then, is, whether we shall use the paper of private and 
 irresponsible persons, who are a law unto themselves, or whether we shall have a law-regu 
 lated currency, involving in it a proper responsibility to the public ? Manifestly, there can 
 be but one answer to this question. The people have decided in favor of a mixed currenc-Y, 
 that they may always have a choice between gold, silver, and paper. 
 
 Question of a national paper medium. 
 
 The next question is, whether it is best for the States alone to furnish a paper currency, 
 or whether we shall have a national paper medium also ? If experience be of any weight, 
 we all know that we have always had trouble, and infinite trouble, when the States alone 
 have done this. It was so before we had a national paper medium ; it was so from 1811 to 
 1816, when we were left to be supplied by the State Banks alone ; and we again find it has 
 been so ever since the national paper medium has been last withdrawn nothing but trouble 
 and infinite loss ; whereas, during the twice twenty years of a national paper currency, all 
 went well, and no nation ever had a better currency. Are not these facts worth something 1 
 Ought they not to be conclusive ? 
 
 Which is the safest ? 
 
 It is a notable fact that neither the government nor people have ever lost the first cpnt by 
 a national bank, and that both and all have realized incalculable benefits. But all the 
 cheating, all the bank frauds, and all the losses complained of, as falling on the public 
 through the agency of banks, have come from State institutions. These, certainly, are prett? 
 strong facts. 
 
9 
 
 It is, undoubtedly, true that the power of the General Government over a national insti 
 tution, to prevent fraud, is much more effective than that of the States over their institutions. 
 The skill of legislation in the former case, is of a higher order, as combining the concentrated 
 wisdom of the nation, and they are exempt from log-rolling. The vigilance of the nation is 
 greater a thousand eyes to one. It would be next to impossible for a national institution to 
 cheat the public. Although accused of that propensity, if tlie charge be just, the fact that 
 it has not been done, proves that it could not be. But the State Banks have been for ever 
 cheating us, and never so much as in the absence and for want of a national institution. 
 When the cat is away, the mice are bold. 
 
 But it is the moneyed power we have to fear. 
 
 As to that, the appeal comes too late, when we have seen a bank of a hundred million 
 power crushed by the hand of a single man, and that without the least difficulty, in the mere 
 wantonness of power. The power over banks is always in the hands of government, in other 
 words, of the people, at whose bidding they rise, and stand, or fall. 
 
 Moreover, if it is moneyed power we have to fear, the putting out of the way of a na 
 tional bank of thirty-five millions of capital, to give place to some four hundred state banks, 
 with more than two hundred millions of capital, was something like jumping out of the frying- 
 pan into the fire. That we did jump into the fire, and got well singed, is, alas, too true. 
 
 Jin Jlllegory. 
 
 The head of a great family saw the big old Newfoundland family dog, in his path, and 
 cried out unto his sons "MAD DOG !" Whereupon the youngsters seized their rifles, gave 
 chace, and shot him down. But it turned out that he was in no wise mad at all, and the loss 
 was grievous. He had been especially useful in keeping the numerous pack of small dogs 
 in order. The moment he was dead, the small dogs broke loose, many of them ran rnad and 
 bit numbers of the family. N. B. One of the family took the carcase of the old Newfound 
 land, and undertook to galvanize it. He jumped a little, and then fell down, to jump 
 no more. 
 
 The regulating power of a national paper medium. 
 
 In the absence of this, the State banks have always played the mischief with us ; in its 
 presence, no State bank of unsound capital has dared to make its appearance; or if so, its 
 frauds were sure to be detected and exposed. Another 3 most important office of a national 
 paper medium, as we have seen, has been to repress the excessive increase of banks and 
 bank capital. 
 
 The universal credit of a national paper medium. 
 
 This is indispensable to the domestic trade and the domestic commercial relations of the 
 people of this country. A man starts on a journey with current money of the State banks, 
 and at the end of the first stage, it becomes uncurrent. The further he goes, the worse it is; 
 and the time has been, when a traveller might lose fifty per cent, on the money he set out 
 with, before he gets to the end of his journey. It is the same in remittances. We have lost 
 forty-five per cent, on money received as a remittance at the city of Washington, which was 
 ac par in the State where it came from. But between the remotest points of the Union, the 
 discount on a national currency could not exceed one cent and a half on a hundred ; generally 
 it would be nothing ; rarely over half a cent. 
 
 The credit of a national paper medium abroad. 
 
 It is a.s good at London, Paris, St. Petersburg, Constantinople or Canton, as at New York, 
 Philadelphia, or New Orleans ; whereas, our State bank paper is good for nothing abroad. 
 Such credit of our national paper medium abroad is of incalculable importance to a great 
 commercial nation like ours, and has been one of the proudest attributes of our national cha 
 racter. 
 
 Influence of a national paper medium on domestic exchanges. 
 
 It regulates, equalizes and facilitates them between the remotest points of the Union, so 
 that all accounts of debt and credit at these distances, can be balanced at a most trifling rate 
 of discount. 
 
 A national paper medium, indeed, is almost, if not quite as necessary, as the constitutional 
 tender, and discharges nearly the same functions exactly the same, so long as it is redeem 
 able in specie. 
 
 Jl national paper medium insures a sound paper currency everywhere. 
 Nobody would tolerate an unsound national bank currency, nor have we ever had one; 
 2 25 
 
10 
 
 nor would a national institution tolerate an unsound State Dank currency; Consequently, 
 in the co-existence of these two kinds, we are sure to have an universally sound currency. 
 But whenever these have ceased to co-exist, we have had a bad currency. 
 
 JH national paper currency indispensable to supply an adequate circulating 
 
 medium. 
 
 Everybody feels, and it is apparent, that we have not an adequate circulating medium, 
 now, 1843. It has been growing less and less, tighter and tighter, for ?. longtime. In some 
 parts of the interior of Pennsylvania, the people have been obliged to divide bank notes into 
 halves, quarters, eighths, and so on, and agree from necessity to use them as money. In 
 Ohio, with all her abundance, it has been hard to get money to pay taxes. The Sheriff of 
 Muskingum County, as stated by the Guernsey Times, in the summer of 1842, sold at auc 
 tion one four-horse waggon, at $5 50 ; 10 hogs at 6J- cents each ; two horses (said to be 
 worth from $50 to $75 each) at $2 each ; two cows at $1 each ; a barrel of sugar for $1 50 ; 
 and a " store of goods" at that rate. In Pike County, Mo., as stated by the Hannibal Jour 
 nal last winter, the Sheriff sold 3 horses at $1 50 each; 1 large ox at 12J cents; 5 cows, 
 2 steers, and 1 calf, the lot, at $3 25 ; 20 sheep at I3i cents each ; 24 hogs, the lot, at 25 
 cents; 1 eight-day clock, at $2 50 ; lot of tobacco, 7 or 8 hogsheads, at $5 ; 3 stacks of hay, 
 each, at 25 cents ; and 1 stack of fodder, at 25 cents. 
 
 Thus has property been sacrificed in all parts of the country, because there was no money 
 to buy it. But we need not prove what all know. 
 
 The amount of our circulating medium at different periods. 
 
 By a Congressional Document, before quoted, (No. Ill, H. R. 2d Sess. 26th Congress), it 
 appears, that the circulation of the banks, in 1830, was $61,000,000 ; in 1835, $103,000,000 ; 
 in 1836, $140,000,000; in 1837, $149,000,000; in 183 8, $116,000,000; in 1839, $135,000,000; 
 in 1840, $106,000,000 ; and the United States Almanac quotes it for 1841 at $115,000,000, 
 and for 1842, at $63,800,000. It is now, in 1843, supposed to be about $50,000.000 proba 
 bly less. Some put it at $40,000,000. The last we think is nearest the truth. 
 
 Some take it for granted, that the circulation of the years of excessive trade, 1835 and 
 1836, to the explosion of 1837, was much greater than usual, and greater than was neces 
 sary for a suitable amount of trade. That it was very much more active than usual, is 
 doubtless true. But the excesses of that time did not necessarily require an excess of the 
 circulating medium, nor is there evidence that it was materially swelled on that account. 
 The excesses were committed chiefly by the abuse of credit, though doubtless the actual cir 
 culation was many times more active than usual ; but it does not appear, that it was much, 
 if at all greater in amount than the trade of the country, in a prosperous state, usually 
 requires. 
 
 The circulating medium of England. 
 
 In 1836, it was $280,000,000, while the aggregate of her imports and exports, for the 
 same year, was $480,000,000. Manifestly, other things being equal, England could do a 
 given amount of business, connected with imports and exports, on a less amount of circulat 
 ing medium than we can, as it is chiefly done at London and Liverpool, where the circulation 
 is prodigiously active. Yet our circulating medium in 1836 was only $140,000,000 for an 
 aggregate of $318,000,000 of imports and exports. An equal proportion of circxilation for 
 us would have been about $190,000,000. These facts may serve to show, that as a commer 
 cial rival of England, we shall stand a poor chance, with a circulating medium of $50,000,000, 
 while she employs nearly six times that amount. Our field of trade is vastly wider, and our 
 uninvoked resources immeasurably greater; but for want of an adequate circulating medium, 
 we can neither cultivate the one, nor call out the other, as our interests claim. Relatively, 
 we are at present in the retrograde movement. 
 
 Our imports of Specie. 
 
 From Senate Document, No. 290, 1st Session, 26th Congress, Report of the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, it appears that, from 1834 to 1838, the imports of specie were in our favor by 
 an aggregate of nearly fifty millions in five years ; but in 1839, the balance was against us, 
 as compared with 1838, by about twenty-five millions, with a positive loss of eight millions, 
 The drain of specie from us continued, till the Tariff of 1842 put a stop to it, ana for the first 
 six months of 1843, the return of specie upon us has been at the rate of nearly thirty millions 
 a year. Never, in our history, have we had such a rapid acquisition of the basis of a circu 
 lating medium. And surely, it was wanted bad enough. 
 
 What occasions a general bank suspension. 
 
 It is the want of a suitable Tariff to keep money in the country. By buying of foreign 
 
 26 
 
11 
 
 nations more than we sell to them, the balance of trade falls against us, which can only be 
 settled by drafts on our specie. As most of this lies in bank vaults, the notes of our 
 banks are bought up by the agents of foreign creditors, directly or indirectly, and presented 
 for payment in specie for exportation, to satisfy these foreign demands. The only alternatives 
 left, are for the banks to suspend, or the country be deprived of a circulating medium. 
 
 It is scarcely possible for a general bank suspension to occur under suitable Tariff regula 
 tions, uniformly maintained by our Government. It is true, indeed, that our foreign indebted- 
 ness, in the shape of state bonds, &c., might, in a given exigency, occasion the same result, 
 on the same principle. But a suitable Tariff may be made to operate, in the manner of a 
 sinking fund, to settle the whole of that account, and our country be amply supplied, in the 
 meantime, with a circulating medium. 
 
 It cannot be objected to this, that the country is taxed to pay this foreign debt. It is not so, 
 while domestic competition in the manufactures protected, makes the articles cheaper 
 than they would be in open and free trade with foreign countries, and while the market for 
 the products of our own soil is not injured, but rather improved, as can be shown. Conse 
 quently, all parties, and the country itself, are enriched, except that the profits of the import 
 trade may be diminished. Bui what right have importers to demand an extent of trade in 
 their line, that shall bring a balance against the country, as heretofore, and thus impoverish 
 us all ? 
 
 Trade a part of National jurisdiction. 
 
 "We have a republic of trade to take care of, as well as a jurisdiction of soil, and the rights 
 of both are equally sacred. The former is always more exposed to foreign influence than 
 the latter. We may get into the hands of foreigners before we kno,w it. Everybody knows 
 that a producer will come to ruin, that buys moie than he sells, and that he cannot get rich 
 unless he sells more than he buys. It is precisely with a nation as with an individual. If 
 the Government allows the traders with foreign parts to run the nation in debt, by bringing 
 to the home market more than they carry to foreign markets, the nation must, sooner or hiler, 
 stop payment, and a general bank suspension is the mode, or a ruinous contraction of the cir 
 culating medium. Traders between nations will make all they can out of both sides, though 
 a nation be ruined. They would not injure the country wantonly, but they must get rich, 
 and be " merchant princes." The responsibility lies with the Government that permitted it. 
 
 Banks in a state of suspension may yet be sound. 
 
 Their degree of soundness is daily proved by the discount at the money brokers, whose 
 counters are the specie standard. There it is quickly found out, whether the discount is 
 merely the usual penalty of suspension, or whether there is fear for the bank. 
 
 Jl duty of Government. 
 
 It is the duty of Government to provide, that there be no necessity or apology for a general 
 Dank suspension, by its care of the trade of the country. The necessity of a general suspen 
 sion arises from our buying of foreign countries more than we sell to them in other words, 
 running in debt. A nation is an individual among nations, and, like any individual person, 
 may be forced to stop payment. Nothing but the Government of a nation is competent to 
 bar this result, by stepping in and saying to importers, Ye shall not bring goods here to run 
 us in debt. In other words, by enacting a suitable Tariff. 
 
 Reason of this obligation. 
 
 Trade is a complicated machinery, of many parts, many chains, and many links, each 
 trader occupying the place of a link, connected with others by the interest of the parties. It 
 is the interest of the importer to buy and sell all he can, tempting his customers, till they 
 are involved in bankruptcy. It is impossible for the public, the secondary parties, to know 
 that bankruptcy is coming, till it has come. But the Government can know it, if they are fit 
 to be governors, and ought to prevent it. 
 
 There can be no adequate basis of a currency without an adequate Tariff. 
 In the absence of a suitable Tariff, specie is withdrawn from the country, as was the case 
 m the operation of the Compromise Act, in its last stages, by the fall of duties. It then 
 becomes impossible to support an adequate circulating medium redeemable in specie. But 
 the Tariff of 1842 is now restoring to us the basis of a sound currency, and if it should not 
 be disturbed, there is every prospect that we shall, ere long, have an abundant and sound 
 circulating medium. But nothing could be more unfortunate for the country, than to check 
 this return of specie, by impairing the instrument that brings it back. 
 
 27 
 
12 
 
 Jl contingent prospect. 
 
 ^ We have now a chance of being rescued from our great misfortunes, if we should be pru 
 dent enough to let well alone. Life is returning, vigor begins to reanimate the body politic, 
 the nation, lately shorn of its locks, shows symptoms of reviving energy. By fostering the 
 labor and stimulating the enterprise of our own population, and protecting our manufactures 
 from a ruinous competition with the sejf labor of foreign despots, we are laying a sure foun 
 dation for a sound and adequate currency ; but, undermine this structure, prostrate this 
 agency, and we are down again as a nation. 
 
 The greatest good of the greatest number. 
 
 There may be a/ew who will make less money in consequence of the Tariff. The import 
 ing merchant, whose interest it is to buy as cheap as he can, sell as high as he can, and as 
 quick as he can, might, doubtless, acquire more wealth, if trade were perfectly free to him all 
 the world over. So, also, might it be with his carrier, till a foreign carrier shall underbid 
 1dm, when free trade shall be open to that vocation. But the great mass of our population 
 Would suffer by it ; for there is not a single article of our domestic manufactures which 
 will not come cheaper by competition under protection than without it, and the products of 
 our soil will have a better market. We produce certain things which foreign nations must 
 kave, and what they do not want they have already prohibited. 
 
 Political anatomy. 
 
 As a nation depletion had been practised upon us by the doctors till we were well nigh 
 dead. But the specie that is now returning to the country, under the operation of the Tariff, 
 is our life-blood. Nevertheless, it requires a heart, arteries, and veins for distribution. It is 
 not enough for the human body that the blood be chiefly on one side, while the heart and the 
 other side are nearly destitute. That is disease paralysis. A universal distribution of the 
 vital element is required for health. The great arteries must be filled, and the heart, by its 
 vigorous functions, must regulate the pulsations of every part to the surface and to the 
 extremities. 
 
 The specie that is now returning, as a basis of trade, cannot circulate in its own proper 
 form commensurate wiih ihe demands of trade. It is a physical impossibility. It might do so 
 for the small trade of barbarians, but the immense trade of this immense country cannot be 
 earned on in this way. Banks, as organs of circulation, are indispensable. Hence 
 
 The necessity of a re-organization of our currency system, or a return to the. 
 
 old one. 
 
 The specie that is now returning, for the most part, lies dead in the vaults of the Atlantic 
 cities, with little service to the country at large. Our vast interior, that needs it most, scarcely 
 feels it. It is because our currency system has been deranged and broken down. The 
 fclood is on one side, and beats but faintly at the heart. It is paralysis. The banks, where 
 the specie is being heaped up, dare not extend their circulation, not even equal to the 
 demands of their own regions, for they do not know how the Government will treat them. 
 A stage of returning prosperity is arrived at, but a platform for the next stage, for a consum 
 mation, is wanting. 
 
 Turn, and twist, and agonize as we may, it will be found impossible for this great work to 
 be properly and well done, till the general Government shall have taken the business in 
 charge, and set up an Agency that shall be able to lay its broad hand upon the nation, and 
 reach every part of it with its fingers. All experience has proved, that the State banks, 
 besides being unsafe, while operating alone in this field, are incompetent to the task. They 
 have never done this duty well ; they cannot do it. 
 
 The Constitutional question. 
 
 To debate the right of the general Government to authorize a national paper medium, 
 after the Supreme Judiciary has repeatedly, and each time with unanimity, decided the ques 
 tion, and after all the Presidents of the United States, except one, and an Acting President, 
 have concurred, would seem superfluous. The right of the States to do this, might, perhaps, 
 be questioned, if usage had not sanctioned it. None will deny, that the design of the Consti 
 tution, in giving power to Congress " to coin money," and withholding that power from the 
 States, was to secure a uniform currency ; nor will it be denied, that the power to issue a 
 paper medium, exists somewhere. 
 
 But, a paper medium being the chief currency of the country at all times, it is, in 
 fact, more influential in maintaining or disturbing uniformity, than coins. Besides, a con 
 stitutional power given for a specific end, implies the means indispensable to that end, else it 
 
 28 
 
13 
 
 is no power at all. And so says the Constitution itself: " Congress shall have power to 
 make all laws, which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing 
 powers." 
 
 Consequently, as a paper medium always has been and is the chief currency of the coun 
 try, the end of uniformity would be totally subverted, if this power be denied to the general 
 Government. Better far, to have given the power of coining money to the States, and that 
 of supplying the paper medium lo the national authorities. 
 
 If, therefore, it is the right and duty of the general Government " to coin money," it is 
 Also their right and duty to furnish a paper currency, so long as it is used as a part of the cir 
 culating medium of the country. 
 
 Independence of ike international currency. 
 
 By international currency, we mean gold and silver weighed in the scales, which is the 
 only common currency of the whole world ; and by its independence, we mean, that no na 
 tional legislation, or despotic power, can control it, but it controls them. This truth secures 
 a great, important, practical, public good : viz. that no nation or state, no corporation* 
 or individuals, can, at any time or anywhere, put forth a currency that will not instantly be 
 proved by this. This state of things results from the fact, that the whole civilized world has 
 become a domestic scene, one trading family, all parts of which are governed by this one law* 
 It is impossible that insurrection against it, though a conspiracy of nations should engage in 
 it, should start up anywhere with hope of success. This great conventional law of the 
 commercial world, which owes its origin to no human leaislation, but to the provisions of 
 nature, would put them all down, and has done it repeatedly and uniformly. 
 
 Inferences. 
 
 It will follow, that all legislation on banking and the currency must have respect to this 
 controlling principle, else it will come to bad. It also follows, that the public are protected 
 by these provisions of nature against the quackery of legislation, the power of despots, and 
 the arts of smaller swindlers, so far as the recognition of true money is concerned. 
 
 # practical distinction. 
 
 The difference between international currency, gold and silver weighed, and the legalized 
 currencies of states and nations, is of practical importance, chiefly political. It is impossible 
 to apply the common test of the great commercial world, to wit, the scales, to the common 
 currency of a nation, in its common uses. It is obliged to be built up on a credit foundation; 
 but it is of supreme political importance to the state, to see, that there is no cheat in it, as it 
 cannot escape the test of the scales. 
 
 The political vitality of an established national currency system. 
 Whatever may have been the currency system of a country, there is a political vitality in 
 it that cannot be tampered or trifled with. If the Government invades it, it stabs itself, 
 as well as the nation, to the heart. In every national currency, whether gold and silver 
 coins alone, or mixed with paper, there is necessarily involved a credit system. To make 
 war on this system, is striking, with murderous weapons, at the vitals of the body politic 
 for nothing can be more vital than the monetary system of a nation. The trade, in other 
 words, the business of the people, in all its branches, the public finances, and the machinery 
 of Government, all depend on this, and go by this, or else cannot go at all. 
 
 Disasters of change in a national currency system. 
 
 In a great commercial community like ours so peculiarly and actively commercial a 
 great and radical change in the currency system cannot but be disastrous. Individual habits 
 may be changed, at least gradually modified, though it is hard work ; but to change the 
 social and political habits of a nation, suddenly and radically, in so important a matter as 
 their commercial economy or currency system, is like the march of a revolution. 
 
 J? Government Sank. 
 
 It is only within a few years that much has been said on this subject, and it is not, perhaps, 
 generally well understood. But it is important it should be understood, as efforts have re 
 cently been made to establish such an institution or rather, to extend the Constitution of 
 the United States, by enlarging the powers of Government; for such is its effect, and that, 
 too, in a very important point of view. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren s Subtreasury was a Government banK m embryo, and Mr. Tvler s Ex 
 chequer was its. consummation. 
 
 29 
 
14 
 
 Banking is trading in money. It is one of the parts of society that is necessary to the 
 other parts, and like all other parts should be regulated by law. It is not a part of Govern 
 ment, and can never lawfully be so. It is a trade, not a governing power. To introduce it 
 into the Government, is adding to the Constitution ; for Government to assume it, is usurpa 
 tion. Such, in an incipient stage, was the Subtreasury ; and such, in the maturest form, was 
 the Exchequer. 
 
 Of all the agencies of society, banking requires the most rigid authority of law, and the 
 most watchful care of Government. It should be aware that a Master in the Government 
 ever stands by its side, and is ever looking into its concerns. But banking in the hands of 
 Government, as a part of its functions, has no master, but is a sovereign power. Why, Sirs, 
 it is frishlful to think that banking should have had even a chance of gaining such a position 
 in this free country ! But such, precisely, is the thing that has been proposed ! Nay, nay ! 
 We will have no such thing. Banking is a vocation to be governed, and well governed not 
 a power to govern. 
 
 What follows. 
 
 It does not necessarily follow, that we are to have an old-fashioned United States Bank, as 
 the common phrase is though it might be fair to ask what hurt it has done ? It always did 
 well as a regulator of the currency ; it always secured a good currency ; it facilitated and 
 equalized exchanges, and was in universal credit at home and abroad; it discharged all the 
 fiscal operations of Government forty years, without charge ; it was a safe deposit of public 
 funds ; and in all its functions served the Government and people well. These are facts, 
 But, nevertheless, it is not the mode of furnishing a national currency, that is of consequence ; 
 it is the principle : Separate it entirely from the Government, and govern it well. It should 
 be a creature, not a part of Government. Give it any improved form whatever, and throw 
 around it additional guards. It is always in the power of laws, under care of Government, 
 and in the hands of the people, as their servant and subject. Through their representatives, 
 they make and take care of it, and it is obliged to do as they bid. 
 
 A word on the Subtreasury. 
 
 It is a heartless, cold, selfish thing. It provides for the Government by robbing the people 
 And who are the Government ? What claims have they for such special care ? The inso 
 lence of the Subtreasury is astonishing, as if the Government were the nobility, and the 
 people serfs; as if the former were to be provided for, whatever becomes of the latter. WP 
 really cannot see the use of Government, if it does not take care of us, but only makes us 
 slaves, to take care of them. Better, as seems to us, to have no Government at all. 
 
 The authors of the Subtreasury, apparently conscious that, by breaking down the currency, 
 and ruining the trade of the country, they had driven the people out of house and home, and 
 deprived them of meat and clothing, seemed only anxious to provide a house for themselves, 
 and get something to live on in it. But the people, seeing how it was, turned them out, and 
 will doubtless take care that they do not get in again. 
 
 But the Exchequer plan went a little farther, and proposed to unite the supreme commer 
 cial power with the supreme political power, thereby putting it in the power of the President, 
 as master of the banking trade, and master of the authorities by which all other trades are 
 conducted, to control the trade of the country to control everything. 
 
 The last effort for a false system of currency. 
 
 It is apparent, that the principle of a Government bank is not yet dead, and that another 
 effort is likely to be made to revive it in a new form. The precise modification it may 
 assume, will depend on the necessities to which the arts of designing men may impel them; 
 but the principle will be United States Treasury credit hooked in, perhaps, or mixed up with 
 State banks another pet bank system. It will be an attempt to make Government credit an 
 swer the purpose of a common currency a thing impossible, if a uniform and stable currency 
 be required. Government credit can never be anything other than a subject of trade, to be 
 dealt in by bankers and brokers. Six months previous to the writing of this article, it was 
 bslow par; now it is above; and when this gets into the hands of readers there is no telling 
 where it -n ill be. 
 
 We ask the people one single question, which will bring the matter home to them : Are 
 you accustomed to see United States Treasury notes as a common currency? Such a thing 
 Was never known, and cannot be. You may see them passing over the counters of bankers 
 and brokers, in the way of trade, or in the hands of persons who want to keep money by 
 them; but the moment they want to use it, they sell it at a premium, or are obliged to get it 
 discounted, if it is below par. 
 
 Until we can get a national currency, a part of it as low as ten and five dollar notes, 
 
15 
 
 always of uniform value by being payable in specie, it will never become common to accom 
 modate the people. 
 
 What the abundance of money, and its low interest, teaches. 
 It is agreed, that now, in the middle of 1843, the best securities can get money at/ottr per 
 cent.) and it goes begging at that. This teaches, first, that the state of trade is very bad ; 
 for in a prosperous state of trade, the use of money commands a high price, and is difficult 
 to be got. Secondly, it teaches that capital is abundant for the revival and re-organization 
 of a suitable currency system. It would now be the easiest thing imaginable to re-establish an 
 institution for a national paper medium, provided that capitalists could have a reasonable 
 degree of confidence, that the policy of a Government, inviting such investment, would con 
 tinue uniform. A national bank, established for twenty years, would be a most attractive in 
 vestment of capital for these times. 
 
 Who are the democrats on the subject of banking. 
 
 The democrats, alias republicans, of 1816, (for the parties then were called Republicans and 
 Federalists, and knew no other names), gave us a bank, by 80 votes to 7 1 in the House, and 
 22 to 12 in the Senate. Let it be remembered, that it was the Republican or Democratic 
 party that gave us the United States bank, with James Madison, a democratic President. 
 But a new political sect has since arisen, professing to stand and walk in the democratic 
 shoes; but, in fact, they are Federalists of the worst stamp, uniting in their creed the most 
 obnoxious principles of that obsolete school, such as admiration of the veto and other high 
 Federal and monarchical powers, with the most radical and revolutionary doctrines. Taken 
 together, it is the seed and type of absolute government, and had its origin (a fit paternity) 
 in a blind devotion to the will of one man, who thus became the father of Locofocoism. 
 
 Who, then, are the democrats ? The Whigs stand precisely in that position, not only on 
 the subject of the currency, as those principles were avowed and settled in 1816, and re-as 
 serted in 1832, though overcome by the veto of the Locofoco Primate ; but the Whigs are 
 also the true democrats as advocates of popular rights, and as reformers of Executive usur 
 pations and corruption. 
 
 Jl great mistake. 
 
 We regret that the excessive amiability of the Whigs and the Whig press (shall we call it 
 folly ?) should allow the Locofocos the benefit of the name of democrats. It is one of the 
 greatest mistakes a political party ever made. We know the practice is being dropped ; 
 nor can it be dropped too fast or too quick for the good of the country. The position 
 which the word Democracy occupies in men s minds, as its etymology indicates, is, for the 
 most part, the opposite of Monarchy a people government. As such, it will rule th 
 world, and ought to do so. 
 
 jj false accusation. 
 
 The Whigs are accused of being the bank-party. If this means that they want a souna. 
 banking system, always paying specie on demand ; that they want few banks, and the least 
 amount of bank capital that will answer the necessities of the country, then the charge is 
 true. They have made few banks, and with rare exceptions, good ones ; whereas their op 
 ponents have covered the country with banks that have brought ruin upon us by their 
 explosions. 
 
 Loss to the country by losses on exchanges in a bad currency. 
 
 We heard a distinguished Senator of the United States, whose accuracy of information is 
 reliable, say, that the domestic trade of the country, requiring settlement by exchanges, may 
 be estimated at about four hundred millions a year. If we suppose that the average of Josses 
 by exchanges in this trade, on account of bad currency, after the destruction of the national 
 medium, was five per cent., it amounts to twenty millions annually, about equal to the fair 
 cost of the general Government. 
 
 But this is not all. 
 
 It is, indeed, one of the smallest items of loss to the country in such a state of tilings. Th 
 embarrassments of trade produced by it, cannot be estimated. It affects every man s busi 
 ness, interest, and fortune, and produces momentous results in the shifts of trade, forcing it 
 into unaccustomed modes and channels, as regards the commercial connections of one sec 
 tion of the country with another, all to the detriment of public and individual wealth. 
 
 Jl common impressiofi. 
 
 It is, doubtless, a very just impression, so commonly entertainea and expressed, that 
 the derangement of our currency system has been the chief cause of our national misfortunes. 
 
 31 
 
16 
 
 The currency is so intimately allied to trade and credit, that it cannot be separated from 
 them. If we have succeeded in determining where lies the responsibility of breaking down 
 our currency system, we have also succeeded in determining where lies the responsibility of 
 breaking down the trade and credit of the country. 
 
 The greatness of this ruin. 
 
 In the midst of the unhappiness of our public and private misfortunes, thus occasioned, 
 few have thought of the extent of the evils. A just array of them by the power of figures 
 would doubtless seem incredible. Nevertheless, let every individual calculate for himself 
 what he, personally, has lost, what chances have been sacrificed by him, what he might 
 have done, and what he might have been, if the prosperity of the country had not been 
 arrested by these fatal measures; let him consider that he is only one of seventeen millions of 
 people that have suffered in like manner, and he will then be prepared to appreciate the fol 
 lowing estimates of losses to the country, arising out of the mal-administration of our public 
 affairs for a series of years. 
 
 The United States Almanac states the losses occasioned by the monetary disasters of the 
 country, growing out of the revulsion of 1837-42, thus : 
 
 Losses on bank circulation and deposits, - $54,000,000 
 
 " on bank capital failed and depreciated, ... 248,000,000 
 
 " on State Stock depreciated, 100,000,000 
 
 on Company Stocks, 80,000,000 
 
 on Real Estate, 300,000,000 
 
 Total of these items, .... $782,000,000 
 
 But these are only a few of the many items of our losses. We have carefully examined a 
 statement in detail of the commercial statistics of the country, collected and arranged by an 
 able hand, " Concivis," in a series of letters addressed to the people of the United States, in 
 1840, by which the following results (apparently fairly deduced) in the depreciation of pro 
 perty and labor in the United States, for the four years previous to that date, are obtained : 
 
 Losses on wool, $20,000,000 
 
 on cotton, ? vWfc 130,000,000 
 
 " on grain, 150,000,000 
 
 " on foreign merchandize, - .. " /- - - - 130,000,000 
 on domestic do. - "; " - V - - - 400,COO,000 
 
 " on capital vested in manufactures, - - - r " 50,000,000 
 " on capital vested in moneyed stocks, - - - - 150,000,000 
 " on capital vested in slave labor, - * / . 400,000,000 
 
 on capital vested in lands, 2,500,000,000 
 
 " on capital vested in real estate in cities, ... 500,000,000 
 on the price of labor, 1,500,000,000 
 
 Total, - - - - - - $5,930,000,000 
 
 So much for the losses for the four years previous to 1840 the aggregate being greater 
 than the national debt of Great Britain. But this is not all. These losses will have con 
 tinued another four years before we shall begin to get out from under them, which will 
 double the amount; and then it will be many years more, under the most favorable circum 
 stances, before we can fully recover our prosperity, which will at least treble the amount a 
 reckoning of misfortune to a nation sufficiently astounding. 
 
 Jl sound from the West. 
 
 As an item of news, if we may be allowed to descend to this function, it appears, that 
 now, in 1843, the whole of the Great West are moving, like the waters of a mighty ocean, 
 for the revival of our national currency system ; and already the deep-rolling swell of tha 
 sea, in its progress towards the rising sun, dashes over the lofty ridge of the Alleghanies, and 
 begins to sprinkle the Eastern plains and valleys. Look out for a deluge, to re-baptize, thf 
 nation. 
 
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 32 
 
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 No. I. THE TEST, OR PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS. 
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 IV. LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 V. POLITICAL ABOLITION. 
 
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 33 
 
THE TARIFF. 
 
 The TARIFF is chiefly a question of facts and figures, and we hope to present it so that it 
 can be understood. 
 
 The leading questions. 
 
 The chief topics in this debate are the effect of buying too much, and the effect of European 
 capital and labor on American capital and labor. 
 
 Buying too much. 
 
 If we had space to explain and exemplify, we should start with the proposition, that a pro- 
 ducer of anything whatever, who depends on the sale of his products, will fail, if he buys and 
 continues to buy more than he sells, and that he can only prosper, so far as trade is concerned, 
 by selling more than he buys. But it is enough for our purpose to say, what every body 
 Knows, that with nations as well as with individuals, there is such a thing as buying too much. 
 This we shall endeavor to show, has been the great fault and great misfortune of this 
 country, in its foreign trade. 
 
 The commerce of the United States, internal and external. 
 
 Most persons will probably be surprised to find, that about nineteen twentieths of our trade 
 is internal, in distinction from foreign or external. The last Census informs us, and the fact 
 is announced by Senate Document, No. 340, 2d Session, 27th Congress, that the value of the 
 annual products of the United States in the aggregate is $2,000,000,000, [two thousand 
 millions of dollars,] while our annual exports rarely exceeded one hundred millions. There 
 are reasons to suppose that this result from the census is short of the fact by about one fifth, 
 and that the annual products of the United States are not less than $2,500,000,000. Our 
 manufactories alone produce about four hundred millions a year by the following rule : 
 Capital invested $300,000,000, and it is ascertained, that the annual products of manufac 
 tories are at leastj^me third greater than the capital invested. It will be seen, therefore, that 
 most of ihe trade of the country, is internal. 
 
 Free trade. 
 
 The meaning of this phrase in most men s minds, would probably be expressed thus let 
 every man be free to trade as he can. And this is precisely the law of the land, for the regu 
 lation of internal commerce. At least, we do not know anything to the contrary. But in 
 external commerce, or trade between nations, those who engage in it are to some extent pub 
 lic agents, and hold in their hands political powers of vital importance to the nation they rep 
 resent. They carry the national flag and national credentials. Hence the propriety and 
 importance of the following clause in our Constitution : " Congress shall have power to regu 
 late commerce with foreign nations." This, probably, will be deemed sufficient to show, that 
 trade between nations can not be free, as the trader is an agent of the public, and bears a 
 public commission. In other words, he is as much bound by his instructions as any other 
 public agent, and it is equally important that he should be instructed. 
 
 But, if it be suitable and important to prescribe regulations for the government of our own 
 citizens, in their foreign trade, who are accountable to us, much more is it important to have 
 an eye on foreigners who trade with us, and who are not accountable to us, except not to 
 violate our laws while they are here. They may have reasons and strong temptations to in 
 jure us, which would not so naturally, and could not so easily actuate our own citizens. 
 They may even be in conspiracy with foreign powers against us, and invariably are so, acting 
 as they do under the commercial systems of their respective governments, which are hostile to 
 us, and "which they, as traders, have an interest in supporting. They may defraud our reve 
 nue, and impair or break down the rights of American citizens guarantied by law, and have 
 done so to a vast extent. 
 
 The wealth of our public estate. 
 
 We speak of the nation. This wealth is partly physical, and partly moral, social, and 
 political. Without the moral, social, and political, the physical would be of little value ; but 
 all together comprehend the elements or capabilities of the Avealthiest nation on the globe. 
 
 The effect of our external or foreign trade on our national wealth. 
 It will be beneficial or injurious, according as we buy just enough or too much of foreign 
 products. Our physical resources and moral energies are so great, that we can bear a great 
 deal of loss in the way of foreign trade, and yet thrive; but there is a point of disadvantage 
 arising from this cause, beyond which we can not fail to break down. Let us review our 
 history for the instruction it may afford in regard to this great and fundamental principle. 
 
 34 
 
The period from the peace 0/1783 to the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. 
 
 From the deficiency of our own public records, we are forced to resort to the books of the Eng 
 lish Customhouse for the information we want, a copy of which, as far as our occasion requires, 
 may be found in Pitkin s Statistical View, from which we learn, that our imports from Great 
 Britain for the first year after the peace were six to one of our exports to that empire, and that 
 the average proportion of our imports to our exports, from 1783 to 1790, was as thret of the 
 former to one of the latter. The balance against us for the first year was upwards of twelve 
 millions of dollars, and for the whole period nearly fifty millions. Considering the infancy 
 of our condition, and the poverty in which we came out of the war, this was a prodigious bal 
 ance to be remitted in specie as the only mode of settlement. 
 
 The effect. 
 
 It drained the country of the little specie the war had left us, and entailed upon us a worth 
 less paper currency. Neither the Confederation, nor the States, could pay the interest on their 
 Cebts, and the nation was bankrupt. One State after another, in its separate action, tried to 
 establish a protective system by duties on imports ; but for want of harmony, it rather made 
 the matter worse. 
 
 The result of necessity. 
 
 Virginia at last proposed a convention of the states, to debate the expediency of a reorgan 
 ization of the general government, which resulted in the adoption of the Constitution. The 
 history of the times, as any one may see, proves that the chief motive of this movement was 
 to have a government with ample powers to regulate foreign commerce, and establish a pro 
 tective system, as well as to raise revenue. Hence the language of the Constitution : " Con 
 gress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, to pay the debts, 
 and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States to regulate 
 commerce with foreign nations," &c. 
 
 The first general act of the first Congress. 
 
 " Whereas it is necessary for the support of government, for the discharge of the debts of 
 the United States, and for the encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be 
 laid on goods, wares, and merchandise imported Be it enacted," &c. This subject was 
 moved at the earliest opportunity by Mr. Madison, the father of the Constitution, and the act 
 was signed by President Washington, the Fourth, of July, 1789. This and other similar acts 
 of legislation rescued and saved the country. But it was a terrible ordeal, and put in peril 
 the existence of the republic, to have bought at such a time so much more than we sold. 
 
 The period from 1790 to 1807. 
 
 This was one of comparative prosperity, but not so great as we were entitled to. Our 
 neutral position during the protracted war in Europe, made up in part for the defects of our 
 commercial regulations, by opening to us in some degree the ports of the belligerent powers, 
 and giving us a portion of their commerce and carrying trade. Nevertheless, it will be found 
 (see House Doc., No. 3, 1st Session, 26th Congress), that in each of these years the balance of 
 trade between us and foreign parts, was against us, and in some years it was very great. For 
 the whole period it was $229,998,061, or a trifle less than two hundred and thirty millions of 
 dollars. (See same authority.) Some abatement from this balance ought doubtless to be made 
 for the different modes of estimating the respective amounts of imports and exports ; but after 
 all due allowances on this account, the balance would still be against us to a startling 
 amount. 
 
 We can not feel, that the profits of navigation employed in our export trade, or of the trade 
 itself, ought to be subtracted from this balance, as the talent and enterprise engaged in it 
 were the property of the country, and their legitimate product belongs to the same category 
 with the wealth of all other productive labor of the nation. It was a relief, certainly, but not 
 properly an item in this account. It is a part of the footing of the ledger-book of the nation 
 in its domestic reckoning. 
 
 How we got along. 
 
 If it be asked, How could we prosper in such a trade ? The answer is, that, having a very 
 large and productive estate to cultivate at home, worked by enterprising and frugal laborers, 
 we prospered in spite of it. This is, in fact, the true reason. It is inevitable, that a nation 
 which buys more than it sells, will be injured, so long as 3 is greater than 2, and 4 greater 
 than 3. 
 
 The period between 1807 and 1815. 
 
 ^ With non-importation, non-intercourse, embargo, and war upon us, this period was of course 
 disastrous, if foreign trade, under any circumstances, can be beneficial, as doubtless it is, 
 properly regulated. The imports fell off from one hundred and thirty-eight millions in 1807, to 
 
 35 
 
fifty-seven millions in 1808, and the exports from one hundred and eight millions in the former 
 year to twenty-two millions in the latter, and both continued to dwindle, till the imports came 
 down to about thirteen millions, and the exports to about seven millions, in 1814. The balance 
 of trade, as usual, was against us, the aggregate for this period of seven years being 
 $91,220,330. (See same document as above.) 
 
 The period from 1815 to 1838 inclusive. 
 
 From the same authority as above, we find, that, in the la?t three quarters of the fiscal 
 year, 1814- 15, to wit, the first three quarters after the peace, the imports exceeded the ex 
 ports by more than sixty millions of dollars ; that in the year 1815- 16, before the tariff of 
 1816 began to operate, the excess of imports over exports was about sixty-one millions; that 
 m 1836, the excess was again sixty-one millions ; and that the aggregate excess of imports 
 over the aggregate of exports, from 1815 to 1838 inclusive, was $415,353,608 (more than/owr 
 hundred and fifteen millions of dollars). 
 
 Period from 1833 to 1840, inclusive. 
 
 This, it will be seen, is a partial lap over on the previous head. The balance of foreign 
 trade aeainst us for thia period, being eight years, amounted to the enormous sum of 
 $172,770,000. (Upward of one hundred and seventy-two millions of dollars.) From 1835 to 
 1840, the balance against us was $132,670,000 (more than one hundred and thirty-two 
 millions of dollars), of which the silk alone which we bought amounted to one hundred and 
 six millions. What a draft this on the money of the country ! 
 
 Another item in this reckoning. 
 
 There is another fact of very material consequence to be considered : viz., that a large frac 
 tion of our exports has been of foreign origin. From the same authority, above cited, we find, 
 that the aggregate exports from 1803 to 1838, inclusive, was $2,775,406,407 (more than 
 two thousand seven hundred millions of dollars), and that, of this amount, $852,873,942, 
 nearly one third, was of foreign origin. It will be seen, that all the profits of producing, and 
 the profits of all the capital employed in producing, these exports of foreign origin, were 
 realized by foreigners, and that we had nothing but the profits of the trade and navigation 
 engaged in this commerce. Nay, a part of this was in the hands of foreigners. This great 
 and comprehensive fact enhances the balance of foreign trade against us immensely. 
 
 The problem solved. 
 
 It has been asked, why should this country, so exuberant and inexhaustible in its resources, 
 and tenanted by such an enterprising, working people, be so often involved in commercial 
 distress, bank suspensions, want of money, bad state of the currency, &c., &c. 1 The answer 
 is found in the facts we have disclosed, and the result is based on the principle, that a man 
 who is constantly buying more than he sells, will get into trouble. It is precisely the same 
 with a nation. Such a man s credit, if it had been good, may sustain him for a while ; but, 
 under such a system of bad economy, it can not last long. It is the same with a nation. By 
 various commercial shifts of the people, and by temporary financial expedients of the 
 Government, a nation that is constantly buying more than it sells, can patch up its credit for 
 a season. A nation, under a system of bad economy, may stand it longer than a single man j 
 but, when it does fall, great is the fall thereof. 
 
 Remark. 
 
 In the light of the facts we have set forth, all the commercial embarrassments and up sett 
 of this nation, may be distinctly traced to the true cause. It is always the same, because in 
 the nature of tilings, with us, such as we are, it is impossible there should be any other. Is it 
 possible for a man to get into commercial difficulty, whose work or trade annually brings a 
 balance in his favor? No more is it possible for a nation. It is equally impossible for a 
 man or a nation to stand, that regularly creates an annual adverse balance of trade. 
 
 Review of our commercial and financial history. 
 
 All along we find it corresponding precisely with the doctrine we have announced. Was 
 ft not so from the peace of 1783, to the re-organization of the Government in 1789 ? Was it 
 not so in 1815-M6 ? From 1819 to 1823 ? And how was it from 1837 to 1840 ? With the 
 commercial embarrassments of the people, came also the financial embarrassments of the 
 Government ; for the former always begets the latter. 
 
 The effect of buying more than we sell on our currency. 
 
 Will not a man s money, who is always buying more than he sells, soon be gone, unless he 
 has a great deal of it ? It is precisely so with a nation that buys more than it sells the 
 money must depart. If the currency be a mixed one, the specie that constitutes its basis will 
 be gone, and the banks suspend. Or, if it be a hard money currency, that, too, must stiU go. 
 
 36 
 
Here is the secret of all our currency difficulties. The currency of a nation that was 
 good to begin with, can not fail, nor become unsound, except by buying more than it sells. >.i 
 is impossible. And the currency of an industrious and producing nation, that continues to 
 sjell more than it buys, will become good and abundant, even though it was bad and insuffi 
 cient. And not only so, but it will continue good and abundant uninterruptedly ; for nothing 
 can change it, but a change in the character and habits of the nation. The case, and the 
 truth of the case, stand thus : If, as a nation, we do not run in debt, by our foreign trade, 
 we have our money and a currency^ but if foreign demands draw it off, we can not have a 
 sufficient currency, that is good. 
 
 What would be a great blessing. 
 
 It can not be denied, that it would be a great blessing, if we had a currency which nothing 
 could disturb, and credit which nothing could impair. This is sure to come if we would 
 establish a commercial system, and stick to it, not to buy more than we sell. It is as practi 
 cable, as it is simple. 
 
 How this vice of buying too much came upon us. 
 
 It was by inexperience, temptation, and seduction and seduction was the leading influence. 
 When Great Britain failed to beat us in the field, she took to a system of commercial policy, 
 by which she did beat us. It was said, and said with truth, for the first few years, that 
 England profited more by the Revolutionary war than we did. We went into that war to gel 
 rid of s system of direct taxation and oppression, and carne out of it to be subject to a more 
 grievous system of indirect taxation and oppression ; and the latter system, although we 
 have partially shaken it olij we have not got rid of to this day. 
 
 The Seducer. 
 
 England set up to be the work-shop of the world, and the weaver s loom for every nation s 
 back. Toward us she was first a tyrant, and commanded. Witness her prohibition of all 
 exports from the American colonies, of anything like the productions of her own shop at 
 home. But when she could no longer support her authority, she began to coax, and put on 
 the airs of a seducer. "What excellent goods, these; fine wares; first rate merchandise j 
 buy them." And we fell into the temptation, and had to pay for them. 
 
 " The work-shop of the world" 
 
 The power of machinery in Great Britain, as employed in her manufactures, is variously 
 estimated by English authorities, from a one hundred million to a one hundred and eighty 
 million man power. Take the lowest, one hundred million, which is equal to one tenth of the 
 population of the globe, quite sufficient, probably, to do all the manufacturing which the 
 wants of the world are likely to require. A population of twenty-four millions (the popula 
 tion of Great Britain), by the agency of five hundred thousand (that being the number of ope 
 ratives employed to work this machinery), employs such a productive power for the wants of 
 mankind ! Well might Great Britain covet the market of th : world for her manufactures ; 
 but the question is, whether it is best for us and the world to submit to it, when we can do il 
 for ourselves with greater economy. 
 
 The policy of England. 
 
 England commenced her war on American manufactures in 169 V J, and continued it to the war oi 
 the Revolution. Lord Chatham said in Parliament," He would not have the Americans make a 
 hobnail. 1 Another noble lord added, " nor a razor to shave their beards." Mr. Brougham, now 
 Lord Brougham, said in the house of Commons, in 1816, u It was well worth while by this glut 
 [excessive exports to America], to stifle in the cradle those rising manufactories in the United States, 
 which the war had forced into existence. 11 Mr. Robertson, another member, ridiculing the doctrine 
 of free trade, confessed, that it " was nothing more nor less than for us [the English] to get a 
 monopoly of all markets for cur manufactures, and to prevent other nations, one and a//, from enga 
 ging in them." The Edinburgh Review, referring to the Compromise Act, said, " We have ric doubt, 
 that it has given the death-blow to the American system." 
 
 The London Spectator, in 1S43, says : "More general considerations tend to show that the 
 trade between the two countries mosi beneficial to both, must be what is commonly called^ a 
 Colonial trade ; the new-settled country importing the manufactures of the old, in exchange for its 
 own raw produce. In all economical relations the United States still stand to England in the 
 relation of Colony to mother-country." 
 
 Again, " Unth Kngland and the United States are suffering because the [economical] Colonial 
 relation has been broken ; because the surplus capital of England does not find its way to America 
 along \viih the stragglers of its surplus population; and because the raw produce of America, 
 through the influence of restrictive duties, and for want of that capital, can not find its way to 
 England .* It must be allowed, that this has a modest squinting backward. 
 
 Every true American will duly appreciate such an unblushing proposal to revive the old system 
 of Colonial dependence. Such always has been and still is the plan of British commercial policy. 
 and siuh will be its end, if unopposed by an American system. It is their policy to make and Ueej. 
 us dependent on them ; it is our policy to be independent of all the world. 
 
 37 
 
6 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s mews. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson said in his report to Congress, as Secretary of State, in 1793, " Free commerce and 
 navigation are not to be given in exchange for restrictions and vexations. It behooves us to 
 protect our citizens, their commerce and navigation, by counter prohibitions, duties, and regula 
 tions ;" and in a letter to Mr. Benjami-n Austin, in 1816, he said, " To be independent for the com- 
 forts of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of 
 the agriculturist. Experience has taught me, that manufactures are now as necessary to our 
 independence as to our comfort, and if they who quote me [referring to his notes on Virginia 
 written in 1785], as of a different opinion, will keep pace with me in purchasing nothing foreign 
 when an equivalent of domestic fabric can be obtained, without any regard to difference of price, f 
 will not be our fault, if we do not have a supply equal to our demand, and west that weapon of dis 
 tress from the h;md that has so often violated it." Every President of the United States has 
 recommended and sanctioned, and every Congress has legislated protection of American interests 
 againt foreign systems of commercial policy. Yet, as the facts quoted demonstrate we have 
 never succeeded. 
 
 How foreign manufacturers manage to defraud and injure Americans. 
 
 They send their agents here, who, by their intimate relations and a secret understanding 
 at home, are able to supplant American merchants, to defraud our revenue by false invoices, 
 and thus to crush those very American interests which were designed to be protected by the 
 laws they violate. See Senate Doc., No., 83, 2d Session, 27th Congress, for proof of fraud in 
 the agents of one. English house, to the amount of some hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also 
 a voluntary fine of eighty -six thousand dollars, paid by seven agents of British houses, to 
 Mr. Hoyt, Collector of New York, to compromise, and purchase exemption from the course of 
 justice and a variety of other evidence of the same kind a mere index to the vast frauds 
 that have been practised upon us with impunity. The proportion of foreigners engaged in the 
 importing business of New York, is 74 to 26 Americans, and in the French and German 
 trade, they are nearly a hundred to one. While enjoying the immunities of American citizens, 
 besides disgorging their goods, wares, and merchandise, upon the country, which we do not 
 want, and thereby running us in debt, they are committing the crimes of felony on the rev 
 enue and of robbery on the people. 
 
 No wonder then. 
 
 In view of the facts we have had occasion to notice, it is no longer a wonder that Great 
 Britain obtained such signal vengeance upon us for the loss of her jurisdiction over us ; no 
 wonder that, since the general peace of the world, the nations of Europe, having left off 
 fighting each other, and turned to fight us by their commercial systems, have brought them to 
 Lear upon us with such tremendous energy, as repeoteJly to have made us reel and fall under 
 them, we having no adequate defence. 
 
 The reason why we have been able to stand it even so well. 
 
 It is our internal commerce and reproductive wealth. A man of large estate, if it be well 
 managed, can lose a great deal, and yet thrive, though the increase of his wealth will be 
 checked by his losses. We have seen that our foreign trade is a trifle compared with our do 
 mestic. We produce two thousand or two thousand and jive hundred millions a year, and not 
 more than one twentieth of it goes into our exports. The remainder is used by ourselves, and 
 most of that remainder is a subject of trade among ourselves, no small share of which is em 
 ployed as a reprodnctiiie power, augmenting, always in some degree, much of it in a manifold 
 degree, our substantial wealth. Witness the growth and improvements of the country. A 
 man that improves his estate, adds to his wealth. It is the same with a nation. Hence we 
 have been able to bear a losing business in our foreign trade, though it has many times 
 crippled us, anJ several times broke us down for a season, by breaking down our currency in 
 the withdrawment of our specie to an amount greater than we were able to bear. 
 
 A question put. 
 
 In the whole history of our government, from the establishment of our independence, we find only 
 fix years when as a nation we have sold as much as we have bought. Is it reasonable, that so 
 trifling a part of the trade and business of this nation, as our foreign commerce, which is rarely more 
 than one twentieth, should expose us to such hazards, and bring us into such difficulties ? 
 
 A suggestion. 
 
 It may be surprising, but facts and figures give occasion for the suggestion, that, apart 
 from the destruction of life and public morals, it misht be better for us to be in a state of per 
 petual war with a maritime poAver that would chiefly drive our commerce from the great high 
 way of nations, than to continue under that system which has, for the most part, characterized 
 our commercial intercourse with foreign nations. War gives immense activity to business, 
 and great profits in every branch of industry and trade; nor is it easy to show, that the ex 
 pense of a war is greater than the commercial advantage, if the people who are benefited by 
 it would consent to be taxed to prevent the government from running in debt. There is rea 
 son for saying, that, after both the wars we have had with Great Britain, her commercial 
 system did us more injury than woull have resulted from the continuance of war. In the 
 first instance, no remedy was found till the reorganization of our government in 1789, and 
 
 38 
 
that was but a partial and slow one, but was greatly strengthened by the protracted war a 
 Europe. In the second, the tariff of 1816 came in to help us, after the horse was stolen. 
 
 What is likely to come to pass. 
 
 Doubtless, the facts developed in our commercial history as it relates to foreign powers, such 
 as have come under review in these pages, will yet claim and receive the grave deliberation 
 n f Congress, as to what can be done to arrest the career of buying of foreign nations more 
 than we sell to them. It is impossible to prosper under such, a system, and this whole nation, 
 ere long, will rise with one voice to demand a remedy. 
 
 What the remedy is. 
 
 It is in substance, to enact such regulations f.ir the government of our foreign trade, as will 
 counteract and prevent this everlasting excess of imports over exports, and turn the tide of 
 foreign commerce in our favor. In other words, it is the permanent establishment of a suit 
 able protective tariff" system. We say protective, because protection is the thing required the 
 sine qua non protection of American interests against the hostile machinations of foreign com 
 mercial systems. 
 
 The tariff a patriotic question. 
 
 Most unwisely and most unfortunately it has, to a great extent, been maoe a sectional ques 
 tion ; but it is purely a patriotic one. No part of this nation can prosper without a protective 
 tariff, for the simple reason that the nation, as a whole, can not prosper without it. Has any 
 part failed to suffer disadvantage, and a corresponding equality of disadvantage, from the re 
 vulsion of 1837-MO ? 
 
 The cotton- groiving interest. 
 
 As no other American interest has been more indebted to a tariff, or is more likely to be 
 dependent upon it, we ha /e ^ever been able to see any good reason why it should be opposed 
 to it. It started under a ttrifi of 3 cents a pound in its favor, has never had less, and one cent 
 a pound would be as effectual prohibition as three. It will, perhaps, say, it does not require 
 a tariff. Any how, it is claiiaev, and does in fact exclude the foreign product. 
 
 The cotton-growing interest l,t the foreign market, as compared with other American 
 
 interests. 
 
 Our average annual exports of domestic origin and home manufacture, from 1836 to 1840, 
 inclusive, being five years, were $102,588,892, of which the exports of cotton weie 
 $64,238,225, leaving only $33,350,367 as the annual average export for this period of all 
 other American products. The average annual portion of these exports to Great Britain 
 and her dependencies, was $60,200,131, of which portion cotton made $45,560,647, leav 
 ing only $14,639,484 for all exports other than cotton. The average annual exports of 
 all our agricultural products, other than cotton, for these years, including animal food 
 and the products of animals, to all parts; of the world, was only $11,766,615, of which 
 $5,353,818 only was the annual export to Great Britain and her dependencies. To Eng 
 land, Scotland, and Ireland, our annual average exports of agricultural products for this 
 period of five years, including animal food and animal products, were only $1,474,719. The 
 entire average of all our exports to England, Scotland, and Ireland, for these years, was 
 $53,295,933. But of this $45,515,137 was cotton, and only $7,780,796 of all exports other 
 than cotton. These results are deduced from public and official documents, and will not be 
 denied. 
 
 The effect of this foreign demand for raw American cotton, on our other agricultural 
 
 and other American interests. 
 
 If the above quotations were not sufficient to show the effect, we have before us the ob 
 vious fact, as a part of British policy, that Great Britain is obliged to impose prohibitory 
 restrictions on those American products which she does not want, and heavy duties on those 
 of which she wants but little, that she may be able to admit, under a mere nominal duty, this 
 American staple of raw cotton which she does want. And the worst of it all is, that a large 
 portion of this same cotton comes back to us, under an advanced price, some of 500, some of 
 1,000, some of 1,500, and some of 2,000 per cent., to support British manufacturers and the 
 British government, and pay the navigation, mercantile, and other charges, when we might 
 save much or most of this by a suitable protection of our own manufactures. 
 
 A o does this system and course of trade create a letter market for American raw 
 
 cotton. 
 
 Certainly, not in the long run, nor can we see that it does so temporarily. The world must 
 have just so much of cotton fabrics, and of just such a quality, wherever they come from; 
 and. if the British should buy less, we should manufacture more to supply the deficiency. It 
 
 39 
 
is impossible to injure the market of American raw cotton, so *ong as its quality and price 
 give it a preference ; and wheiei er this advantage fails, nothing can support the detna id for 
 it. It is morally certain, that Great Britain will continue to buy American raw cotton to just 
 such an amount as may be necessary to support "the present colossal, mammoth-like, and 
 almost unwieldy grandeur," as Blackwood calls it, of her manufacturing system; and not less 
 certain that she will refuse to buy, whenever she can do without it. She is not likely, either 
 to be coaxed or successfully implored by us, to trade for our advantage, if it be not for hers.. 
 
 Another consideration. 
 
 The fact, that since the tariff of 1842, we have been able to export cotton goods to Greal 
 Britain herself " carry coal to Newcastle," and sell it there to the surprise arid consternation 
 of our excellent friends in that empire is sufficient evidence, that, by a suitable protection 
 of our home manufactures, we can not only create a home market for all our cotton that may 
 not be wanted in England, and thus be independent, but also, that we can compete with 
 England herself for the market of the world. One. third of the cotton yarn spun atPaterson, 
 N. J., is exported to China through a New York house. The American cotton-grower should 
 have his eye upon these things, if he would be wise, not only for his own interest, but for 
 considerations of patriotism. 
 
 Yet another class of facts. 
 
 We can not any longer be blind to the aim and efforts of Great Britain to supply herself 
 with raw cotton from her own dominions in the East, or to the annual rapid increase 
 of the culture of cotton in western Asia, Egypt, Africa, South America, and Texas, ail 
 favorable climates, with an inviting soil. 
 
 We learn from authentic sources, that the import of India cotton into Great Britain, for 
 1839, was 132,900 bales; 216,651 bales for 1840; and 273,637 for 1841. For the month 
 of January, 1841, it was 17,200 bales; for the corresponding month in 1842, it was 49,380 ; 
 and it has been reported, that the India crop for exportation for 1842, was likely to mount 
 up to 600.000 bales. In 23 years from 1816, the increased consumption of India cotton 
 in Great Britain was as ten to one, while the increase of the consumption of American cotton, 
 for the same period in that country, was only as/ottr to one. It is true, the American cotton- 
 grower has taken encouragement from the intimation, that the quality of India cotton is 
 against it. It should, however, be remembered, that the same channels of information which 
 announce disappointment for this reason in one quarter, also announce that they are trying in 
 another quarter, and that the production of indigo in India had to encounter the same diffi 
 culty, which was finally overcome, to the almost entire suppression of the American product. 
 The chances are many, perhaps a hundred, it may be a thousand to one, that the British, ere 
 long, will succeed in supplying themselves with raw cotton from India. Is it not, then, sound 
 American policy, and the only permanent security of American cotton-growers, to be prepared 
 for such an event, by rearing and protecting American manufactures, that we may be able 
 in such an exigency, to vie with England for the market of the world in the supply of cotton 
 fabrics ? Our cotton manufactures date from 1816; in 1825 their annual consumption of raw 
 cotton was 100,000 bales; and in J 842 the consumption was 300,000 bales, threefold greater 
 than the ratio of increase of British cotton manufactures for the same period, notwithstanding 
 the disadvantages which American establishments have labored under for want of adequate 
 protection. In 1835, we exported of American cotton manufactures $2,858,000; in 1840, 
 $3,549,000 ; and these exports may be carried to an indefinite extent. In every aspect of this 
 great question, the finger of sound policy seems to point to the increase and protection of 
 American manufactures, as well for the present as for the future, and not less for the interest 
 of the American cotton-grower, than for the welfare of the American republic. The ap 
 parently impending rush of the several quarters of the world we have mentioned, into the cul 
 ture of cotton, b ds fair soon to require a high and vigorous protection of the American cotton- 
 growing interest Can it fairly ask it then, if it refuses now to join in the establishment of an 
 American commercial system, for the defence of American interests that are common to us 
 all ? As we have seen, it can not be injured by a protective policy even now; for if, perad- 
 venture, the demand for the raw material should be less abroad, it will be in a corresponding 
 Degree greater at home, besides the immense saving and benefit to the country in doing this 
 work ourselves. 
 
 Northern capital and Southern labor. 
 
 The fact ,hat it has been publicly said, by public men, that Northern capital invested in 
 manufactu rs, is hostile to Southern labor, seerns Y ,o require a notice. First, we have to )e- 
 mark, tna\ according to the interpretations given by Southern authorities to the laws and 
 institutions of the South, that which is here called Southern labor, is capital. Next, Mr. Ex. 
 Secretary Wood bury, in his report of 1836, on American cotton, estimates the whole amount 
 ul cajiita v . nut labor employed ir> its culture, thus : Capital in lands $312,000,000; in slave* 
 
 40 
 
$408,000,000; in horses, cattle, &c. $20,400,000; floating capital $30,600,000; total 
 $771,000,000. The total of capital vested in American manufactures (making calculations 
 fur the incr^ssc since the taking of the last census, when it was $267,726,579) is now esti 
 mated as eruai to $300,000,000. Consequently the capital vested in the production of Ameri 
 can cotton, not to speak of sugar and rice, is nearly three to one of the capital vested in 
 American manufactures of the entire Union. It would seem, therefore, from the facts before 
 stated, in regard to the ascendency of American cotton in the foreign market over all other 
 Ameiican products, that Southern capital is rather hostile to Northern labor, than Northern 
 capital t Southern labor, if either be true. 
 
 Benefit of our Cotton Manufactories to the country. 
 
 Anrma cost of raw material, say, from seven to eight millions of dollars. This goes to the 
 American planter. The value of this cotton, when manufactured, is ascertained to be forty- 
 six millions ; vow we probably manufacture to the amount of more than fifty millions annually. 
 This fifty millions goes to all the parties engaged in the production and manufacture of the 
 cotton, and stays in the country, to circulate here, instead of going abroad to buy foreign 
 manufactures of the same kind. The same remark applies to other domestic manufactures 
 of every description we save the cost to the country, and have the use of the money. The 
 capital vested in American Cotton Factories, fifty-one, millions of dollars, employs many times 
 that amount of other American capital, of great variety, as will be seen under the following 
 head. 
 
 American manufactories enhance the value of agricultural and other American 
 capital to a great amount by giving it profitable employment. 
 
 It has been ascertained and well certified, that the Glenham Woollen Factory, at Fishkill, 
 N. Y., with a capital of $140,000, gives profitable employment to $1,432,000 worth of other 
 American capital, chiefly agricultural, in items as follows : 66,000 sheep, $2 a head, 
 $132,000; 22,000 acres of pasture land to feed the sheep, in Dutchess county, supposed 
 to be worth $50 an acre, $1,100,000; farms employed to the extent of 2,600 acres worth 
 $70 an acre, $182,000; other capital to furnish teazles, firewood, coal, provender, &c., &c., 
 $8,000. Total $1,432,000. Consequently, if $140,000 of manufacturing capital employs 
 $1,432,000 of other capital, then the $300,000,000 of manufacturing capital of the United 
 States, at the same rate, would employ other capital of the country to the amount ot 
 $3,068,571,428, or about three thousand millions of dollars. Not to assume this case as a rule to 
 determine the exact general result, it is near enough to show, that American manufactories 
 employ and sustain a vast amount of American capital, of great .variety. The wool growing 
 i nteresl of the United States alone, is estimated by the Hon. Mr. Slade, of Vt., at two hundred 
 *nillions of dollars. The farmers of the country of which class more than a million are 
 interested in growing wool receive annually forty millions of dollars from this source ; for 
 subsistence of opei-atives in the Woollen and Iron Factories* alone the farmers receive twenty- 
 six millions of dollars in all sixty-six millions., being nearly nine times as much as all the 
 American flour, beef, and pork, absorbed by the entire foreign market of the world. 
 
 In the same manner every kind of American manufacture employs American capital, of 
 kinds different from every other, and of great variety. Inasmuch, therefore, as the capital 
 employed in manufactures is only as about one, to ten of the capital employed by it, it will be 
 seen, that American manufactories impart a most essential and most important value to the 
 entire capital of the country, and directly cr indirectly, not only give profitable employment to 
 every American laborer, but enhance the price of his labor. No laborer could be found in 
 the United States, who is not in these ways benefited, and that not in a trifling degree. 
 
 The national benefit. 
 
 This is immense, and embraces not only the negative good of preventing all this work and 
 all this reward of work from going abroad, to be realized by other nations, which would make 
 us so much poorer, but the positive good of having the work to do and the pay for it, which 
 makes us so much richer. And this remark applies equally to every new manufacture, craft, 
 or useful art, that is introduced and carried on among us. 
 
 A deduction. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that the objection sometimes made against domestic manufactures, 
 viz., that they are for the benefit of the rich rather than of the poor, of the capitalist rather 
 .ban of the laborer and the mechanic, is without foundation. It is the labor of the country 
 that is first and chiefly benefited by the investment of capital, or the setting up of business, 
 that employs labor. The proprietor can never get his dividend, or his profits, till the laborer 
 is paid ; and the profits of the latter are always greater than those of the former, in propor 
 tion to the capital employed. Investments in a large manufacturing establishment, existing 
 in the shape of btocks, are not usually made so much for speculation, as for a reasonable and 
 
 41 
 
10 
 
 Steady income, an income that can never be had, till all the other capital and all th 
 employed by it have realized their reward ; nor is it possible for such establishments to make 
 large dividends, without having first conferred more than a proportionate benefit on the 
 numerous parties, by the instrumentality of whose labor these establishments are carried on. 
 It is a well-known fact that a great proportion of the large manufacturing establishments of 
 this country have changed owners. And why ? Because it has been a losing business, and 
 the original proprietors have retired from disappointment, not a few of whom have sunk 
 large fortunes. But the laborers & the country have had all that has been thus sacrificed, 
 and are all the richer by as much as these proprietors have been made poorer. 
 
 It is proved in " Facts for a Laboring Man," published in 1840, that a family of seven 
 persons, whose entire wages in 1816, in a Cotton Factory, were only $180 a year, could get in 
 J836, in consequence of the increase of wages, $658 a year, while the prices of their products 
 had fallen about two thirds. 
 
 Who are manufacturers. 
 
 The maker of brickdust and the house-carpenter, the mason and ship-builder", the tailor 
 and shoe-maker, the hatter and milliner, the blacksmith and watch-maker, the iron-founderer 
 and the saddler, the author and his publisher, the soap-boiler and apothecary, the wheelwright 
 and the locomotive-builder, the cabinet-maker and rope-maker, and all the various handy- 
 craftsmen of civilization, are as much manufacturers as the makers of pins and buttons, of tin 
 ware and cutlery, of cotton-shirting and broadcloths. The chief ground of difference is, that, 
 while the capital of some of these crafts-wen and crafts-women consists in their skill, or two 
 hands and ten fingers, or brains and sinews, that of others consists in their money, which 
 employs the skill, hands, fingers, brains, and sinews of their neighbors. If either of these 
 more properly merits the name of manufacturer, it is he who does the work, and the workers 
 are they to whom these crafts are most essential for a living, and as the foundation of wealth. 
 To oppose manufactures, is therefore to oppose every man who depends on handy-craft for 
 a livelihood it is to oppose the march of civilization. 
 
 Effect of the multiplication of our producing classes. 
 
 First, it diminishes each class, and increases its chances of profit. Next, instead of paying 
 a foreign producer, and thus losing the money to the country, the money remains, gener 
 ating domestic wealth, as money in use always does. Every new class of producers, if the 
 products are in demand, increases public wealth in a manifold degree ; whereas the importa 
 tion of these products subtracts from public wealth in an equal degree. 
 
 The more ivants, if supplied at home, the more wealth. 
 
 This is true because the above is so, and for the same reasons. Wants make work, and 
 work makes profit. This is the advantage of civilization over the natural state. It multiplies 
 wants, sharpens invention, promotes industry, and thereby creates wealth. The multiplication 
 of wants is another name for the augmentation of the interests of trade, and trade -fair trade 
 is mutual help for mutual benefit. Every one will see, that, from the primitive or natural 
 state of man, before trade or mutual help commenced, the progress of society has been incal 
 culable; nor is it possible to fix a limit to its future advancement by the same means. 
 
 The principle of protection. 
 
 It arises from the compact of society. Every interest of lawful trade being a benefit to 
 ociety, is entitled to protection, and it must be adequate, or it is not protection. 
 
 It has been said, that agriculture is our natural calling, and that our best national 
 
 policy is to foster that chieJJy. 
 
 But what is agriculture good for, beyond the natural wants of the producer, without a 
 market ? If that were our only pursuit, we should have no market, either at home or abroad. 
 Not at home, for every squaw can produce enough for her own wigwam ; not abroad, for 
 they do not want it. It is the multiplicity of industrial pursuits, that creates a market for the 
 products of each; and the greater the number, the better the market. 
 
 A near market always letter than a remote one, and a home market letter than a 
 
 foreign one. 
 
 Why are farms near new York worth hem fifty to a hundred dollars an acre, while those in 
 Illinois are not worth more than ten dollar* ? Because the former lie at the door of a market. 
 A home market is better than a foreign one, first, because it is nearer; secondly, because it 
 is more secure; thirdly, because it is more uniform; and lastly, because the prices are better. 
 It is the merchant only that profits by the increase of distance and the multiplication of 
 stages between the producer and the consumer, and the consumer pays the tax. The average 
 price of flour and wheat in the United States, from 1831 to 1840 (as ascertained by the prices 
 current of those years, published in diflerent parts of the country), was $6 65 cts. a barrel, 
 
 42 
 
11 
 
 and $1 30 cts. a bushel; whereas, the average price of flour in Europe for the same period, 
 was only $4 93 cts. a barrel, and of wheat 98 cents a bushel (as ascertained by comparison of 
 Customhouse books, and other authentic documents, in different parts of Europe). The Hon. 
 Chas. Hudson, of Mass., presented proof in detail to the Committee of the House of the 27th 
 Congress, that Massachusetts alone consumes annually of the agricultural products of other 
 states of the Union, to the amount of forty-two millions of dollars, it being more than half of 
 the annual average of our exports for the last ten years, exclusive of domestic manufactures. 
 It is because of the extensive manufactures, and the multiplicity of mechanics and artisans 
 in that state, creating demand. The fact, that we produce annually in the United Stales to 
 the aggregate value of two thousand millions of dollars, and usually export less than ont 
 twentieth, often not more than one thirtieth, is decisive evidence tliat our home market is our 
 chief reliance. 
 
 Home manufactures cheaper than foreign. 
 
 Since the manufacture of cotton goods commenced in this country in 1816, the prices hav* 
 been reduced on an average about two thirds. Woollen goods, oil-cloths, refined sugar, ctf 
 nails, spikes, and the various articles of iron manufacture, leather, pins, &c., &c., have al\ 
 fallen materially in price, the moment protection has been sufficient to raise domestic compe 
 tition. It is scarcely possible to put one s finger on an article of home manufacture, encour 
 aged by protection, which has not been cheapened ; and this too in the midst of increased 
 wages of labor, and higher prices of agricultural products. 
 
 What this proves. 
 
 All this shows that we have been paying an exorbitant price for British and other foreign 
 manufactures, since they can still afford to compete with us, which is in part the cause of 
 reduced prices. Before, it was all in their hands, and they set their own price, which was 
 extortion in itself, and a yet greater injury to this nation by running us in debt to foreign 
 parts. We can never know the fair value of an article of manufacture, and we are sure not 
 to get it at a fair price, while we are dependent on foreigners for it. But when we make 
 it ourselves, we not only save in price, but we have the profits of manufacture, and the yet 
 secondary and larger advantage of the profitable employment which the home manufacture 
 gives to other capital. The positive commercial loss, and the political disadvantage of depen 
 dence on foreigners for the supply of our wants, are incalculable. 
 
 What Captain Marry at says. 
 
 In his work on America, he states, that the supply of British goods of all kinds, is more 
 abundant in the remotest frontier towns of the United States, where the stumps of the prim 
 itive forest are yet standing in the streets and cellars, than in the market-towns of England. 
 This we know to be true, for we have personally observed it in both quarters. 
 
 By a recent report of a committee of the British House of Commons, it appears, that Prussia 
 consumes annually of British manufactures to the amount of 7 cents for each individual of 
 her population; Russia to the amount of 16 cents for each ind v dual; Norway 17 cents; 
 France 20 cents ; and the United States to the antount of 402 cents . r each individual of our 
 population; and yet there is scarcely one of these articles which we could not produce, and 
 generally at a lower price. 
 
 How this happens. 
 
 For want of proper restrictive regulations of our own, England brings her goods, offers 
 credit, and we run in debt. England wants to sell them, and the sight of them captivates our 
 eyes. 
 
 Facts. 
 
 During ten years, from 1820 to 1830, of a tolerable protective policy, we paid off one hun 
 dred millions of foreign debt. During the next ten years, from 1830 to 1840, of comparative 
 free trade, we contracted a foreign debt of TWO HUNDRED millions. During the first period 
 our imports were $798,500,000, and the amount retained for domestic consumption, was 
 $568,900,000. During the second period our imports were $1,302,500,000, and -the amount 
 retained for domestic consumption was $1,103,100,000; that is, our imports and consumption 
 in the second period, were nearly double of the first. Here is the secret of the foreign debt 
 contracted. (Report of Committee on Commerce, 27th Congress, by Hon. J. P. Kennedy.) 
 
 Reciprocity in trade between us and Europe the facts. 
 
 The Hon. P, Triplett, of Ky., made a communication to the committee on manufactures, in 
 the 27th Congress, from which we deduce the following facts : that our products consumed in 
 Europe, pay duties on entering there, equal to half of their entire value; whereas, European 
 products consumed by us, pay duties here equal only to one fifth of their value. 
 
 From other authentic sources we learn that, in 1841, our imports were $127,945,000, anc 
 
 43 
 
12 
 
 our exports $91,000,000. The duties we got from these imports amounted to $14,487,000, 
 being about 11^ percent.; whereas, the duties which foreign countries obtained from our 
 exports of that year, amounted to $113,500,000, or 124 per cent. ! The average of our ex 
 ports of tobacco to Europe for 1839 and 1840, was $9,225,000 for each year; and the average 
 duties imposed for each year by European governments, was $32,463,000 or 350 per cent. ! 
 The duties on American tobacco in Europe have been as hi?h as $35,000,000 a year. Out 
 of our toil and sweat they support their extravagances, and by the prohibitory effect of 
 their excessive tariffs, they curtail our market abroad, while our comparatively free ports ad 
 mit their products, not only to run us in debt to them, but to suppress American industry, 
 and deprive American labor of a fair reward. 
 
 The commercial system of Russia. 
 
 In Blackwood s Magazine for June, 1843, is a good British scolding at Russia, because she 
 is lakin? less and less of British manufactures, and supplying herself; in other words, because 
 she is wise enough not to run in debt to Great Britain. It appears from the same source, 
 that the Russian system brings annually and uniformly a handsome balance in favor of the 
 empire, as the result of their regulations of foreign trade. 
 
 The Turkish system. 
 
 But poor Turkey has fallen very much into the hands of British policy, and Mr. McCul- 
 loch informs us, that, of 600 looms employed ia Scutari in 1812, only 40 remained in 1831; 
 and of 2,000 weaving establishments at Tournovo in 1812, only 200 remained in 1831. A? 
 a consequence, their hard-money currency is exported to England in large amounts fbr the 
 supplies of goods they receive from " the workshop of the world," and the nation i? greatly 
 impoverished. 
 
 A plain and practical case. 
 
 Suppose a bushel of American wheat, in the farmer s hands, is equal to the cost of a yard 
 of British cloth, apart from the exactions of the British government, direct and indirect, 
 and that these exactions make this yard of cloth cost two bushels of wheat; in other words, the 
 American farmer, in the purchase of this yard of British cloth, pay? one bushel of wheat as a tay 
 to life British crown. This is precisely tlie mode by which we are taxed for foreign manufac 
 lures. But suppose the British manufacturer comes over with his capital, and sets up business 
 here; the American farmer then gets his yard of cloth for its fair value, one bushel of wheat; 
 tlie manufacturer is equally well paid, and escaping the exactions of the British government 
 in a thousand forms, his own fortunes are greatly mended, while his adopted country is en 
 riched by the employment of his capital within itself. This is precisely the effect of the 
 tariff of 1842. British manufacturers and capitalists are coming over, buying up, and putting 
 in operation American manufacturing establishments, which had been shut up, and erecting 
 new ones. Agents of Yorkshire (England) manufacturers have already set agoing several 
 establishments in the vicinity of Philadelphia. 
 
 Art illustration of the relative position of Europe and the United States, in regard 
 to their respective commercial systems. 
 
 Here are two contiguous estates, one well and the other badly managed. Whenever the 
 proprietor of the latter buys of the former, he insists on kss, and when he sells, he claims 
 more than a fair price, by which means the good husbandman is taxed to make up for the bad 
 management of his neighbor. Thus are we taxed to support the burdens of European govern 
 ments. 
 
 Or, suppose one of these United States should impose heavy duties on the products of a con 
 tiguous state would not justice require corresponding regulations in the latter 1 
 
 A farther view of this subject. 
 
 By submitting to foreign tariffs without adopting a countervailing one, we are not onh 
 taxed to support the vices of foreign governments, but we put ourselves still farther in their 
 power by enabling them to impoverish and oppress us directly. Importers are one class oi" 
 merchants, and exporters another, and the interest of each one of each class is to push hb 
 business, and make all the money he can, without any regard to its effect on the public. Th-j 
 consequence is, when we have no tariff to countervail foreign tariffs, that our exports find 
 hard work to get into foreign markets, while our imports crowd in upon us in excess, and run 
 us in debt. 
 
 A hard case. 
 
 A fanner in Illinois wrote a letter to his friend in the east, in 1842, complaining that he 
 could <r e * on! T , 31 cts. a bushel for his wheat, 25 cts. for beans, 10 cts. for corn, l cts. a 
 pound for beef and pork, 2 cts. a pound for tobacco, &c., stating that he had to pay^/ia, 
 dollars, or which is the same thing, 16 bushels of wheat, or 20 bushels of beans, or 26 bushek 
 
 4,4 
 
13 
 
 Ol corn, or 300 Ibs. of pork or beef, or 200 Ibs. of tobacco, per yard of British broadcloth to 
 make him a coat! The cost of this yard of cloth at the manufactories in England, was prob 
 ably about three dollars, or two bushels of wheat, as sold in tlic market there. That is, the 
 producer in England received for the cloth one eigklh of what was charged to the farmer in 
 Illinois. Who got the difference ? If the manufacturer had been in Illinois, or anywhere in 
 this country, the farmer might have got his yard of cloth for two bushels of wheat, instead of 
 sixteen, and the manufacturer would have made a market for the farmer s beans, corn, pork, 
 beef, &c., at a good price. 
 
 Effects of the Tariff of 1842. 
 
 Every body, the whole nation, feels its reviving, renovating influence. It has put a stop o 
 excessive importations, revived domestic trade, turned the balance of foreign trade in o.ir 
 favor, is fast restoring the prices of American products and labor, and in the first six months 
 of 1843 brought back to this country nearly thirty millions of dollars in specie, thereby furnish 
 ing the basis of a sound circulating medium, which only requires a proper organization of our 
 currency system, that we may reap the full benefit of it. (See our Tract on the Currency.) 
 The benefit of the tariff to the agricultural interest. 
 
 This is emphatically the great interest of the country, and therefore its claims are strongest 
 for the benefit of legislation. 
 
 Mr. Everett, our minister to England, stated, in a speech at an agricultural meeting, at 
 Derby, in July, 1843, Earl Spencer in the chair, that, although the commerce between Great 
 Britain and the United States was twice as great as between England and any other country, 
 yet the whole of the products, passing to and fro, was not worth so much as the oats and 
 beans raised in Great Britain, as proved by their agricultural statistics, and that the entire 
 value of the products employing British navigation all the world over, was not equal to the 
 grass grown in Great Britain. Srich is the importance of agriculture to every nation. 
 
 Over this vast American interest the Tariff of 184*2 has thrown its shield, first in direct 
 protection given to its products. For cotton, wool, hemp, beef and pork, hams and bacon, 
 cheese, butter, lard, potatoes, flour and wheat, eleven articles, we find an average protection 
 of 43 per cent., which is higher than the average protection given to manufactures. But, 
 secondly, protection of manufactures is a protection of agriculture, inasmuch as our manufac 
 tures give employment to such a vast amount of agricultural capital and open such a market 
 for agricultural products, as has been shown in another place. The importance of protection 
 to agriculture will further appear from the fact, that the annual average of import? of the 
 above-named agricultural products, for the five years preceding 1842, were $2,341,600, anj 
 that the potatoes imported into Boston in one year amounted to $41,000. It will be seen by 
 a statement, page 7, that our imports of agricultural products for the above-named five years, 
 were greater than our agricultural exports, other than cotton, to Great Britain. 
 Benefit of the Tariff to labor. 
 
 It has been estimated by political economists, that the industry of a country is equal to 
 one seventh or one eighth of its entire wealth. It might be said, that all the essential wealth of 
 a nation consists in its capacity for labor, as no nation could subsist without it. American 
 labor, by the revulsion of 1837- 40, was seen to be sinking rapidly into the griping fist of- 
 European despotism, by the approximation of its prices to the European standard, till the 
 tariff of 1842 rescued it, and is fast establishing it on the true American basis, with the 
 prospect of a fair reward. 
 
 Effect of the Tariff in England. 
 
 From English papers of July, 1843, we learn, by a return made to Parliament, on motion 
 of Mr. Thornly, that the exports of British goods to the United States for the previous year, 
 "Were less in value by the sum of twelve hundred thousand jxunds (nearly six millions of dollam\ 
 than in any other previous year since 1833 (when the Compromise Act was passed by our 
 Congress) ; and that the English feared they would have to remit specie for American cottort, 
 instead of paying for it in goods, with a balance in their favor, as in former years. Th 
 same document also shows that the imports into Great Britain from the United States have 
 not diminished but increased. This proves, that the Tariff of 1842 is putting things to rights 
 pretty fast. 
 
 Our imports for 1840 were $107,141,519, of which only $49,915,315 paid duties. In 1841 
 they were $127,946,177, of which only $61,926,446 paid duties. In 1842 the impons were 
 $99,357,329, of which $69,400,633 paid duties, more than two thirds of the whole. Exports 
 for 1842 $104,117,969. The exports of 1840 were also somewhat largely, more than tuwfp* 
 four millions, in excess (very unusual) of imports. It went to settle balances. This was 
 the sixth year of an excess of exports since the establishment of our independence, and the 
 other five were very trifling. But since the Tariff of 1842, our foreign trade is getting to be 
 healthful, and bids fair to be safe. The revulsion of 1837- J 40, by inducing a want of" credit 
 abroad ana Commercial distress at home, has operated as a tariff in our favor, 
 
 4,5 :".- 
 
14 
 
 Commercial treaties. 
 
 But for the respectable source from which this project has recently been revived, ^e 
 should have thought it unworthy of notice. The first and most serious objection to it, is, 
 that it virtually reconstitutes our machinery of legislation, in a very important particular, und 
 transfers a function to the Federal Executive, which the Constitution has jealously confined 
 to the immediate representatives of the people in the lower house of Congress to wit, the 
 01 initiation of the revenue laws and farther nominates foreign powers as parties, with rights, 
 to bring such legislation to maturity ! Will the people of this country consent thus to chain 
 themselves, and such momentous interests, first to the car of our Federal Executive, and next 
 to the cars of foreign despots ? A Treaty can not be reviewed, and amended, or repealed, 
 like a law of Congress ; but is binding and unalterable, whatever may be the result of ex 
 perience of which we already have a little, giving good advice, in the following particulars : 
 On the authority of the late Secretary of State, Mi-." Webster, (See House Document, No. 163, 
 2d Session, 27th Congress,) it appears, that the result of our treaty of 1828, with the Han- 
 seatic Towns, is, that before that treaty five sevenths of the vessels entering those ports from 
 the United States, were American, and that in 1&4Q four fifths were Bremen, and only one. fifth 
 American. Like to this has been the result of our arrangement of 1830 with Great Britain, 
 in regard to her American possessions, which appears from the fact, that since that time, the 
 British tonnage, entering our ports, has increased 500 per cent,, while our own tonnage, 
 entering our ports, has increased only 50 per cent. ; and from the further fact, that British 
 vessels have monopolized almost the whole trade between the State of Maine and British 
 American possessions. We have a similar arrangement with Sweden, in consequence of 
 which, she has already entered upon our China trade, in the case of the Swedish ship 
 Albion, and is likely to wrest it from our hands. Each of these arrangements is based on 
 the Free Track principle, allowing equal terms of trade to the vessels of the contracting parties. 
 Such is the resuk of our commercial treaties thus far. They bind us to perpetual, irrevo 
 cable sacrifice. These cases may serve to show what would be the fate of our navigation 
 interest, if the protection it now enjoys were withdrawn. It could not stand a competition 
 with the cheapness of foreign capital and labor employed in navigation a single day, and 
 foreign flags would monopolize even our coasting trade. 
 
 A new commercial treaty with Great Britain ? Is she a fool, or we, to talk of that ? 
 Already the average of her tariff , as it bears on us, is 110 per cent, above ours as it bears on 
 her, and would require an average Abatement on her part of 60 per cent., and an average 
 addition on ours of 50 per cent., to make a fair treaty. Will Great Britain consent to this / 
 The absurdity of such a project is too obvious to be mentioned. Great Britain is not wont to 
 be so disinterested and gracious. 
 
 The impracticability of such a scheme in relation to European powers generally. 
 Their debts and other burdens are too great, and the wits of their statesmen are continually 
 tortured for the invention of tariffs adequate to their purposes. They are constantly straining 
 them to a higher pitch, and the recent apparent and trifling abatement in the British tariff is 
 in fact a protective measure, offered as a lure to the German League and to nations of the 
 Continent to induce them to halt, that England may retain her trade with them. Holland 
 ewes a debt averaging $2(j6 67 for each one of her population ; the debt of England averages 
 $222 24 for each individual ; the debt of France is $54 54 for each person ; and so on, till 
 having counted twenty-Jive States, the average of debt is still $10 00 for each person. (See 
 Hunt s Merchants Magazine for May, 1843.) Is it likely, that, with the additional burden 
 of their expensive governments, they will relax their tariffs to trade with us for our advantage ? 
 In charity we are bound not to imagine that this proposal is offered as a wedge to split tha 
 Constitution. 
 
 The effect of European capital and labor on American capital and labor. 
 
 The value of capital (money we mean) is determined by the interest it can obtain in the 
 market; and by this rule the average value of capital in Europe is at least one third less 
 than the average value of American capital, as settled by experience. The average price of 
 European labor, as determined by the best authorities, is at least two thirds, and might 
 perhaps be put down at three fourths less, than the average price of American labor. Say, 
 two thirds. In other words, the value of American capital is as 3 to 2, and of American 
 labor as 3 to 1 of European capital and labor. This may be assumed as settled. 
 How this difference arises. 
 
 It is the difference in this particular, between a free country and countries not free. It is 
 not an accident a transient result -but the permanent effect of a permanent and immutable 
 Cause. In our case, the value of capital and the price of labor are not forced and fictitious, 
 lut they are the prerogative of freedom. In the case of Europe, the laborers are not a party in 
 arranging the price of their task. They have no choice. It is forced. Consequently, the 
 capital that is Ihuy wrung from involuntary service, at such a price, can be afforded at leas 
 
 46 
 
15 
 
 interest ; and considering how it is acquired, the price of European capital is in fact higher than 
 American capital, as compared with the price of labor there. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, other things being equal, that the advantage which European capital 
 and labor, as producing powers, have over American capital and labor, acting in the same capacity, 
 in open and free trade, is equal to the difference in their relative values, which may be assumed as 
 two to one, or 100 per cent., if labor be regarded an equal power with the capital that employs it. 
 But other things are not equal, and the difference is in favor of Europeans. For example, laborers 
 in Europe work from 12 to 18 hours a day, averaging say 15 hours, and American laborers never 
 over 10 hours, making a difference in this particular of one third. There are other points of differ 
 ence all on the same side ; but this is enough to show that we have not rated the sum of difference 
 too high, in allowing European capital and labor to be 100 per cent, more powerful, as producers, 
 in opposition to American capital and labor. The point is this : That American capital and labor, 
 at a cost of 100 per cent., can not compete in the s^me market and on the same terms with European 
 capital, at a cost of 67 per cent., and European labor, at a cost of 33 per cent. 
 
 The question. 
 
 The question then the great, practical, momentous question is, Shall European capital and 
 labor, in a field of open and free trade, be permitted to bring American capital and labor, that is, 
 American society, down to the same level ? Or shall American society, by the American gov 
 ernment, protect American capital and labor, and maintain the position to which the cost of 
 American freedom has elevated them ? 
 
 The great battle. 
 
 The great battle of the world is between freedom and despotism ; and we take upon us to say. 
 that, more than in anything or all things else, the form under which that contest is now carried 
 on, is between European capital and labor on one side, and American capital and labor on the 
 other. On this pivot, in our regard, tnrns the destiny of nations. SUSTAIN the position of Ameri 
 can capital and labor, that every man may be secure of the fair reward of his exertion?, however 
 humble his birth and calling, and freedom will prevail all the world over. The American people. 
 united and resolved in this great emprise, can beat the world the whole" world on this platform, and 
 crumble into dust the bulwarks of despotic sway. BUT, let European capital and labor PREVAIL against 
 us, and there is an end of freedom, till another cycle of ages, with its sad round of experience, shall 
 burst the chains again, and they who succeed shall better appreciate their duty and their chances. 
 The battle for American freedom was only begun in the establishment of American independence 
 The commercial systems of Europe, as they act upon us through the agency of European capital 
 and labor, are more to be feared than all the power of European arms. A perpetual war would 
 be less expensive and less perilous than the effects of this occult, silent, insinuating, all-perva 
 ding power, ifunresisted by us. 
 
 And is all this against commerce ? 
 
 Certainly not. But the question is, How we can make commerce most profitable ? Whether we 
 shall put and keep this whole nation in the hands of a few importing merchants, that they may 
 become <l merchant princes," and into the hands of the agents of British and foreign manufac 
 tories, to be their slaves? or whether we shall yet be free and independent? We have shown 
 that our home trade is some twenty to one more than our foreign trade, and that our foreign 
 trade, unregulated, or nearly so, has been the cause of all our commercial and currency troubles, 
 from time to time, in the progress of our history. The practical question, therefore, is, How 
 foreign trade can be regulated, so as not to destroy hoth domestic and foreign ? By a suitable 
 protection of home industry, and American capital and labor, we can increase our trade in a 
 manifold degree, without any risk, and with a certainty of an increase of national wealth : whereas, 
 an extension of foreign trade at the expense of domestic, is sure to ruin all. 
 
 The importance of our domestic trade. 
 
 We have stated in our Tract on the Currency, from good authority, that the domestic exchanges 
 of this country, required to be negotiated for the settlement of accounts in trade, amount to not 
 less than four hundred millions of dollars annually. As this mode of business is comparatively rare, 
 and is little employed, except in the larger and more formal transactions of commerce, the fact in 
 a sufficient indication of the vast domestic trade of the country. 
 
 A question easily answered. 
 Viz., Who are the British allies in this country ? Ans. The advocates of free trade. 
 
 How to pay our foreign debt. 
 
 It is allowed to be about two hundred millions. Regulate our foreign trade so as to bring a bal 
 ance of twenty millions a year in our favor, and the account will all be settled in ten years, so far 
 as the nation is concerned, and that without prejudice, and with great benefit to the interests of the 
 country. In 1840 we actually settled twenty-four millions of this reckoning. (See page 13, last 
 paragraph.) That such a policy of liquidation would be a tax upon none, and alike beneficial to 
 all, will appear from the general argument of these pages. 
 
 Our leases of national prosperity. 
 
 Heretofore our national prosperity has been leased to us at will by the agents of foreign manufac 
 tories and importing merchants ; and the usual run of a lease is not over ten years, more apt to be 
 about five, and is liable to expire in two or three. It depends entirely on their success in tempting 
 us into an excessive consumption of foreign products. W thout a protective system, they would 
 doubtless be able to bring us all to the grotmd, and lay us flat on our backs again, in about three years. 
 
 The leaning of great commercial cities, engaged in foreign commerce, towards free trade. 
 It would certainly be difficult to account for this on any ptmciple of sound judgment or patriotism. 
 No parts of the community can be more interested in a steady and healthful couise of trade, than our 
 *arge commercial towns; and no other equal portion of our country suffered so much as New- 
 York in the revulsion of 1837- 40. Whenever the effects of excessive imports come, as come they 
 Oust, with desolating power, these are the points that feel it first, and, ultimately Buffer 
 
 47 
 
16 
 
 This leaning towards free trade, therefore, in these quarters, can orly he accounted for from the probable fact. 
 that they who talk so, being dtcply in for it, hope to escape, or hope to get rich and retire before a revulsion comes, 
 It is impossible they should be ignorant of the cause of these disasters. 
 
 How much richer we might have been. 
 
 On the last page of our Tract on the Currency, will be found a comprehensive summary of the losses to thi 
 country, as occasioned by the revulsion of 1637 - 40. In the present Tract is enough to show, thai We have been 
 Buffering- greatiy ever since our existence as an independent nation, by the same cause, viz., the want of a piopet 
 protective system. It will follow, therefore, that we have suffered incalculable putbachs, from lime to time, and 
 that no one can tell how much richer we should have been as a nation, under such a system of government as our 
 ights entitle us to. We can not help the past ; but it will he our own fault, if we do not take care of the future 
 
 Just what we want. 
 
 We want a system of foreign commerce that will secure the following- results : First, to afford adequate protec 
 tion to American industry, invention, labor, and enterprise ; and next, to afford adequate revenue for the support 
 and objects of the government. With a proper discrimination in the imposition of duties on imports, these two end* 
 may easily be accomplished. 
 
 Our country a world in itself. 
 
 We have almost every variety of climate and soil ; our mineral resources are inexhaustibly rich in nearly all 
 the known treasuies of those regions ; manufactures and the mechanic arts, in every variety, can be cairied to 
 the highest perfection here, as proved by experience : we can furnish their products cheaper than they can be 
 imported ; and there is scarcely any want of man, in the natural or social state, which we ciin not supply, equal 
 or superior in quality, and on better terms than can be got elsewhere. Nature, in our wide domain, is all boun 
 tiful, and society and the useful arts here re not surpassed in the civilized world. The enterprise of our popula 
 tion is unrivalled ; and though young, we have come to a maturity in national importance, resources, and oapabili- 
 ties, that few nations can boast of. In this position, we will consent to trade with other nations on fair terms ; 
 but to be dependent first, and then to be slaves this is what we will not consent to. 
 
 Our commercial domain. 
 
 Our commercial domain, and the rights appertaining thereunto, which extend over all public seas, penetrate all 
 empires, and are co- extensive with the globe, limited and restricted only by the law of nations, are as important 
 to be defended as the rights of our territorial domain. The latter, indeed, will prove to be of little value, unless 
 the former can be maintained in all its integrity. Our independence is vulnerable chiefly, almost solely, through 
 the channels of our foreign trade. It is through these easy loop-holes, spacious avenues, and open-mouthed ducts, 
 that European capital and labor have poured in their products upon us, to suppress American industry, and brinjf 
 down the price of American labor to the European standard. 
 
 Retrospective and prospective. 
 
 In our late commercial revulsion, lahor among us stood like Laocoon and his offspring, writhing in the contortiv 
 folds of the serpent, which hissed in the ear of its victims the death that awaited them, till the tariff of 1842 came 
 to its relief. On the basis of free trade in our foreign commerce, it is inevitable, that American capital and labor 
 will together fall into the arms of European capita! and labor, and expire in the grip ; and the hopes of the world, 
 based on American freedom, will die with it. For, it is not a problem yet to be solved, that the emascu luting in 
 fluence of European toil, meted out by despotism to the masses of mankind, unfits man either to assert, or acquire, 
 or maintain freedom. Ot:ce reduce the price of American labor to a bare subsistence, and hardly that, which it 
 the lot of European labor, and to which free trade in our foreign commerce inevitably tends, and down goes with 
 it the value of American capiial and down for ever all the dear and precious rights of American fieedom. " Have 
 you any children ?" sked a British government commissioner, of a respectable weaver. Ans. " No ; I had two, 
 but they are both dead, thanks be to God." " But, di you express satisfaction at the death of your children ?* 
 Ans. " I do. I thank God for it. I am relieved from the burden of maintaining them ; and they, po&r dear crea 
 tures, are relieved from the troubles of this mortal life." This is a pretty fair picture of the condition of European 
 laborers, when death, in the shape of starvation and overwork, is s-> cruel as to spare them ; and this is th-e con 
 dition to which the policy of free trade in our foreign commerce, would reduce every American, laborer! 
 
 What ive have proved. 
 
 It will probably he admitted, that the following things, among others, have been established : 
 
 1. That the great bulk of the trade of this country is domestic. 
 
 2. That buying too much in our foreign trade, has been the cause of all our commercial and currency difficulties 
 
 3. That it is impossible that such difficulties should arise from the action of domestic trade. 
 
 4. That this buying too much, draws the specie out of the country, and undermines the currency. 
 
 5. That the only way to prevent this buying too much, is to establish and maintain a restrictive and protective 
 policy. 
 
 6. That the only parties benefited by this immense injury to the country, are foreign governments, foreign 
 manufacturers, and a few importing merchants among ourselves. 
 
 7. That we can never have a foreign trade profitable to the country, or otherwise than injurious, till this prao 
 lice of buying too much of foreign nations he suppressed. 
 
 8. That the importance of foreign trade is commonly overrated, and that American se//-dependence is a more 
 safe reliance. 
 
 9. That the products of manufactures are cheapened, and the wages of labor enhanced, by protective duties. 
 
 10. That both American labor and American capital are victims of European capital and labor, on the platform 
 f free trade. 
 
 11. That American freedom and independence are put in jeopardy by our foreign trade, as heretofore conducted 
 
 12. That the entire controversy is between the rights of American labor and the claims of European despotism. 
 
 13. That we are a world in ourselves, and have no need to desire or seek a commerce with foreign nations that 
 will not render an equivalent for what we bestow. 
 
 14. That foreign trade, unregulated, is competent to destroy both itself and domestic trade, and that such is its 
 
 15. That domestic manufactures employ and put into active and profitable use a vast amount of American capital 
 n which labor depends, and that the greater the number and extent of home manufactures, the better the chance* 
 
 16. That the commercial systems of Europe are hostile to American interests, and require countervailing regu 
 
 17. That British policy contemplates the revival of colonial dependence on our part, and that such is the ten 
 dency of the ac ;ual system of trade between the two countries. 
 
 18. That a pro/nctiue tariff is indispensable to our prosperity as a nation, and is a truly patriotic measure, 
 equally important to all sections of ihe country, and all class:s of American citizens, if \ve except a fe.w\\\ porting 
 merchants, leagued with agents of foreign and hostile interests, who are willing to make their fortunes on Uw 
 nuns of a great country. And sundry other cognate results, for which see the text. 
 
 4-8 
 
THE 
 
 ; JUNIUSTRACTS. " 
 
 :;l,^r/: No. IY. 
 
 SEPT.] PUBLISHED EVERY SECOND MONTH. [1843. 
 
 LIFE OF HEFEY CLAY, 
 
 BY JUNIUS. 
 
 Author of " THE CRISIS OF THE COUNTRY," and other Tracts of 1840. 
 Price, 3 cents single, $2 50 cts. per 100, or $20 per 1000. 
 
 TRACTS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 
 No. I. THE TEST, OR PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS. 
 II. THE CURRENCY. 
 III. THE TARIFF. 
 IV. LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 V. POLITICAL ABOLITION. 
 
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 are requested to send their orders, with remittances, to the publishers, Greeley $ McElraik, 
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 ID" Postmasters are authorized by law to make remittances under their frank. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY GREELEY & McELRATH, 
 
 TRIBUNE BUILDINGS, 160 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1844. 
 
 (Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by CALVIN COLTON, in the Clerk s office of tfcft 
 District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York.] 
 
 87" EXTRACTS in Newspapers, for purpose of review, are allowed, but the republication of tlito 
 
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 [One Sheet Periodical, Postage under 100 miles 1$ cents ; over 100 miles 2J.] 
 4-9 
 
, 
 
 2 
 
 LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 
 MR. CLAY was born the 12th of April, 1777, in Hanover county, Virginia. His father was 
 a Baptist minister, who left his wife a widow in indigence, when Henry was in his fifth year, 
 with seven young children, and two younger than Henry. Mr. Robert Hughes, a playfellow 
 of Henry Clay in boyhood, said ef his old friend, at a dinner on the Fourth of July, 1843, at 
 Campbell Court House, Virginia : " He and I were born close to the slashes of old Hanover. 
 He worked barefooted, and so did I. He went to mill, and so did I. He was good to his 
 mamma, and so was I. I know him like a book, and love him like a brother." The boy 
 that works barefooted for his mother, will be very likely, when he comes to be a man, if 
 Providence opens the way, to serve his country well. The two spheres are kindred to each 
 other. 
 
 Mr. Clay s first rudiments of education were acquired in a log schoolhouse. In the mean 
 time, he had to work barefooted and go to mill. He is familiarly called in " old Hanover" 
 the " MILL-BOY OF THE SLASHES," having been so often seen between his mother s house 
 and Mrs. Darricott s grist-mill on the Pamunkey, mounted on a bag and a poney, guided by a 
 rope-bridle. At the age of fourteen, he went to serve as clerk with Mr. Richard Denny, 
 druggist, in Richmond, Va. ; and the next year, 1792, went into the office of Peter Tinsley, 
 Esq., clerk of the High Court of Chancery, where he attracted the notice, and received the 
 kind regards of the venerable Chancellor Wythe, who afterward employed him as his amanu 
 ensis in recording his decisions, comments, &c. In these not unfavorable positions, spurred on 
 by his ambition, and cherished by the Chancellor and others who had the sagacity to recog 
 nise the germe of his future eminence, he made rapid advances in legal and other studies. 
 After spending his nineteenth year in the office of Robert Brooke, Esq., Attorney General 
 for the State of Virginia, Mr. Clay obtained license for the practice of law from the Judges 
 of the Court of Appeals in las native State. 
 
 Removal to Kentucky. 
 
 In 1792 Mr. Clay s mother had married Mr. Henry Watkins, and removed with her family 
 to Woodford county, Kentucky. Attracted by his filial regard, Henry was induced te follow 
 her; and in 1797 Mr. Clay, a youth of twenty, opened an attorney s office in Lexington, as 
 he says in his speech of June 6, 1842, at that place, "without patrons, without the favor or 
 countenance of the great or opulent, and without the means of paying my weekly board. I 
 remember how comfortable I thought I should be, if I could make one hundred pounds, Virginia 
 money, a year, and with what delight I received the first fifteen-shilling fee. My hopes were 
 more than realized. I immediately rushed into a lucrative practice." 
 
 Jl pleasant story. 
 
 ^ While Mr. Clay was yet a stranger at Lexington, he joined a debating club, but for some 
 time declined taking any part in the discussions. After a while, however, it happened that 
 a question was about to be put by the chairman for decision, when Mr. Clay, in a low voke, 
 said to a fellow-member by his side, that he thought the question was not exhausted. Where 
 upon, glad of the chance, and without leave, Mr. Clay s friend suddenly rose, and said, " Mr. 
 Chairman, Mr. Clay will speak on this question." Thus unexpectedly forced up, and abashed 
 with that diffidence which gifted minds usually feel before they are used to collision with, 
 other minds, Mr. Clay began : " Gentlemen of the Jury," and perceiving his mistake, he 
 stopped short. But through the politeness of the chairman and the club, who had wished to 
 see him come out, he was encouraged to begin again : " Gentlemen of the Jury," said Mr. 
 Clay, and there he stopped. At last, however, he got over the distressing balk, and gradually 
 acquiring self-possession, he made an argument that excited the astonishment and admiration 
 of all. The ice being thus broken, he walked straight into a reputation, that has never 
 flagged, and never been stained. 
 
 The self-made man. 
 
 " Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them." 
 The first certainly was not the lot of Henry Clay, nor was greatness thrust upon him. All 
 the distinction he has acquired, was achieved achieved by his single arm, by his own lofty 
 aims. Such is the self-made man. He will ever be honored, who, by his own inherent vigor 
 and high aspirations, has successfully contended against obstacles that would dispirit ordinary 
 minds, and baffled in an honorable career the adverse winds and storms of unhopeful birth and 
 fortune. In the blood and on the graves of our fathers, martyrs to freedom, was laid a plat 
 form for such endeavors, on which our youth, whatever their origin, may build high hopes, 
 and earn an imperishable fame. The spectacle of the boy working " barefooted" for his 
 mother, touches all hearts; and when that boy, in riper years, is seen toiling through a like 
 career for his country, the mother of us all, he obeys the instincts, and fulfils the high destinv 
 oC fcis filial piety. 
 
 50 
 
3 
 
 Mr. Clay at the bar. 
 
 It might be difficult to say, whether Mr. Clay was more able in the management of criminal 
 or civil causes ; but it is easy to decide in which he early acquired the highest reputation. His 
 characteristic sympathy for the unfortunate, especially for persons in peril of life, awoke the 
 profoundest feelings of his nature, and he never failed of success in his defence of persons ac 
 cused of capital crime, though he had cases in hand which seemed to all others hopeless, as 
 for example, those of Mrs. Phelps, of the two Germans, father and son, and of Willis, all 
 clearly cases of murder in an aggravated degree, but all successfully defended by this young 
 advocate. The only capital case in which he appeared for plaintiffs, was against a slave, 
 who had killed his master while undertaking to chastise him, which resulted in the slave s 
 condemnation. With this exception, Mr. Clay has always been the defender of slaves, and 
 often, never Avithout success, volunteered his services in suits for their freedom, and in other 
 cases. It has ever been a scrupulous rule with Mr. Clay, that no man, freeman or slave, should 
 go without defence in law for want of money, when it was in his power to aid them. 
 
 Nor was Mr. Clay less successful in civil cases. Down to this time, he has been regarded 
 as second to no counsellor in the Union. In one case, involving the land laws of Virginia 
 and Kentucky, while yet a young man, lie had, in a necessary absence, left it in the hands of 
 an associate counsel, who was foiled by his opponents at all points, during a two-days contest ; 
 but just as the case was being submitted to the Court, who would doubtless have decided 
 against him, Mr. Clay came in, had a moment s conversation with his colleague, addressed 
 the Court for half an hour, in total ignorance of the evidence that had been adduced, and 
 gained the cause ! 
 
 Mr. Clay and emancipation. 
 
 When Mr. Clay arrived in Kentucky, he found the people of the State agitating the question 
 of remodelling the Constitution, and a very respectable minority were in favor of introducing a 
 clause for the gradual emancipation of the slaves, as had been done in some of the northern 
 States, by freeing at a specific age those born after the adoption of the proposed Constitution, 
 that ultimately all should be free. Mr. Clay enlisted in this project of emancipation with 
 great zeal, and devoted all his energies, through the press, by personal influence, and in an 
 active campaign, to accomplish this end. But he and his associates were unsuccessful. More 
 than twenty years afterwards, when he proposed the compromise to settle the Missouri ques 
 tion, he declared, on the floor of Congress, that, if he were a citizen of Missouri, he would use 
 all his influence to establish a system of gradual and ultimate emancipation, and he earnestly 
 recommended it. In a speech at the anniversary of the American Colonization Society, in 1827, 
 Mr. Clay said of slavery, " If I could only be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain 
 upon the character of our country, I would not exchange the proud satisfaction I should enjoy 
 for the honor of all the triumphs ever decreed to the most successful conqueror." 
 
 The alien and sedition laws. 
 
 These two laws were passed at the Session of 1798- 5 9. The first ga,ve power to the Presi 
 dent to banish an alien at his discretion, if he judged his presence here prejudicial to the in 
 terests of the country ; and the second put a stopper on freedom of speech and of the press, 
 in discussing the merits of public men. The second was certainly against the Constitution, and 
 the first was no less a bold stride towards monarchical power. Kentucky was the first of the 
 States that shook the dewdrops from her mane, and Henry Clay was the organ of her indigna 
 tion. Then only twenty-two years of age, the thunders of his eloquence electrified the 
 people. No other man was so prominent in the field, and none so effective in that influence, 
 which raised Mr. Jefferson to power, as this young champion of democracy. A true democrat 
 then, he is so still, and ever has been. Where can be found, in this broad land, a more vigi 
 lant sentinel of popular rights, or a more faithful denouncer of Executive usurpations, and the 
 abuses of Executive power ? 
 
 The saddle on the wrong horse. 
 
 In a reply to Mr. Calhoun, while the sub-treasury was under debate, Mr. Clay said : "All 
 the former grounds of difference which distinguished that (the Federal) party, and were the 
 subjects of contention between them and the Republicans, have ceased, from lapse of time 
 and change of circumstance, except one, and that is the maintenance and increase of Executive 
 power. This was the leading policy of the Federal party. A strong, powerful, and energetic 
 Executive was its favorite tenet. I tell the gentleman, that he will find the true old democratic 
 party, who were for resisting the encroachments of power, and limiting Executive patronage, 
 on this side of the Senate, and not with his new allies, who do not hold a solitary principle in 
 common with the republican party of 1798. IT is THE OLD FEDERAL PARTY WITH WHOM HE is 
 
 NOW ACTING." 
 
 Mr. Clay s entrance into public life. 
 
 In 1803 Mr. Clay was elected from Fayette county to a seat in the lower house of the Ken 
 tucky legislature, and was immediately pitted against Mr. Felix Grundy iu defending the 
 
 51 
 
charter of the Lexington Insurance Company against a movement for its repeal, in which he 
 was successful by convincing the Senate, who listened to his argument in the Assembly, 
 though he lost the vote of his own house. It was in this field that Mr. Clay s parliamentary 
 powers were first presented to public gaze, and gave earnest of future and high promise. 
 He was a leader there, as everywhere, and a favorite of the public. From this time to the 
 war of 1812, we find him alternately in the legislature of his adopted State, and in the coun 
 cils of the nation at Washington. In 1806 he was transferred to the Senate of the United 
 States for one session, to fill out the unexpired term of the Hon. John Adair, resigned, where 
 he immediately distinguished himself as one of the earliest movers more properly, perhaps, 
 the founder of the internal improvement system. After having been again returned to the 
 house of assembly in Kentucky, and made speaker, he was in 1809 sent" back to the United 
 States Senate for two years, to complete the term of the Hon. Buckner Thurston, who had 
 resigned. It was in April, 1811, while a bill to provide munitions of war, &c., was under 
 debate in the Senate, and during the pendency of an amendment giving preference to articles 
 of American growth and manufacture., that Mr. Clay boldly and distinctly propounded and 
 advocated his views on the policy of protection. The amendment prevailed. Mr. Madison 
 found himself sustained by all the powers of Mr. Clay, in his proclamation to assert our 
 jurisdiction to the line of the Perdido in Florida. Various and active were the exertions oi 
 Mr. Clay in the Senate, during this Congress; and among the rest, as is known, he was 
 found in opposition to the recharter of the Bank of the United States. 
 
 Mr. Clay and Aaron Burr. 
 
 There was a time when the envious rivals of Mr. Clay, if such men could be his rivals, 
 undertook to calumniate him for consenting to defend Colonel Burr on his first trial. Mr. 
 Burr had written to Mr. Clay, and assured him, on the honor of a gentleman, that there was 
 no foundation for the charges against him ; whereupon Mr. Clay, with his characteristic 
 generosity, undertook his defence, and succeeded; but afterward, having discovered the 
 truth, treated him as he deserved. Evert if Mr. Clay had had no such assurances from Col. 
 Burr, it would be a slender compliment to our laws and institutions, which profess to 
 guaranty an accused person a fair trial, to deny him counsel ! 
 
 Mr. Clay elected to the House of Representatives of the United States. 
 
 In all the public stations, successively, which Mr, Clay occupied from 1803 to 1811, we 
 find him always prominent ; always looked up to, though a young man ; always leading off 
 on some stirring theme or in some important measure, riveting the attention and commanding 
 the respect of the bodies of which he was a member, and rising in this western hemisphere a 
 star of uncommon brilliancy. Having a choice of a seat in the Senate or House of Repre 
 sentatives of the United States, in 1811, he did not hesitate to prefer the lattei , for the stirring 
 and eventful period that was then before the country, in a prospect of war with Great Britain. 
 On the first ballot he was made Speaker, an honor never before or since conferred on a new 
 member. 
 
 ;. . Mr. Clay and the. war. 
 
 It is known that we went into the war with Great Britain in the midst of powerfully-con 
 flicting opinions as to the necessity, propriety, or expediency of so momentous a step ; that 
 the administration and its friends were vigorously assailed from where they had need and 
 some claims for encouragement and support ; that the first stages of the war were disastrous, 
 and, as such, gave eminent advantage to the opposition and to the enemy. But the brilliant 
 achievements of its later stages, and the final result, put the whole matter in a new and dif 
 ferent light. The lapse of nearly thirty years has served only to impart additional validity 
 to a general conviction at first entertained, that we acquired by that struggle very important 
 benefits and needful advantages. 
 
 The part borne by Mr. Clay, in that trying period of our history, adds not less to his claims 
 on the gratitude of his country, than to the blaze of his reputation. At one time portraying, 
 in manly terms and with flashing indignation, the injuries and insults of the foe ; at another, 
 remonstrating with domestic opponents : then turning, with a true American heart, and 
 laying his electrifying hand on the heart of the American people, he disarmed opposition, 
 chased away the fears of the timid, imparted fresh courage to the strong, and stood by the 
 Government, erect, prominent, and influential in its counsels, both in the origination and 
 conduct of the war. He was as a general-in-chief over the intellectual power of the country, 
 and the breath of his mouth moved over it as the wind of heaven sways the forests of an 
 unbroken wilderness. His animating spirit, his stirring eloquence, his useful counsels, and 
 his untiring agency, from the position he occupied, were everywhere felt, and equally bene 
 ficial in our army and navy, to excite them to noble and successful deeds, as in the presiding 
 magistracy of the nation, to give it constancy and vigor. By his timely advice, and by the 
 magic of his persuasions, the resources of the country started up from their places of repose, 
 organized, disciplined, and in force ; and the nation was victorious. He was the guiding 
 
 52 
 
genius of the conflict, which ended, not less by his instrumentality, for the honor and enduring 
 good of the republic. See the detail of his action as Speaker and Member of the House of 
 Representatives, and read his speeches, as an illustration and in proof of this brief sketch. 
 Mr. Madison s estimate of Mr. Clay. 
 
 He invited him repeatedly into his Cabinet, and offered him the mission to Russia, then 
 deemed very important. He even proposed to put Mr. Clay at the head of the army ; and 
 was only deterred from sending in his name to the Senate for the appointment of General-in- 
 Chief by the advice that he could not be spared from the public councils. 
 Mr. Clay s services in the Treaty of Ghent. 
 
 When the offensive demands first put forward by the British Commissioners were chiefly 
 waived, a diiiiculty arose in a want of harmony in our own Board, on a very important 
 question, to wit, whether the right of navigation on the Mississippi should be conceded to the 
 British / Messrs. Adams, Gallatin, and Bayard, were in favor of it, and Messrs. Clay and 
 Russell opposed to it. The reasons for it were, first, that it was a former right : and, next, 
 that if not granted, it was likely to disturb our fishing rights as before enjoyed. The reasons 
 against it were, first, that when before conceded, the Mississippi was supposed to have its 
 sources in the British dominions, in which case it is a usual right among nations ; but it was 
 since ascertained, that its sources lie within our jurisdiction. The British might as properly 
 demand the right of navigating the Connecticut, the Hudson, the Potomac, or any or all of 
 our rivers. Secondly, the instructions of our commissioners forbade treating on the naviga 
 tion of rivers whose sources are in our bounds. Thirdly, in the then present and prospective 
 condition of the great west, anJ in our relations with Indian tribes, the admission of the 
 British into those waters must, necessarily, be prolific of incalculable evils, of endless 
 controversy, and woulJ endanger the peace of the two countries. Mr. Clay, therefore, being 
 in the minority, felt himself constrained to say, that he would put his signature to no treaty 
 conceding the. proposed right. This lirought Mr. Bayard over to his side, and the treaty was 
 concluded without prejudice to our fishing interests. Who can tell what the country owes to 
 Mr. Clay for his foresight and firmness on this occasion ?. 
 
 The respect and esteem he acquired with the British commissioners, the honors paid him 
 at Paris and London after the conclusion of the treaty, and his reception at home, are a 
 sufficient attestation of the high consideration he had won both in this country and abroad. 
 
 Mr. Clay s imputed change of opinion on the subject of a national bank. 
 
 After Mr. Clay s return from abroad, he was again sent to Congress, and again made 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives. It was this Congress (the fourteenth) which 
 rechartered the Bank of the United States, and Mr. Clay gave it his support. The change, 
 however, was rather in the commercial and monetary condition of the country, making more 
 evident what was ft necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers of Con 
 gress," specified in the Constitution, in regard to the currency, than in Mr. Clay. His oppo 
 sition to a national bank in 1811 was based on the belief he then entertained, that it was not 
 " necessary" in the sense of the Constitution, and therefore not " proper," and that the 
 State banks were sufficient. But the sad experience of four years, without a national bank, 
 had demonstrated to Mr. Clay s mind, and to all the world, that the State banks were insuf 
 ficient, and that a national bank was " necessary," which brought such a measure within the 
 constitutional powers of the General Government. This was the change. Mr. Clay s former 
 opinion was founded on one set of facts, the latter on another ; and though there is a differ 
 ence, there is no inconsistency. 
 
 Anecdotes. 
 
 For having voted for Mr. Richard M. Johnson s " Compensation Sill," in 18 16, an unpopu 
 lar measure, and repealed at the next Congress, Mr. Clay had to make his defence to his 
 constituents. Meeting an old hunter one day, who was against him on that account, Mr. 
 Clay asked him : " Have you a good rifle, my friend ?" " Yes." " Does it ever flash ?" 
 u It did once." " And did you throw it away ? 3> " No : T picked the flint, tried it again, and 
 brought down the game." " Have I ever flashed, except on the Compensation Bill ?" " No ! w 
 " And will you throw me away ?" " No ! no !" cried the hunter, with tears in his eyes, and 
 grasping Mr. Clay s hand, " No ! no ! I will pick the flint, and try you again." 
 
 A barber in Lexington was also in the same state of feeling toward Mr. Clay, and about 
 to vote against him. But meeting Mr. Clay one day in the street, he accosted him, and said, 
 u I have wronged you, Mr. Clay." " How so ?" " Why, my wife came to me, and said, 
 * Jerry, don t you remember when you were in jail, and Mr. Clay came and let you out ? 
 and will you vote against him ? < No ! no ! Jinny, I said, < do you think I am such a beast V " 
 
 Mr. Clay s efforts in Congress for the recognition of the independence of the South American State*. 
 
 The name of Henry Clay, of North America, is better known, and excites more gratitude, 
 
 in the republics and States of South America, than that of any other man, living or dead, 
 
 53 
 
foreign to that quarter of the globe ; and he is known there only as the early, disinterested, 
 heroic advocate of their emancipation. If they have not yet done as well as we could have 
 wished, it detracts not at all from the virtue which so magnanimously espoused their cause, 
 and finally won for them such important advantages. In 1816 Mr. Clay begun to plead for 
 them in the American Congress ; in 1818 he made a speech in those halls, which was read at 
 the head of the armies of South America, while fighting for freedom, and electrified their 
 hearts ; and in 1822, after six years of struggle against opposition, he had the satisfaction of 
 witnessing the consummation of his aims, in the recognition of their independence by our 
 Government. In 1827 he had a letter of thanks from Bolivar, to which he replied, with his 
 characteristic frankness, expressing his regrets that Bolivar had disappointed the hopes of 
 mankind, and commending to him the example of the immortal Washington. 
 
 Mr. Clay on Internal Improvement. 
 
 On the Cumberland road is erected a monument, surmounted by the Genius of Liberty, anJ 
 inscribed with the name of HENRY CLAY, in recognition and testimony of the fact, that this 
 great national work, which has levelled the Alleganies, and created a powerful bond for the 
 perpetuity of the Union, owes its existence to him, as a part of that great and beneficent 
 " American System," so called, of which he is the acknowledged father. Internal improve 
 ment, as a national policy, though sanctioned, as is believed, by the Constitution, and without 
 doubt sanctioned by the opinion and wishes of the country, when freely and fairly expressed, 
 has balked sadly all along by means of Executive scruples and one-man power. For a length 
 of years Mr. Clay battled heroically for this sublime enterprise, and has stamped upon the 
 public mind an impression not easily to be eradicated. He has sown seed in the field, which, 
 under more genial suns, will yield their fruit. The question lies only for a while upon the 
 shelf, where unworthy hands have put it, and will doubtless come down again to fructify the 
 Union with its blessings. Nay, it is not on the shelf. The influence of the originator and 
 stimulator of this magnificent scheme, has been felt by the States, and prompted the members 
 of the great family, in their separate capacity, to assume the more appropriate functions of 
 the unnatural parent, and, in no small extent, to make amends for her defect of duty. It 
 must be done, and will be done. Then will the Union be bound by ties which nothing can 
 break, and the great arteries of this life-giving influence will conduct the vital current te 
 every part. "-.. ( , 
 
 Mr. Clay and American labor. 
 
 It has been the lot, the good fortune, the peculiar talent, the high gift, we may say the 
 genius of Henry Clay, not only in being endowed with sagacity to pry into the present, but 
 with prophecy to look into the future. A wise system of national policy, in all its parts, 
 would seem to have sprung forth in full maturity from his mind, before the seed had broken 
 its shell in the general mind. Hence the tardiness with which the nation has been inducted into 
 his views, and the facility with which they have been temporarily blinded. Winds and storms 
 and the convulsions of nature may disturb the action of the tides; but these mighty move 
 ments of nature do not follow the sun and the moon more surely, than the public mind of this 
 country moves forward in the path of its inspired and guiding genius. Mr. Clay has never 
 propounded a great thought or a great measure, or made a public argument, which has not 
 sunk into the mind of the American people, and gone to the bottom, where it is securely 
 anchored. He has only to stand still, and the nation will come to him. It is coming nmv, 
 has long been coming, it has come. 
 
 Take that part of hi? " American system," which throws its shield over American labor, 
 industry, and enterprise, \v ,:::<. was conceived by Mr. Clay when he first came into public 
 life, and which has been toiled for by him from that day to this, and there is not a single 
 article of it which the public mind of the country is not at this moment prepared to adopt. 
 (See our Tract on the Tariff.) It is at last found out, that American labor, industry, enter 
 prise, products, and interests, must be protected that protection is not only necessary, but 
 proper in the nature of things, and in the laws of human society; and that nothing is more 
 preposterous,- or more suicidal, than to put and leave ourselves in the power of foreign fac 
 tors and foreign Governments, as, to a great extent, we have done heretofore. 
 
 What American labor (we use this term in all its applications to manufactures, the 
 mechanic arts, agriculture, and commerce, more especially the firs* iwo) what American 
 labor owes to Mr. Clay, is too well known to need repetition. It has been badly enough pro 
 tected, at best. But all it has had of fair reward, all the manufactories that have sprung up 
 in the country on which labor so extensively depends, the entire system indeed, are chiefly 
 to be ascribed to the conceptions, zeal, and efforts of Henry Clay. Not to speak of the 
 decided stand he took at an early period in his adopted State, or of his efforts of the same 
 character in Congress, in 1816, when the proper effectiveness of the tariff of that year failed 
 only by the loss of Mr. Clay s amendment, which he urged with so much eloquence and zeal, 
 in 1820, when the specie was flowing out of the country like rivers into the sea, for want of 
 
 : * )* 
 
an adequate tariff, a new and great effort was made, with Mr. Clay at its head, which failed, 
 notwithstanding all the agony of his patriotic endeavors. Foreseeing the fate of the measure, 
 while under debate, Mr. Clay said : " I frankly own, that I feel great solicitude for the suc 
 cess of this bill." And in his deep and thrilling tone, he added : " But L will not despair. 
 The cause, I verily believe, is the cause of the country. It may be postponed ; it may be 
 frustrated for the moment; but it finally must prevail. In 1824, it did prevail, and Mr. 
 Justice Baldwin, of the Supreme Court, said of Mr. Clay on that occasion, that " he was 
 General, corporal, and private," so multiform were his functions, so assiduous his efforts. It 
 has been said, and facts attest its truth, that the seven years subsequent to the tariff of 1824, 
 were the most prosperous in the history of the country. The tariff of 1828 was in some re 
 spects unequal and unfair, in consequence of an attempt of Martin Van Buren and Silas Wright 
 to break down the system, by over-straining certain parts of it, in which, for the time, they failed. 
 
 The Compromise Act. 
 
 Mr. Clay has been blamed for this. And why ? But for that, Mr. Verplanck s bill, 
 reducing duties to a common level of 15 per cent., known to be an Administration measure, 
 would have passed, and the whole system of manufactures, and all the capital vested in them, 
 would have perished. In addition to this, nullification threatened to deluge the land in the 
 blood of a civil war. Mr. Clay s object, therefore, in the Compromise, was, first, to appease 
 nullification; next, to save the system of manufactures; and last,, to give the nation, and all 
 parties, time for reflection. He knew that nullification would cool down, that the policy of 
 Mr. Verplanck s bill, at that moment in danger of being forced upon the country, would not 
 bear sober reflection, and that it was competent for Congress at any time to reconsider its pre 
 vious acts, and repeal or modify them. The Compromise Act, therefore, was a remedial, 
 healing measure for an alarming crisis, and as such necessary and most beneficent. One 
 thing more can be said of it : it was contingently a perfect scheme, and if the currency of the 
 country had not been broken down, it would have sustained the manufacturing interests, and 
 answered all the purposes of the country, till the time contemplated by its terms had arrived 
 for revising and readjusting the tariff regulations. But, so long as the country was in the 
 hands of the Destructive Dynasty, properly so called, the contingent prospects of the Com 
 promise Act were of course unfavorable for an ultimate salutary result. Nothing could save 
 the country in such hands. 
 
 The tariff of 1842. 
 
 For want of space, we beg leave to refer to our Tracts on the Currency and the Tariff, for 
 what we should otherwise say here. As Mr. Clay was not in Congress at the passage of the 
 Tariff of 1842, and has had little to say on public affairs since his retirement, his views of 
 this measure can only be inferred from his known and published opinions. There may be 
 details in it which he would wish to modify; but it was framed by those who thought it profit 
 able, and no less an honor, to be instructed by him, and who desired to carry out his policy. 
 Its salutary effect in reviving business and trade, and in restoring the prosperity of the 
 country, is all the praise that need be bestowed upon it. We refer to our first Tract, THE 
 TEST, for proofs of the other and important benefits to the country, in the way of retrench 
 ment and reform, effected by the 27th (Whig) Congress, notwithstanding the foul treason against 
 which they had to contend, and which defeated their general policy. The Tariff alone is a 
 compensation for the struggle and revolution of 1840, though the country has been most per 
 fidiously robbed of its just rights in the failure of other important measures. Doubtless, the 
 -people will avenge themselves in 1844. 
 
 The history of Mr. Clay s policy and efforts in regard to protection. 
 
 We do not propose to give this history, for we have no room, but only to say, it is one and 
 the same from beginning to end. A true disciple of Jefferson in this particular, he moved 
 while a member of the Kentucky legislature, that each member should clothe himself, from 
 head to foot, in domestic fabrics ; and if we take this fact as the germe and index of his policy, 
 through life, we shall not greatly err. Mr. Clay was never an ultra, or a bigot ; but he knew 
 what the interests of the country required, and was willing to set an impressive example 
 not that he would exclude imports, injure the foreign trade of the country, and thereby impair 
 the revenue ; but he wished to see the country truly independent. " Our complete indepen 
 dence," he said in 1820, " will only be consummated after the policy of this bill shall be 
 recognised and adopted." This bill, as we have seen, was lost. 
 
 JL retrospect and prospect. 
 
 Hard, painful, perilous, and changful, has been the conflict in this country against the Des 
 tructive Dynasty ; but something has been gained. We have a system of manufactures, though 
 imperfect, and a host of thriving mechanics and artisans, and they have done enough to show 
 what can be done. The foundation is laid, though the edifice is incomplete. No power, we 
 trust, can upset this beginning, since the people have uiscovered its importance, and feel it 
 
 55 
 
more and more every day. On the Cumberland Road stands a monument, announcing to the 
 world and future generations, who battled successfully for Internal Improvement. Not one 
 monument alone, but tens, hundreds will be raised throughout the land, to tell the world and 
 posterity, who was the father of the "American System" who the successful Defender of the 
 rights of American labor. ^ . ~* 
 
 The Missouri question. 
 
 All know, that this was a stern trial of the republic. We propose to notice it only so far 
 as it is connected -with Mr. Clay, whose efforts and influence hushed the tempest, and carried 
 the country safely through it. In consequence of professional occupation at home, Mr. Clay 
 had resigned the Speaker s Chair by a letter at the opening of the Session of 1820- 2I, and 
 did not arrive at Washington till the 16th of January, when he found Congress in a blaze of 
 excitement on the Missouri question. All eyes were turned to him. After sounding the 
 state of feeling, he moved, on the 2d of February, and carried the appointment of a Committee 
 of thirteen, upon this subject, and was himself made Chairman. On the 10th, he reported a 
 Compromise, which was rejected by a small majority of the House, after repeated trials. He 
 then moved for a joint Committee of both Houses, which was carried, and acceded to by the 
 Senate, the result of which was a report in effect the same as that before made to the House, 
 which was ratified by both branches, without farther controversy, and the question was settled, 
 on condition of its beins* accepted by the State of Missouri, as was afterward done. 
 
 In this adjustment, if we mistake not, the principle was recognised, that in States, where 
 slavery has existed since the organization of our Government, the question of its abolition or 
 continuance, shall be left where the Federal Constitution has Jeft it, viz. in the sovereignty 
 of those States, and that this rule applied to Missouri, as having been received into the (Jaion 
 as a part of Louisiana. The compromise acceded to by Missouri, was, first, the suppression 
 of an obnoxious provision in her Constitution, designed to exclude from her jurisdiction free 
 colored people of other States ; and next, an admission to the freedom of the Union, in her 
 limits, of all persons recognised as citizens of other States, it being understood, that free colored 
 people are so recognised in some of the States. 
 
 Mr. Clay s views and feelings, as an emancipationist of the old school, what he said on the 
 floor of Congress, and his advice to the State of Missouri, on this occasion, have been noticed 
 in another place. 
 
 The Great Pacificator." 
 
 In Kentucky Mr. Clay had early acquired the name of" the Great Commoner," the people s 
 man. Protracted, and almost hopeless as this Missouri controversy had become, agitating the 
 whole nation from the outmost verge to the centre, and threatening to rend in pieces the fair 
 frame of this republic, Mr. Clay had scai cely been at the seat of Government over a month, 
 before it was settled, and settled for ever. With unanimous voice, and simultaneously, the 
 whole country hailed him as " THE. GREAT PACIFICATOR." Twice, on like emergencies, when 
 all hope of conciliation appeared to be abandoned, has he stepped in, and rescued the nation 
 from an impending civil war. The attitude of South Carolina, in 1833, with the torch of 
 nullification in her hand, was even more formidable than this firebrand of the West. For one 
 such achievement, by words of peace and kindness, a loftier, though less noisy fame is earned, 
 than by vanquishing the foes of the country in the battle plain. " Blessed are the peace 
 makers." He who, dispensing with brute force, marches straight into the hearts of men, to 
 conquer them there, is a hero of the highest order. The Duke of Wellington has confessed, 
 that the courage of the field is physical. This is moral and sublime. It demonstrates a tact 
 in swaying men s minds for purposes of good, rarely possessed. 
 
 Mr. Clay in the Speaker s Chair. 
 
 Two or three days after Mr. Clay s elevation to the Speaker s Chair, for the fourth time, in 
 1823, the following lines appeared in the National Intelligencer : 
 
 " As near the Potomac s broad stream, t other day, 
 
 Pair LIBERTY strolled, in solicitous mood, 
 Deep pondering the future unheeding- her way 
 
 She met goddess NATURE beside a green wood. 
 Good mother, she cried, deign to help me at need! 
 
 I must make for my guardians a Speaker to-day; 
 The first in the world I would give them. Indeed ! 
 
 When / made the first Speaker, I made him of CLAY ! " 
 
 The legislature of Kentucky, and the House of Representatives in Congress, seem always 
 to have had this good advice before their eyes, while " THE FIRST IN THE WORLD" was among 
 them. The captivating amenity, the commanding dignity, the exemplary impartiality, and the 
 fcseful energy, with which Mr. Clay discharged the laborious and responsible duties of this 
 station for BO many years twelve in Congress are attested by all parties. 
 
 56 
 
Mr. Clay s indifference to the allurements of place. 
 
 As under Mr. Madison, so also under Mr. Monroe, he was repeatedly called to the Cabinet, 
 and offered a carte blanche for any one of the foreign missions. But he declined them all. It 
 can not be denied, that the post he occupied in Congress, was vastly more important, and 
 more influential, and no one can fail to commend his choice. Mr. Clay had his whole mind 
 and heart bent on the great questions of the time, and it is no more than fair to allow, that 
 he wanted to be where he could do most good to the country. In that place, he was near the 
 people, was the people s man, and the whole country s man. With the mighty interests at 
 stake in the war, with the questions of internal improvement and the Tariff pending, &c., &.C., 
 how could a man of his known temper and patriotism, be content with any post, however ex 
 alted or honorable, but that of legislation ? He preferred usefulness to place. 
 
 Reception of Gen. La Fayette. 
 
 The re-visit of this early friend and self-sacrificing champion of the American people, who 
 came from the old world to fight for and with them in the new, in a time that tried men s 
 souls, was most grateful to the people of this country, and his reception in the Capitol of the 
 Republic, the 10th of December, 1824, after an absence of nearly half a century, was one of 
 peculiar and thrilling interest. It fell to the lot of Mr. Clay, as Speaker of the House of 
 Representatives, to tender to this distinguished guest the unfeigned welcome of the nation, 
 and to do the honors of the occasion. We need not say, that it was done as it should be. 
 The feeling was intense, and the scene sublime. We are indebted to an allusion of the 
 speaker on the occasion for the inimitable and just illustration, that it was not unlike the re 
 union of pure spirits in an after state of existence, to recount the worthy deeds of the former, 
 in which they had mutual sufferings, toils, perils, triumphs and in the end a glorious tri 
 umph. 
 
 Mr. Clay and General Jackson. 
 
 We are advised by Mr. Clay himself, in a speech in Senate, of 1838, that his first acquaint 
 ance with General Jackson, was m the fall of 1815 or 1816, and mutually agreeable. In 
 1819, Mr. Clay thought it his duty, in debate, to animadvert with freedom, and in terms 
 of censure, on some parts of General Jackson s conduct in the Seminole campaign, relating to 
 the execution of Arnbrister and Arbuthnot, his hostile irruption into Florida in violation of 
 instructions from the War Department, and his forcible seizure of the fortress of Pensacola, 
 while in possession of a Spanish garrison. This was of course displeasing, and interrupted 
 their friendship. At an early part of the session of Congress for 1824-5, they met at a din 
 ner got up by the mutual friends of both, and General Jackson took Mr. Clay home in his 
 carriage, after which they repeatedly met at dinner, till the election of Mr. Adams by the 
 House of Representatives, which was the end of their social intercourse. 
 
 Mr. Clay a candidate for the Presidency in 1824 the result. 
 
 The votes of the Electoral Colleges stood thus : For Andrew Jackson, 99 ; for John 
 Quincy Adams, 84; for Wm. H. Crawford, 41 ; for Henry Clay, 37. Of course, by a rule 
 of the Constitution, the three candidates having the largest number of votes, went into the 
 House of Representatives, in Congress, for a choice, which resulted in the election of Mr. 
 Adams. 
 
 Mr. Clay, who had a majority of the Legislature of Louisiana in his favor, was entitled to 
 the Electoral vote of that State, and would have been carried over Mr. Crawford into the 
 House, if the choice of Electors by that body had not been made in the absence of two or three 
 of his friends. There was also a disgraceful intrigue in the control of the Electoral votes of 
 New York, the detail of which is in evidence and fully substantiated, which violated an under 
 standing among the friends of the respective candidates, and robbed Mr. Clay of a sufficient 
 number of votes to have carried him into the House. So that, by unfair dealing, Mr. Clay 
 failed of being returned to the House, from two independent sources, either of which, con 
 ducted in good faith, would have made him President of the United States in 1825 ; for it is 
 admitted, that he would have been elected, if he had gone into the House of Representatives. 
 The consequences to the country, made contingent on that event, have been truly momentous ! 
 
 Plurality majority. 
 
 Every one knows, that the 162 Electoral votes given for Messrs. Adams, Crawford, and 
 Clay, were for either of these men, in preference to General Jackson, and consequently, that 
 the majority over General Jackson s 99 votes, and against him, was 63. And yet, it was 
 most U7t-democratically maintained at the time and afterward, that because General Jackson 
 had a plurality of votes, he was entitled to be made President against the will of the majority ! 
 
 The alleged bargain. 
 
 A most wicked and infamous attempt was made, while the election of President was pend 
 ing in the House of Representatives, to force Mr. Clay into the support of General Jackson* 
 
 57 
 
10 
 
 or to bar his freedom of action, by publishing a story? that Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay had 
 made a bargain, in which Mr. Clay was to support Mr. Adams for the Presidency, and Mr. 
 Adams was to make Mr. Clay Secretary of State. The absurdity of this calumny must 
 instantly strike any one, who regards either of the following considerations : 1. That no 
 office would be refused to Mr. Clay, whichever of the candidates might be President, whether 
 we consider his merits, or the fact, that neither could be elected without his aid. 2. That 
 Mr. Clay s rejection of all offices under Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe, was sufficient evi 
 dence, that he did not covet such honors, and would not take them, except to serve the 
 country. 3. That Mr. Clay s known views of General Jackson s character and principles, 
 without disparaging his merits as a soldier would of necessity oblige him to lend his influence 
 in another direction. 4. That, having ascertained by a personal visit, that Mr. Crawford s 
 state of health forbade all hope of fitness for the office of Chief Magistrate, Mr. Clay had no 
 choice. And 5. That Mr. Clay had repeatedly, by letter and conversation, before the meeting 
 of Congress and afterward, declared his purpose to support Mr. Adams. Was Mr. Clay a 
 man to bargain for place to solicit ? 
 
 The investigation. 
 
 As was due to himself, Mr. Clay demanded of the House a Committee of investigation, 
 and Mr. George Kremer, a member from Pennsylvania, was compelled to father the deed. 
 But this precious morsel was too important to those who had got it up, and who were feeding 
 the nation with it, to allow it so suddenly to be snatched from them, and Mr. Kremer is 
 instructed to back out from the Committee,, under the extraordinary pretext, that he did not 
 choose to be forced into such a court, either as accuser or witness ! A libeller, and not bound 
 to prove it ! 
 
 The after plot. 
 
 It was foreseen, that nothing was more probable, than that Mr. Clay should go for Mr. 
 Adams, and nothing more probable than that Mr. Adams should desire Mr. Clay to be Secre 
 tary of State. "Well then," said these conspirators, " we have nothing to do but to promul 
 gate it as a bargain to defeat General Jackson ; and if it turns out so, as doubtless it will, we 
 shall have him on that tack ; or if, after such an assault, he has not courage enough to act 
 the free man, we shall have gained our end by the shortest cut." 
 
 With that indignant scorn, with which conscious rectitude looks in the face of mean artifice 
 and low cunning, Mr. Clay supported Mr. Adams, as he had declared he should, and then 
 went into the State Department. All the world would have justified him, if he had done the 
 latter for no other reason, than to vindicate his rights against a foul conspiracy. 
 
 But a little more than two years afterward, a letter, dated March 8, .1827, written, though 
 not signed, by Carter Beverly, of Virginia, appeared in the newspapers, stating, on the 
 authority of General Jackson, that Mr. Clay s friends in Congress had made proposals to 
 General Jackson, to support him in the House of Representatives for President, if he (Gen. 
 Jackson) would not continue Mr. Adams Secretary of State ; in other words, as understood, 
 if he would make Mr. Clay Secretary, which he (General Jackson) had indignantly rejected. 
 
 It was not till the 5th of June (time enough to hatch up the mode of future proceeding, 
 and time enough to give this infamous calumny full scope of action on the public mind) that 
 General Jackson could be induced, although solicited by Mr. Beverly, to confirm his (Mr. 
 Beverly s) letter ; and then he shifted the responsibility on " a distinguished member of 
 Congress," the Hon. James Buchanan, as afterward appeared. But Mr. Buchanan, having 
 some honesty in his heart, was forced to throw back all the responsibility on his master, 
 entirely acquitting Mr. Clay and his friends, and got out of the scrape as well as he could. 
 Mr. Beverly, foreseeing that he must die, and being troubled in his conscience on account 
 of that letter, has since, in another document, made a public recantation, so that this deep- 
 laid, foul conspiracy is now fully exposed. That the parties in it should first originate such 
 calumnies, and then allow them to float so long, even for years, over the broad surface of the 
 community, poisoning the public mind against a man, whose pure and disinterested patriotism, 
 and whose unsullied honor, none knew better than the calumniators themselves, can only be 
 accounted for by the fact, that such deep depravity was necessary to their ends. 
 
 The truth of the case. 
 
 The truth is, that the advances made in this case, were from the other side, and from Gen. 
 Jackson himself, towards Mr. Clay, we mean not in unworthy proposals, but with a manifest 
 anxiety to obtain Mr. Clay s support. Mr. Clay retired early from the dinner, of which we 
 have spoken elsewhere, and was about to step into his own carriage, which was waiting at 
 Ihe door, when he was followed by General Jackson and Major Eaton, and pressed to take 
 a seat with them, with which, by common civility, he was forced to comply. And this polite 
 ness was continued till the election in the House took place ; and the worst of it all is, that it 
 was continued while the plot against Mr. Clay was hatching, and a part of it (Mr. Kroner s) 
 actually opening on the public. 
 
 58 
 
11 
 
 The re-action. 
 
 It is the wise economy of Providence, that great offences shall have a great atonement, and 
 that innocence under a cloud, shall come out under the blaze of noon. It was a cloud, in 
 deed, and a dark one, which the enemies of Mr. Clay brought over his head ; and although it 
 has been slow in departing, the day will be so much brighter and longer. Shielded by up 
 rightness, Mr. Clay has always been too lofty-minded to battle with calumny, or even to avail 
 himself of disproof or confession, except as urged by duty to his friends and the public ; and 
 when reminded by a voice from the crowd, during his speech at Lexington, June 6, 1842, of 
 Mr. Beverly s recantation, he replied " / want no testimony" and laying his hand upon his 
 heart, said " here HERE HERE is the best witness of my innocence." Mr. Clay may be 
 wrong in this, and ought, doubtless, to consent to a full exposure of the base slanders, by 
 which he was once so fiercely assayed. The hearts of the people of this country have long 
 been returning, and are still returning to him, so far as they have been alienated, like the 
 ocean tide that rolls up on the bosom of the shore, with this difference : there will be BO 
 ebbing of the waters. 
 
 Mr. Clay and Mr. Randolph. 
 
 All are acquainted with the eccentricities of John Randolph, and with the facts, that he 
 hud no great liking for Mr. Clay, and that he was wont to rebel against Mr. Clay s discipline, 
 as Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is, however, recorded, to his credit, that in 
 1833,, while passing through Washington to Philadelphia, where he died soon after, he 
 requested to be carried up to the Senate Chamber, although too weak to walk, or stand. He 
 had not been there long, before Mr. Clay rose to speak in debate. " Help me up, help me 
 up," said Mr. Randolph to a friend that stood by him " I came here to hear that voice." 
 When Mr. Clay had finished, he came and spoke with Mr. Randolph. They shook hands, 
 and parted in a spirit of mutual good will. It was the last time they ever met. 
 
 Mr. Adams Administration Mr. Clay as Secretary of State. 
 
 The grounds of opposition to Mr. Adams Administration, or rather the reasons alleged, 
 which occasioned his defeat in 1828, have long since been exploded, though too late to save 
 the country from a long and sad history of misfortune. The reasons were generally about as 
 valid, as the calumnies against Mr. Clay. Never in our history have we had a better or more 
 patriotic Administration, and never was the country equally prosperous. History will do it 
 justice, and even the people are already inclined to do so. They now behold in Mr. Adams 
 an American patriarch of transcendant virtue, and transcendant powers, rising in reputation 
 and glory, as he descends to the place of his fathers. Like the trees of a tropical climate, he 
 has blossomed and borne fruit twice, before his summer has ended. 
 
 The Administration of the State Department by Mr. Clay, was alike honorable to himself 
 and beneficial to the country. The Panama Mission was under his guidance, in which he 
 was peculiarly at home as the advocate of the South American States ; his attempt to gain the 
 favorable interposition of Russia in behalf of those States, reflects not less honor on his heart, 
 than his head ; and more treaties were negotiated by him, than by all his predecessors from 
 the foundation of the Government. The reputation of Mr. Clay in foreign parts, gave him 
 eminent facilities in the management of our foreign affairs, and they were used with a true 
 American spirit, as just as patriotic. It was a time of general peace, and therefore no great 
 and stirring questions were then in agitation. " Who," said Mr. Adams, after his retirement, 
 " could select a man, whom, for his pre-eminent talents, for his splendid services, for his 
 ardent patriotism, for his all-ernbracing public spirit, for his fervid eloquence in behalf of tke 
 rights and liberties of mankind, and for his long experience in the affairs of the Union, 
 foreign and domestic, a President of the United States, intent only on the honor and welfare 
 of his country, ought to have preferred to HENRY CLAY?" 
 
 Good humor. 
 
 On Mr. Clay s return to Kentucky, after the inauguration of General Jackson, in the spring 
 of 1829, he found the roads extremely bad, and to avoid the thumps and knocks of the inside 
 of the stage, he turned his back upon his fellow passengers, and took a seat with the driver 
 on the box, when they were a few miles east of Uniontown, Pa. The citizens of that place, 
 being on the look out for the arrival of the Ex-Secretary of State, stood in crowds to welcome 
 him, as the stage drove up. " Gentlemen," said Mr. Clay, before he got down, "you see I 
 am among the OUTS, but I can assure you, that the INS behind me have a far worse time 
 of it." 
 
 Mr. Clay s good humor never forsakes him. It seems impossible for him to resist tempta 
 tions for repartee, in which he is most skilful, or for original pleasantries of which he is most 
 prolific, or for sallies of wit in which he is most happy. " His buoyant, lofty, and ever-active 
 mind, seems to be relieved by such playfulness. Or is this the mode by which superior and 
 jjiore vigorous intellects can more easily come down to a common level, and commuae with 
 
 59 
 
12 
 
 ordinary minds ? We observe, that this propensity is usually allied to benevolence. Cer 
 tainly, whether so or not, its effect is to relieve the tedium of the dull facts of life, and to- 
 promote the happiness of social intercourse. 
 
 Three thousand at one table. 
 
 On the 16th of May, 1829, after Mr. Clay s retirement, he sat down to a public dinner, 
 in Fowler s garden, Lexington, given in honor of him, with three thousand of his " old friends 
 and neighbors" ! It was then he said : " When I felt as if I should sink beneath the storm of 
 abuse and detraction, which was violently raging around me, I felt myself upheld and sustained 
 by your encouraging voice and your approving smiles. I have doubtless committed many 
 faults and indiscretions, over which you have thrown the broad mantle of your charity." Such 
 communion with " old friends and neighbors" is not bougnt by kings ; it is the free gift of a 
 generous people to a faithful public servant the reward of patriotic effort in the service of 
 freemen himself one of them. Never unmindful of this generous confidence, so early 
 bestowed, and so unremittingly maintained for a long course of years, Mr. Clay could not 
 overlook them in his farewell speech to the Senate, the last of March, 1842. After having 
 endeavored to express his obligations to the Senate, to the country, to all his friends 
 * throughout this continent, " he added : " What shall I say what can I say at all commen 
 surate with those feelings of gratitude which I owe to the State, whose humble representative 
 and servant I have been in this chamber ?" [Here Mr. Clay s voice faltered under the 
 struggle of his emotions.] " In the darkest hour of calumny and detraction, when I seemed to 
 be forsaken by all the rest of the world, she threw her broad and impenetrable shield around 
 me, and bearing me up aloft in her courageous arms, repelled the poisoned shafts that were 
 aimed at my destruction, and vindicated my good name against every false and unfounded 
 assault." 
 
 " Bearing me up aloft in her courageous arms," said Mr. Clay, lifting and extending his 
 own arms, and raising his voice, which trembled and broke with emotion, as he said it. We 
 heard it. And he who heard it, will not soon forget the manner. " Rcpelkd," said Mr. 
 Clay, with a corresponding expression of gesture, which told the triumphant vindication he 
 experienced in that hour, from such defenders. 
 
 He met them again, face to face, in 1842, when the same scene was re-enacted, in the 
 presence of tens of thousands, with additional interest, arising from the circumstances of the 
 present, the history of the past, and the prospect of the future. 
 
 Mr. Clay s re-election to the Senate in 1831. 
 
 We are forced to go backward and forward, for the sake of putting like things under the| 
 same head, though far apart in time. Never were the services of Mr. Clay more required, ; 
 in defence of American labor and enterprise, than on his return to the Senate in 1831, in! 
 which branch of Congress he had not had a seat since 1811. The faithlessness of the then 
 existing Administration to the best interests of the country, and their insidious attempts to 
 break down the tariff regulations of 1824 and 1828, were but too apparent. Mr. Clay was 
 the only man equal to the crisis, and even he, as we have before noticed, was only able to 
 save the tariff from immediate and entire demolition by a Compromise. 
 
 Mr. Clay s second nomination to the Presidency. 
 
 It was made by the National Republican Convention, at Baltimore, the 12th of December, 
 1831, and the Hon. John Sargeant was nominated for Vice President. Mr. John Floyd, of 
 Virginia, and the Hon. Wm. Wirt were also in the field for 1832. But the action of those 
 opposed to the Jackson dynasty, in this campaign, was rather to keep up the organization, 
 than with any expectation of success. It was manifest that the people had not even begun 
 to recover from the infatuation of the time, and from the poison that had been infused into their 
 minds by the calumniators of Mr. Clay. Although Mr. Clay is ever a candidate for the 
 Presidency in the hearts of his friends, he has never been put in nomination, and never been 
 in the field, but twice, viz., in 1824, when he was cheated out of it, as we have shown, and 
 for the campaign of 1832, when no one expected any other result than the success of General 
 Jackson. In 1836 he declined a nomination, that was tendered. 
 
 " / would rather be right, than be President." 
 
 So said Mr. Clay to the Hon. Wm. C. Preston, in a private interview, as certified by the 
 latter. If for many years, when truth and fairness could not prevail, such a resolution did 
 him no good, it is nevertheless true, that, in the end, honesty is the best policy. Where, in 
 the history of political society, has such firmness in the right, against such obstacles and such 
 assailants, been maintained so long, so unswervingly, so heroically ? Long time were the 
 doctrines and policy advocated by Mr. Clay injurious to him politically ; and he knew, and all 
 knew, it would be BO. But who ever saw him trim ? Who ever accused him of a want of 
 frankncM? 
 
 60 
 
13 
 
 The, public domain. 
 
 We need not say how much the country owes to Mr. Clay for his course on this subject; 
 though it may be proper to state, what is not generally thought of, that the public lands 
 would have been for ever wrested from the rightful owners, but for him. It is also proper to 
 notice the fact, that this question would have been finally and fairly settled in 1833, but for a 
 fraud on the people, by subverting the operation of the Constitution. The bill passed by a 
 majority of 24 to 20 in the Senate, and of 96 to 40 in the House. Such was the feeling in 
 Congress on this subject, it was never doubted, that it would have passed by a vote of two 
 thirds in both houses, and thus become a laxv, even under the veto, if it had been returned in 
 season for action. To have had it thias returned, was undoubtedly the constitutional right of 
 the legislative branch of the Government. But advantage was taken of the adjournment of 
 Congress before the ten days after it was sent to the President had expired, and he kept if 
 over to the next session, thus defeating the will of the nation. 
 
 Again, in 1836, a land distribution bill was carried through the Senate by Mr. day, in 9 
 vote of 25 to 20, and though approved of by a majority of the House, it was nevertheless 
 defeated there by the influence of the Executive. In J842 it was killed by a Veto of Johu 
 Tyler. In all these ways, and for so long time, not only on this, but on sundry other 
 momentously important measures, has the will of the nation been thwarted by the One Man 
 power. This great measure of Mr. Clay, by which he has stood so long and so constantly, 
 has never failed to have with it a majority of the people. 
 
 So anxious was Mr. Clay that this bill should escape the veto power in 1833, and so self- 
 sacrificing his spirit for what he conceived to be the good of the country, that in the fervor of 
 his zeal in debate, he turned and said to his colleague, Mr. Grundy, the friend of the Presi 
 dent, " Tell General Jackson, if he will sign this bill, I will pledge myself to retire from 
 Congress, and never enter into public life again. " 
 
 The United States Sank. 
 
 Although the fundamental and vital principle of democracy, the will of the people, as ex 
 pressed by their representative organs, was violated by General Jackson s veto of the bank 
 >ill in 1832, nevertheless, as the act was authorized by the Constitution, it does not compare 
 with the flagrant criminality of the removal of the deposites. The President himself, in a 
 aaessage to Congress, proposed to enlarge the powers of the Secretary of the Treasury, with 
 view to this object, thereby recognising the sound doctrine, that it could not otherwise be 
 one, as the Constitution had made Congress the keeper and given that body the control of 
 Jie public funds. The House of Representatives answered the message by a vote of 109 to 
 46 against the proposal, which was decisive so far as the authority of the Constitution could 
 go. But, lo ! General Jackson walks straight over this vote, and over the Constitution, and 
 removes the deposites, in the face of both ! It was impossible for Mr. Clay, as a public 
 guardian of the Constitution and the rights of the people, to be silent on these occasions, so 
 painful to the heart of the true patriot. Uniformly, therefore, and frequently has he stood 
 up to denounce these abuses of the Veto power, and these infractions of the Constitution. 
 The Resolutions of the Senate on the removal of the deposites, though " Expunged" by a 
 subsequent resolution of the same body, are only made more conspicuous by the latter act, 
 and will hand the true story down to posterity. 
 
 Mr. Clay s Policy in regard to a national bank. 
 
 All know that Mr. Clay is in favor of such an institution ; but it is not without reference 
 to the will of the people, that he would propose one. When the Sub-treasury was under debate, 
 in 1836, he said in the Senate, " If a national bank should be established, its stability and 
 utility will depend upon the general conviction that is felt for its necessity. Jlnd until such a. 
 conviction is deeply impressed ujxxn. the people, and clearly manifested by them,, it would, in my 
 judgment, be unwise even to PROPOSE a bank." When Senator Wright, the same year, in 
 answer to petitions for a bank, offered a resolution, " that the prayer of the petitioners ought 
 not to be granted," Mr. Clay moved the following substitute, That it will be expedient to 
 establish a bank of the United States, whenever it sJiall be manifest, that a clear majority of the 
 people of the United States desire such an institution, which was negatived, and Mr. Wright s 
 was adopted. That is, it was resolved, that a clear majority should NOT rule ! In 1842, Mr. 
 Clay put forward, in a letter to Mr. Jacob Stratton, Secretary of the National Clay Club, at 
 Philadelphia, a summary of principles of public policy, as held by him, the first of which is, 
 * A sound national currency, regulated by the will and authority of the people. }> 
 
 General Jackson s meditated war with France. 
 
 The first instalment of the indemnity of 25,000,000 of francs, nearly $5,000,000, as nego 
 tiated in the treaty of 1831, for French spoliations on our commerce from 1800 to 1815, was 
 not paid by reason of the refusal of the French Chambers to make an appropriation ; but the 
 King and his ministry desked to pay. As our Executive only had to do with the Executive 
 
 61 
 
14 
 
 of France in this matter, there was no difference between them, and some courtesy was dne 
 to the King of the French in his inability. But General Jackson, in his message of Decem 
 ber, 1834, recommended a law, authorizing reprisals, in case the French Chambers should not 
 ps ovide for the debt during the then approaching session. That this menacing attitude of the 
 President of the United States should deeply wound the King of the French, and exasperate 
 the French Chambers, and the nation, is not strange. Louis Philippe recalled his minister 
 from Washington, tendered passports to our minister at Paris, and we were at once on the 
 eve of war, when Mr. Clay brought in his celebrated " French Report," on the 6th of Jan. 
 1835, the result of which, in connexion with a corresponding resolution of the Senate, was 
 the restoration of good feeling and the payment of the debt, while the honor of our country 
 was maintained. This third lime was the nation saved from the horrors and calamities of 
 war by Henry Clay. So bent was General Jackson on a fight with France, that he stayed at 
 the Capitol till 12 o clock the last night of the Session, urging an appropriation that would 
 put the business in his own hands. 
 
 Mr. Clay in the Twenty-seventh Congress. 
 
 What that Congress did, has been shown in our first tract, THE TEST ; what they could not 
 do, by reason of treachery, everybody knows already. The Chief that was set up by the 
 people, had been stricken down by the hand of the Almighty, and in his place came one, 
 second only, in the violations of trust, to him who sold his Lord and Master for thirty pieces 
 of silver. 
 
 But Mr. Clay, schooled in the misfortunes of his country, and never despairing of the re 
 public, stood erect in the common disappointment, and witnessed the complete redemption of 
 the country deferred again by an inscrutable Providence. Shoulder to shoulder with his 
 political associates, himself leader, he fought through the Extra-Session for the principles and 
 measures he had contended for through life, and though he had wished and purposed to retire 
 from the councils of the nation at an earlier date, he yielded to the claims of duty, in this 
 unexpected exigency of public affairs, to attend the next Session. Failing of the measures 
 which the country waited for, and had a right to expect, Mr. Clay embraced this last oppor 
 tunity to propose some amendments in the Constitution of the United States, and to bring 
 forward his views, in the form of sundry resolutions offered to the Senate, as to the policy 
 and measures required in the present state of the country. Each of these resolutions, eleven 
 in number, was discussed at large by him the 1st of March, 1842. They regarded chiefly the 
 revenue and financial policy of the Government, the disposal of the public domain, retrench 
 ment and reform in the different branches of the public service, and proposed to require of the 
 Heads of the Departments detailed reports on these several modes of reform, preparatory to 
 legislative action. 
 
 The amendments of the Constitution proposed, were : 1. To restrict and limit the Veto 
 power. 2. To secure to Congress the control of the Treasury, by vesting in that body the 
 appointment of the Secretary. And 3. To prohibit the President from appointing members 
 of Congress to office, during the term for which they are elected. 
 
 Having at the Extra Session given his aid for the repeal of the Sub-treasury, and labored in 
 vain to re-establish a sound national currency system, and having finally at the Session of 
 1841-2, propounded a system of national policy in the resolutions above referred to, together 
 with the aforesaid amendments of the Constitution, he bade farewell to the Senate on the 
 31st of March, and retired to private life. 
 
 jtfr. Clay s Speeches. 
 
 In the speeches of Mr. Clay will be recognised the intellectual and moral stamp of this 
 great American Statesman. There will be found, in his own peculiar diction, (wanting, in 
 deed, the charm of his manner, ) his American system, with the facts and reasons, by which he 
 so ably set it forth, and so triumphantly defended it ; his general views of national policy, as 
 well as his views of particular questions ; and most, of the things that have made him so 
 eminent and surpassingly influential in human society. Hundreds of his speeches, and some 
 of his most brilliant efforts, have been lost, for want of a hand to record them at the time of 
 atterance. 
 
 [A cheap collection of his most important speeches, as they bear on the public interests of the country, 
 well chosen, and well edited, from the most approved copies, in two volumes, with a memoir of his life pre 
 fixed, has been published by Greeley & McElrath, Tribune Office, New York, price one dollar, which, we are 
 happy to observe, is in great demand from all parts of the Union, and going off by hundreds and thousands 
 It is an auspicious evidence of a growing appetite in the public mind for the food to be derived from such 
 a source. It is, in fact, a library of the political history of our country, which every American citizen 
 should have within his reach.] 
 
 Mr. Clay an American. 
 
 Although born in Virginia, and adopted by Kentucky, however proud of him they may be, 
 he does not belong to them, be it known ; but he is the property of the whole country, to 
 which he has devoted the labors of his life. From the character of his mind, and the influence 
 
 62 
 
15 
 
 of his position, it is morally impossible that he should be infected with sectional prejudice. 
 His heart, his soul is American all American and he belongs to the Union. Can another 
 individual be found among us so entirely the property of the American people ? 
 
 Duelling games at cards. 
 
 In early life, Mr. Clay was a plural number of times engaged in affairs of honor," and 
 twice came to an encounter, first with Mr. Humphry Marshall, of Kentucky, growing out of 
 Mr. Clay s motion for the members of the Kentucky legislature to clothe themselves in do 
 mestic fabrics not a bad cause, though a bad result; and next, with Mr. Randolph. But 
 Mr. Clay is now an awi-duellist, if we understand him. " I owe it to the community to say," 
 he publicly observed in later years, " that no man holds in deeper abhorrence than I do, that 
 pernicious practice. Its true corrective will be found, when all shall unite, as all ought to 
 unite, in its unqualified proscription." 
 
 In 1819, when invited to a game of bragg," he replied, "Excuse me, gentlemen. I have 
 not played a game of hazard for more than twelve years, and I take this opportunity to warn 
 you all to avoid a practice destructive of a good name, and drawing after it evil consequences 
 of incalculable magnitude." 
 
 Mr. Clay s private fortune. 
 
 Sometime previous to 1820, Mr. Clay suffered deeply by suretyship, and was obliged to be 
 absent from Congress two or three years, to get his affairs righted in the practice of his pro 
 fession. No man has sacrificed more to his country in a pecuniary point of view, than Mr. 
 Clay. As no lawyer ever had better chances, he might have acquired one of the largest 
 fortunes in the Union, if, instead of devoting his life to the public, he had spent it in his pro 
 fession. Mr. Clay is frugal in his habits, though not parsimonious. " Here is a hundred 
 dollars," said Mr. Clay to a young man, handing it over to him, when he came to consult him 
 for the recovery of an estate that belonged to him by rightful inheritance. " Take this," said 
 Mr. Clay, " and when you want more, call on me." This is a fair specimen of the man. 
 Notwithstanding this liberality of disposition, Mr. Clay has saved a comfortable and unem 
 barrassed estate. 
 
 The person of Mr. Clay Ids manners eloquence. 
 
 Mr. Clay is tall, and slenderly, but tightly built, light-haired, and blue-eyed. He is accused 
 by phrenologists of eagle-eyed perception. They aver, that he observes all, and sees through 
 all, and is apt to hit game, when he fires. Some one has also suggested, that his mother a 
 long time ago gave him a " mellow mellow horn" to wind. Certain it is, if it was not nat 
 urally, musical, and of surprising compass, he has made it so by practice. It has thundered 
 deep tones, piped shrill notes, and performed all manner of musical functions between these 
 extremes. Though it may be a little worse for wear, it is good yet, and preferred to all 
 others. 
 
 Mr. Clay has grace, dignity, and command the first to charm, the second to beget respect, 
 and the third to excite awe. Mix them all together, and they make a very perfect man. 
 
 As to his eloquence, it must have been matchless in his youth, judging from its effects. The 
 courts, juries, and legislature of Kentucky, popular assemblies there and elsewhere, and both 
 houses of Congress, have successively, for nearly half a century, been swayed by him. 
 
 Mr. Clay the candidate of the people for the Presidency in 1844. 
 
 We have never yet seen the Whig man that could make up his mouth to say otherwise. 
 The simultaneous rush of the Whig press, of Whig conventions, of Whig assemblies, formal 
 and informal, of nineteen twentieths, if not ninety-nine hundredths of the Whig party through 
 out the Union, to put forward the name of Henry Clay for 1844, after the faithlessness of 
 the Acting President was placed beyond question, is a most extraordinary fact; and the 
 constantly augmenting power of this general feeling, is another remarkable fact. The 
 suggestion, that it was unseasonable, can not well be sustained. It was an extraordinary, 
 unparalleled position of the public mind. All confidence in the unfortunate choice that had 
 been made of the second on the ticket of 1840, who, by a melancholy event of Providence, 
 succeeded as .principal, was lost. The great and victorious party of 18-10, was without a 
 chief, and temporarily doomed to a most vexatious overthrow of their hopes. If they could 
 not rally without delay, and concentrate their affections somewhere, they would be scattered 
 to the winds. So far from being unseasonable, it was a necessity. It was the irresistible 
 action of the instincts of self-preservation. And where else should they could they go ? 
 Wait they must, but not to know what they might hope for in the end, was like the agony of 
 final dissolution like the winding-sheet of despair. 
 
 Most fortunately, fortunate beyond all example in such a case, there was a man not un 
 known to fame a man whom they would and should have had before a tried and faithful 
 man a man equal to any and all emergencies, as proved by almost every variety of public 
 service for forty years who never faltered or made a mistake in the great exigencies of tba 
 
 63 
 
16 
 
 nation who filled the eye of the great world, and for whom the world cherished a profound regard 
 a man equally respected at home and abroad and whose high endowments and rare gifts seemed 
 to have been made and modelled for the occasion. Upon him, without pause, and With unexam 
 pled unanimity, they fixed their eyes and their hopes. A more settled, or more determined pur 
 pose has rarely, if ever characterized a state of the public mind. As well might you turn back th 
 rivers, or roll back the tides of the ocean, as to oppose these accumulating forces. 
 
 Gratitude Ingratitude. 
 
 If there has been occasion for the saying, that " republics are ungrateful," we do not yet con 
 sent that the libel describes the American people. It was gratitude that led the people of this 
 country into one of the greatest mistakes they ever committed. General Jackson did us great, 
 eminent, heroic service, as a, soldier. Not to confess it, would indeed be ungrateful. And military 
 achievements are always attractive, imposing, and captivating, with a susceptible and generous 
 people. But the very qualities which made Andrew Jackson a great general, unfitted him to guide 
 the helm of State. That strong and unbending will, which is the best qualification to lead an 
 army, is the worst possible to preside over a true democracy, where the will of all is to be consulted ; 
 that despotic authority which is necessary in the field, is most unsuitable in the Chief Magistrate 
 of a free people ; and that impetuosity which bears down a foe, in the onset of battle, will carry 
 away the pillars of a republic. Here is the secret of the misfortunes of our country in having cho 
 sen for President such a man as Andrew Jackson. But it was gratitude that made him President. 
 
 While General Jackson was the military idol of the nation, Mr. Clay was borne down by the 
 calumnies already noticed calumnies which, for a long period, poisoned the public mind, but which 
 have since been driven and chiefly eradicated from the field they occupied. He now stands before 
 the whole country a patriot as spotless as he is disinterested, having the advantage, not only of all 
 his recognised merits, but of a man, who, emerging from a dark cloud of aspersion, justified by the 
 certificate of his foes, and ennobled by the dignity of his bearing while suffering injustice, is re 
 ceived into the bosoms of a generous people with a thousand fold more enthusiasm, than would 
 otherwise have been felt for him, with all his exalted gifts. " He is too good a man to be Presi 
 dent," was all that could be urged against his nomination at Harrisburg in 1839. We shall see 
 whether such a libel on the American people will be proved, now they know what he is. Not till 
 it is proved, will we consent to the charge of ingratitude on this republic towards such a man. 
 
 Mr, Clay s Magnanimity. 
 
 None will deny, that Mr. Clay was the choice of the Whig party for the Presidential campaign 
 of 1840, or that his public services had fairly entitled him to the nomination. But foreseeing that 
 the Harrisburg Convention might be embarrassed in the selection of the candidate, for reasons 
 which it is unnecessary here to notice, Mr. Clay had written to one of the Delegates in terms to 
 discharge his friends from any such adherence to him, as might tend to disturb the harmony of that 
 body, or mar general unanimity in supporting its decision. When that decision was finally an 
 nounced, the reading of this letter, the existence of which was known to a few, was called for, 
 from which we make the following extract : " With a just and proper sense of the high honor of 
 being voluntarily called to the office of President of the United States, by a great, free, and en 
 lightened people, and profoundly grateful to those of my fellow-citizens who are desirous to see 
 me placed in that exalted and responsible station, I must nevertheless say, in entire truth and sin 
 cerity, that, if the deliberations of the Convention shall lead them to the choice of another as the 
 candidate of the Opposition, far from feeling any discontent, the nomination shall have my best wishes, 
 AND RECEIVE MY CORDIAL SUPPORT." Considering the just claims of the writer, as universally ac 
 knowledged, but which he would be the last to put forward, and what must necessarily have been 
 his motive in this letter, none can fail to be deeply impressed with a sense of its magnanimity and 
 patriotism. Such was the preponderance and force of the popular desire for the nomination of 
 Mr. Clay, there is every reason to believe, that the summons to the onset of 1840 would have failed, 
 if Mr. Clay had not so magnanimously stepped forward, at the head of his own legions, to fight 
 the great battle in favor of the Nominee who had been selected. 
 
 A Contrast. 
 
 In 1829, at the end of Mr. Adams Administration, it could be said, that Congress had been in 
 dependent, and the dominant power in the republic, as the immediate representatives of the people 
 ever ought to be. Then, our commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, were in a most flourishing 
 condition, never so much so ; our currency system was sound, the best in the world ; labor was 
 sure of employment, and of a fair reward; there were few brokers, usurers, and money-lenders 5 
 work, and not speculation, was the business of the people ; our habits were simple and democratic j 
 and our national honor and commercial credit, without a stain. We were a prosperous, wealthy, 
 thriving, happy people. Such was the state of the country when its government was conducted 
 on the principles of Mr. Clay, and he a part of the Government. 
 
 But in 1829, democracy was superseded by ONE MAN POWER ; Congress became a mere Execu 
 tive tool ; a train of devastation, social and commercial, moral and physical, such as no other 
 country ever experienced in so short a time, from similar causes, followed ; our manufactures were 
 nearly prostrated; trade was paralyzed; agriculture was depressed; the currency was ruined-; 
 general morals Avere corrupted ; our honor sullied and our credit gone ; wild and ruinous specula* 
 tions drove industry and economy from the field of enterprise ; brokers and jobbers rode the na 
 tion out of breath and out of flesh ; and the Government of the country, in all its branches and 
 agencies, was put up at auction to the highest bidders, in a system of utter political venality and 
 crime. 
 
 " Look on this picture then on that." 
 
 64 
 
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 P TP ^ A *T TP P IT T Vf ^"1 T 
 
 POLITICAL ABOLITION. 
 
 1. The Author s position, on the subject of slavery. 
 
 It is that of a Northern man, born and educated in a free State, always opposed to slavery, 
 till opposed to it, judging it to be wrong, and desiring to see it abolished, as well in this 
 country, as in all others. This he assumes to be the general feeling of the people in the free 
 States, as he has rarely found an instance to the contrary. We, therefore, of the free States, 
 (we speak for the great body of the people,) do not yield to the Abolitionists a whit in om 
 imposition to slavery; we differ from them only as to the mode of getting rid of the evil. W 
 claim to be the true friends of the slave, while we believe them to be pursuing a course hos 
 tile to his best interests, and unfavorable to his emancipation. 
 
 2. The origin of slavery in the United States. 
 
 It is enough to say, that it was imposed upon the Colonies, by the British Government, foi 
 the augmentation of its revenue and the profit of its favorites, against the anxious protests of 
 the Colonists themselves, and that while the Colonies were subject to the British Crown, it 
 had grown to an extent not easy to be eradicated. Thus far, the responsibility of its intro 
 duction and growth, is settled. When the Colonies became independent, and were about to 
 get up the Government of the United States, those members of the Confederation, which had 
 slavery as a part of their state of society, foreseeing the evils of interference with this subject 
 from other quarters, refused to come into the Union under the Constitution, without an ex 
 press stipulation to secure their exclusive control of the slave question within their respective 
 limits, which condition was acceded to. Such, briefly, is the origin of slavery in the United 
 States. 
 
 3. The more remote origin of Occidental or American slavery of the African race. 
 It began in a proposal of Las Casas, a Roman Catholic priest, to the Spanish Government, 
 for authority to introduce Africans by importation into the West Indies, to save the natives, 
 who were being exterminated by hard service and severe treatment under the Spaniards. 
 His object was benevolent. From that germe, African slavery spread over this Western world. 
 Its still more remote origin, however, lay in the previous debased condition and barbarous 
 customs of the African tribes, which invited the Asiatics on the East and Europeans on the 
 North, to trade in the bodies and souls of men, whom portions of their own race, by prowess 
 of arms, had first made captive, and then exposed for sale a custom of t^e African tribes, or 
 hordes, practised from time immemorial. We mention it not as an apology for the more civ 
 ilized portions of the world, for engaging in this inhuman traffic, but as an historical fact to 
 account for the origin of African slavery. It originated in the barbarous passions and habits 
 of the race. 
 
 4. How the subject of slavery should be approached. 
 
 For all that the United States are concerned in it, it is manifest, that the present Govern 
 ment and people of this country, are in no wise responsible for its origin. It was entailed as 
 * calamity, and its being on the hands of any of the States, when we acquired our indepen 
 dence, can not be charged as a crime. They are only responsible for the manner in which 
 they treat it, and for the disposition that shall be ultimately made of it. They who believe in 
 that Providence, with whom " one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
 day," will look forward for some grand and beneficent result to grow out of that providential 
 treatment, which has marked the history of this race for centuries past. It is a great wheel 
 moving round, and notwithstanding all the clouds and darkness that have overhung it, some 
 rays of light have dawned on its progress. Miracles of relief are not to be expected ; but 
 relief will come at last. 
 
 5. Definition. 
 
 By political abolition, as used in this Tract, we mean that well-known movement, got up 
 tn the free States, to accomplish this object, by resorting to the ballot-box, in its bearings on 
 the National Administration. It can not be denied, that the ballot-box is a primary and fun 
 damental political power. All other political powers above it, are only its instruments and 
 agents. Whatever may result from this primary function of the body politic, these primary 
 actors are responsible for. It is this power which directs and controls the offices of legislation, 
 the functions oi magistracy, and the sword of war. It is the original and effective agency of 
 political society, in a popular government like ours. 
 
 6. The formation of our Government. 
 
 It has been justly called a Government of compromise, on account of the variety of conflict 
 ing interests which had to be consulted before its consummation. The achievement of Inde 
 pendence was but half the work. We were a spectacle to the whole world as to what 1R 
 
 66 
 
should come to. The friends of liberty were anxious, its enemies still hoped for our failure, 
 while we had to encounter appalling difficulties. The Confederation proved miserably de 
 ficient, and nothing could exceed the concern of our most eminent patriots, till the Constitu 
 tion was finally adopted. It was entirely a new kind of government, composed of wheels 
 within a wheel, of inferior sovereignties allied to one superior and general. In the construc 
 tion of this machinery, it was necessary exactly to define the powers of the General Govern 
 ment, so as not to interfere with those of the States. This being done, the powers of the 
 States, called State Rights, are determined by the following Article, the Tenth of the Amend 
 ments : " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited 
 by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." From this article 
 is derived the exclusive power of the slave States over slavery within their respective limits, it 
 being one of the powers " not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohib 
 ited by it to the States." In all such powers, the States are as sovereign as any independent 
 nations. 
 
 7. The political compact of the Union political rights resulting therefrom. 
 While we are one nation, we are many States, and the States are not provinces, recognising 
 in all things the supremacy of the national authorities; nor municipal corporations, acting in 
 the capacity of counties and towns, under a commonwealth ; but they are original, indepen 
 dent, and sovereign powers in all things " not delegated to the United States by the Consti 
 tution, nor prohibited by it to the States ;" and these delegated and prohibited powers were 
 not imposed by authority, but surrendered by compact, while the States were acting in the 
 capacity of original and independent sovereignties. It was of the nature of a treaty be 
 tween nations, as a political transaction, though more intimate and more solemn, having in 
 view a different and more comprehensive object viz : a supreme and supervising authority 
 as to the powers " delegated." But the political rights " reserved," are as independent and 
 sovereign, as those of two nations are, under compact of a treaty, in all things not belonging 
 to the treaty. This view, which we believe to be correct, is important to our present purpose. 
 
 8. The importance and solemnity of the Union as a compromise between the parties. 
 But for this compromise, the struggle and cost of the American Revolution would in all 
 probability have been wasted. It was indispensably necessary to save and secure the freedom 
 and independence we had acquired. The parties to this compact had diverse interests to pro 
 tect, and diverse difficulties to encounter. The arrangement, as finally adjusted and ratified, 
 was regarded by our fathers as one of great solemnity and of unspeakable importance. It 
 was viewed with a -kind of religious awe, and with conscientious respect. The man that 
 would lift his hand to impair or disturb it, would have been scathed by the reprobation of a 
 universal public sentiment a feeling that has been cherished from that time to this, and ever 
 ought to be cherished. 
 
 9. Where lies the responsibility of slavery under this compact. 
 
 Do we, the people of the United States, hold ourselves responsible for any of the laws and 
 institutions of Great Britain, of France, or of any other foreign and independent power, be 
 cause we happen to be under a treaty with them ? It is true, indeed, that the treaty or com 
 pact of this Union, is not precisely of the same character with our treaty stipulations with 
 foreign nations, as it bears on the question before us, in that it goes farther, and is more par 
 ticular in its specifications. We never promise, that we will not meddle with the domestic 
 regulations of foreign powers, when we make treaties with them ; for it is not deemed neces 
 sary. But we have promised, and solemnly engaged, that " the powers not delegated to 
 the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are" (of course, shall 
 be) " reserved to the States respectively." But, the political compact of a treaty with a foreign 
 power, so far as it goes, is precisely of the same political character with the political compact 
 of this Union. How, then, can the free States, or the people of those States, be responsible 
 for slavery in other States, which, as high contracting political parties, they have solemnly 
 engaged never to meddle with ? This power is " reserved" to those States. If the free States, 
 or the people of those States, ever had anything to do in oi/ginating slavery, they have atoned 
 for it by abolishing it. The slave States never surrendered the care, nor transferred the re 
 sponsibility of slavery, either to the General Government, or to the free States, or to any 
 parties whatever. How, then, can the General Government, or the free States, or any of 
 their parts or agencies, be responsible for that which they not only never had in charge, but 
 expressly stipulated not to assume ? The responsibility of this engagement may be brought 
 home with great force from the other side, nor is it possible to escape from it. More than 
 this : There is an oath of allegiance, always implied in the use of a political power in the 
 State, and in many States actually administered to voters and public officers, to support the 
 Constitution of the United States. Put these obligations together, and they present a formi 
 dable obstacle to the conscience of a man, who thinks of stepping over or tries to get round 
 them. If, as American citizens, we have no responsibility in the serfdom of Russia, of 
 
 67 
 
Austria, or of Turkey, and if it would be improper for us to interfere with it politically, mucn 
 mere as parties to the public and solemn compact of this Union, are we bound to respect its 
 federative engagements. 
 
 10. The proper ground of abolition. 
 
 As an enterprise of humanity and benevolence, employing moral means only, in distinction 
 from political agencies, abolition is a proper mission from any quarter to any quarter. Such 
 has ever been the high ground laken by the Society of Friends a* a body. They have protest 
 ed against slavery before the world, and done what they could, by precept and example, by 
 speech and the press, and by various modes of social and moral influence, for its extinction. 
 In this work, they have not only been tolerated, but respected. They have wielded a steady, 
 progressive, and elective influence. Pacific in their principles and practice, they have been 
 admitted into the heart of slave-holding communities, to bear their testimony. 
 
 While such was the character of the general anti-slavery feeling and operations of the free 
 States of this Union, their voice was heard, and their influence was salutary. Thousands 
 in the slave Slates joined with them, and slave-holders themselves were open to argument and 
 conviction, while moral means and pacific measures alone were employed. But the moment 
 when political abolition rushed into the field, on the soil of the free States, with severe de 
 nunciation and the use of the ballot-box, all the good influence of the anti-slavery phalanx 
 was not only at an end, but a retrograde movement in the cause of emancipation, in the slave 
 States, commenced, and it is yet a moral problem in the aspects of society in that quarter, as 
 to how many years, or how many ages, it may take to recover the ground that has been lost 
 
 11. Political abolition is force. 
 
 We know that this is not commonly thought of, and would perhaps at first be questioned* 
 But a vote at the polls is the original and fundamental power of American political society, 
 and implies force in the end, if necessary. The first attitude, therefore, or first position of 
 this political power, is that of incipient force. It aims to compel the accomplishment of its 
 designs by the powers of the State, which are force in abeyance. There is no political power 
 in existence, which is not fortified by force, in abeyance or in actual use, or that could stand 
 one day without it. Such, precisely, is the position assumed by political abolition in the free 
 States. 
 
 12. Jlud it is an aggressive movement. 
 
 This results from the political structure of the Union, before considered. Slavery, in any 
 of these States, occupies the same position, politically, in relation to the other States, which 
 the institutions and laws of the European nations do to the United States. Suppose, then, 
 that a party should start up in this country, and go to the polls, augmenting their forces every 
 year, with the declared object of putting down any one or more of the institutions of a Euro 
 pean power, because, in their view, that institution is a bad one, oppressive, and destructive 
 of human liberty. There are many such institutions in Europe. Would it not be regarded 
 as an aggressive movement ? And if there were any chance or apprehension of success, 
 would it be a matter of surprise, if the menaced power should put itself on the defensive ? 
 Would it be strange, if that power should take measures to anticipate the movement, and 
 commence aggressive operations, in retaliation ? The crusade of the first party might be ft 
 very benevolent one; but as a political movement, it would be aggressive. 
 
 13. Political abolition, in the free States, is a breach of faith. 
 
 This also results from the political structure of the Union already noticed. Do we hold 
 ourselves at liberty to break a treaty with a foreign power, because we have since concluded 
 that we can not tolerate some evil or evils in its bosom evils which existed when the treaty 
 was made, which were then considered by us, and which we agreed to tolerate, or at least, to 
 leave entirely on their responsibility and in their discretion ? If we originate a new political 
 movement, to disturb this arrangement, do we not violate the treaty ? But the compact of 
 this Union is of a more solemn nature, than a ratified treaty between the United States and a 
 foreign power ; nor are the slave States less independent and sovereign, as to the matter in 
 question, than a foreign power, with which we are supposed to be connected by such treat? 
 stipulations. 
 
 14. The impracticability of political abolition. 
 
 We speak of course, in the case now under consideration, of such a movement in the free 
 States towards the slave States. It is impracticable, 1. Because political power is force, and 
 force is offensive. 2. Because the parties assailed, can shield themselves behind the Consti 
 tution of the United States. 3. Because, the farther political abolition, from such a quarter, 
 goes, the worse and more hopeless is its cause, both as respects the temper of slave-holders, 
 and the condition of the slaves. 4. Because the limit of such a movement, unless often violence 
 is meditated, will be found just where its operations will have had no other effect than to plan* 
 obstacles in its own path. 5. And consequently, because, such being the Constitutional bat 
 
ner to this movement, every thing done in this way, by its moral effect, forces the object m 
 view into a more remote position of possible attainment, if, indeed, it should not render it foi 
 ever unattainable. 
 
 15. The mischievous results of political abolition already developed. 
 
 It is well known, that, previous to the start of political abolition in the free States, the 
 spirit of emancipation prevailed extensively in the slave States, and among slave-h n ders ; 
 that the leading and most influential men in those States, were accustomed freely to acknow 
 ledge the evils of slavery, and were engaged in benevolent schemes to abate them ; tb<*t many 
 of them entertained with favor, the purpose of a gradual, and ultimately an entire abolition; 
 that numerous conscientious persons were providing for the emancipation of their own slaves; 
 that entire freedom of speech and of the press, on the subject, was tolerated ; that free colored 
 people in the slave States, were generally treated with indulgence, and encouraged; and that 
 this state of feeling had made visible progress, from the organization of our government,, 
 down to the outbreak of political abolition in the free States. There was a fair prospect, 
 that one slave State after another, beginning with the more northern, if left to their own free 
 and undisturbed action, would follow the example of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylva 
 nia, in the total extinction of slavery. Such was the state of things, while the subject was 
 left to the moral influences operating quietly and pacifically, but effectively, on the public 
 mind. It is but a few years since, that a strong movement was made in the State and legisla 
 ture of Virginia, for the adoption of a system of emancipation, which was eloquently debated, 
 and had a large minority vote. 
 
 But, behold the change ! Maryland, which was expected first to move in the cause of 
 . emancipation, taking alarm from sucli interference, has inserted a clause in her Constitution 
 for the perpetuity of slavery ! The whole mind of the slave States, has been thrown olF from 
 its former basis of growing favor toward emancipation, and put in an attitude of defence 
 against foreign interference. The ingress of free blacks into the slave States has generally 
 been interdicted ; free colored residents have been banished from some parts, and in all places 
 subjected to great disadvantages, and deprived of important privileges; the work of emanci 
 pation has been put in check, and the disposition for it quenched; rigorous defensive laws 
 have been enacted and enforced ; the intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of the 
 slaves, which before was encouraged, and growing in popularity, has been very much abridged, 
 and in some places entirely stopped ; the slaves are subjected to a stricter watch, and treated 
 with greater rigor, where causes of apprehension exist; scarcely an advocate of emancipation 
 can be found # the slave Stales, where there were thousands, and tens of thousands before; 
 freedom of speech and of the press, except on one side of the question, is chiefly suppressed; 
 and the entire slave-holding portion of the Union, instead of being engaged, as beibre, in 
 meliorating the condition of the slaves, mitigating the rigors of the system, and inarching 
 forward toward the goal of final emancipation, has been forced into an attitude, and into 
 measures of defence against the political abolition of the free States. 
 
 We ask, if these are not very impressive and very instructive facts ? The lessons of ex 
 perience teach us, that it is safe to judge of the future from the past, of what is to come from 
 what has happened. Such being our rule of judgment, it is manifest, that, as political abo 
 lition has yet done nothing but injury to the cause it has taken in hand, and injury on an 
 immense scale, it will do nothing but injury in time to come. 
 
 16. Civil war. 
 
 We are not fond of alarming topics, nor disposed to excite unnecessary anxiety. But tL e 
 evils of political abolition, rising up in the North, must be faced, and the consequences i* 
 tends to, must be considered. However averse the people of the free States may be to slave 
 ry and we believe they are almost universally so yet they can not but feel, that this remedy 
 of political abolition is worse than the disease, first, because the rudeness and violence of the 
 treatment only aggravate it ; and next, because they fear, that the medicine, if administered 
 as proposed, will kill both the patient and the doctor. A dissolution of the Union would be 
 as certain as any effect of a moral cause that can be reckoned on. Nor is it likely, that this 
 would be the end. The political asperities and exasperations that would grow out of such 
 a conflict, would themselves naturally be breeders of other convulsions ; and it would not be 
 strange, if some military chieftain, or chieftains, should rise up in the struggle, to make slaves 
 of all freemen, and bind in stronger chains, those whom, by such means, it is proposed to set 
 free. 
 
 We are a family of States, bound together by a covenant solemnly ratified, which prescribe* 
 the rights of each. In this family, concord is beautiful ; but family quarrels are the worst of 
 all. Civil war is the most terrible and most desolating of all wars, and most difficult to be 
 brought to an end. Look at Spain. Will any one say, that such a movement, as the polit 
 ical abolition of the North, does not put in jeopardy the peace of this Union, and the Union 
 itself ? And can any human foresight tell what scenes of strife it is likely to produce, if it 
 
 69 
 
6 
 
 Sttmld be encouraged to pass on its way towards the supreme power of the nation, which if 
 now its avowed aim ? 
 
 17. The effect of political abolition on the annexation of Texas. 
 
 Under the present extent of our national jurisdiction, we can not see much occasion ol 
 jealousy between the North and South, in regard to slavery, if the Federal Constitution should 
 be scrupulously observed by all parties. But, if political abolition in the North insists on 
 making its demonstrations and advances towards the South, it is very natural that the South 
 should endeavor to fortify itself by all means in its power ; and it is not to be disguised, that 
 the annexation of Texas, as a slave State, itself a field for the growth of several slave States 
 hereafter to be erected, would strengthen their balance of power in the Union, and tend to 
 give them a preponderance. Doubtless this question will be agitated, and the strongest motive 
 of the South, and its strongest argument for the annexation, will be the growth and influence 
 of Northern political abolition. In whatever aspect, therefore, we view this movement, it 
 threatens to disturb the Union. Leave the slave States, just where the Federal Constitution 
 has placed them, unmolested in their Constitutional securities, and we can not see any good 
 reason why they should be anxious for the annexation of Texas certainly not to urge it. 
 But the continued agitation of political abolition in the North, will give them an apology, and 
 be a strong incentive for efforts to attain that end. If the free States, by reason of the fact 
 of political abolition moving on in the midst of them, can not say to the slave States, Your 
 Constitutional securities shall be respected their ground of opposition to the annexation of 
 Texas will be greatly weakened, and the slave States will have a power of motive a^d a force 
 of argument, which would not otherwise be ftlt. There is no other public question likely 
 soon to rise in the public mind of this country, in the disposal of which political abolition in 
 the North would so embarrass the friends of the Union. If this consideration should operate 
 s fuel tq the hopes of the abolition party, we should be very sorry; but it is too important, 
 as a warning to the country, to pass unnoticed. A feeling that will be gratified in the 
 approach of difficulties that will engender greater difficulties, and which possibly may end in 
 what would startle common minds to think of, is one that ought to give us concern, if it is to 
 have influence in contributing to such a result. 
 
 18. The suicidal character of political abolition. 
 
 It is taken for granted, that, if political abolitionists were to vote for the one or the other 
 of the two great parties of the country, they would not support the party that is opposed to 
 emancipation in all forms, and which, in possession of power, would use it against abolitionists 
 with a vengeance. There are numerous other reasons , political, moral, and religious, why 
 the Abolitionists generally would not support that party. Their sympathies naturally run in 
 another direction. But do they not see, that every two votes they give for political abolition, 
 is one vote to raise that party to power, and defeat themselves, not only as to what they vote 
 for, but in other great interests of society, to which they can not be indifferent, though they 
 may shut their eyes to them { This diverted action of political power it is averred to b 
 40,000 votes in the free States in a nice balance of the two great parties, may throw the 
 government of the States and the nation into hands that will ruin us all, as they have here* 
 tofore tried to do, with no small success. By this means, the political Abolitionists have again 
 and again defeated the candidates they would most of them otherwise vote for, both for State 
 and national legislation and government, and raised to power men with whom they have littls 
 or no sympathy, political, social, moral, or religious. 
 
 19. The responsibility of using the franchise, or ballot, for political abolition. 
 
 Such a use of the ballot is political abolition itself. We hope it may be quite unnecessary 
 to say, that we can not innocently violate our allegiance to the State, for a benevolent object ; 
 and we trust we have satisfactorily shown, that the slavery of the slave States is placed beyond 
 the Constitutional power of the free States by the compact of the Union. Is there, then, no 
 responsibility in attempting to break down a foreign power foreign to us, by such weapons ? 
 A mission of benevolence, which might otherwise be very commendable, becomes a crime, 
 when moral obligations are trampled under foot in the enterprise. By what authority can 
 we violate a covenant, to do a good act ? Shall we say, that the good to be attained is para 
 mount, and erect our individual feelings into a court to set aside public law ? 
 
 But to the responsibility arising from moral considerations, is to be added that of disregard 
 to the general welfare of the republic. Is it not strange, unnatural, that American citizens, 
 by casting their votes where they have no chance of success, should thus contribute to aug 
 ment and perpetuate the common misfortunes of the country, by raising men to power, who, 
 they know, are advocates of destructive measures? More than this: are these Abolition 
 Toters conscientious menreligi-aus 1 How, then, before God, can they be acquitted, if by 
 their means, such men as Robert Dale Owen, a partner of Fanny Wright, and member of the 
 28th Congress, and Ely Moore, of the Fanny Wrignt school, and member of the 24th and 25th 
 elected by the infidel ticket, are to JJike laws lor this nation and if such men as 
 70 
 
Thomas Herttell, also of the Fanny Wright school, who, in 1833, moved in the legislature of 
 New York, to lay on the table the motion for daily prayers during the Session, and thus stifled 
 the public recognition of Providence are to make laws for the States ? Like the dog in th* 
 manger, the political abolitionists will neither eat hay, nor allow a hungry ox to eat it. 
 
 Yet more than this : Suppose for there is no reasonable motive for such action without 
 some hope of success Suppose, that, by one step, and in one year, the political Abolitionists 
 could attain supreme power in the nation. Knowing their designs, because they are declared, 
 would not every reflecting man tremble at the consequences ? Are there many men in their 
 own ranks, that would dare to look such a posture of public affairs in the face ? The same, 
 precisely, is the character, object, and peril of the enterprise, in the position which it now 
 occupies, and in the successive stages of its actual progress. Every man who votes that way 
 at the pplls, incurs this tremendous responsibility. He can not disengage himself from the ob 
 ligations of an American citizen, and say, he will leave the Constitution to take care of itself, 
 or vote to break it down. The American Government may be imperfect in some of its parts 
 what human edifice is not? But it is a great, a responsible, a momentous trust, confided 
 to the ballot-box. It was a great compromise of feeling and interest between numerous par 
 ties, and was formed under circumstances of peculiar trial. Now, that some of the parties 
 have waxed strong by the pro/it of the Union, will they dare to take the responsibility of 
 upsetting it, because some one or more of its terms do not suit them ? Are they at liberty, as 
 conscientious men, to do it ? The object they have in view, is neither within the sphere of 
 their political, nor of their social duty, however their moral feelings may be so inclined. 
 Surely they will not plead conscience to violate a contracted obligation, to go out on a mission 
 of benevolence ! 
 
 20. The spirit of bragging. 
 
 It gives us pain and anxiety, whenever we hear people of one part of the Union boasting, 
 that they can do without the other. We entreat all such to consider, that the American Gov 
 ernment, and American society, imperfect though it may be, cost too much to be made thus 
 light of. It is too important in itself, and too important as a spectacle to the world. From 
 the time of its setting up till this hour, the whole world have been gazing at it as a great ex 
 periment, and it still occupies that position in the public eye of mankind. And are we who 
 are responsible for its operation, and for the results it may work out, so to trifle with th 
 trust, as to commit it all to the winds of chance again, because it is not so perfect as we could 
 wish ? Do we prefer the hazards of a civil commotion, for the possibility of a more speedy 
 social improvement, to the slower progress of a pacific reform ! 
 
 2 1 . Misrepresentation Exaggeration. 
 
 The way to excite sympathy, is to sketch a strong and glowing picture of suffering under 
 injustice. It is in this way, that abolition preachers, lecturers, books, and papers, have labor 
 ed to work on the feelings of those who know nothing of slavery by actual observation. They 
 have misrepresented facts, and given exaggerated accounts. They have not only been care 
 ful to tell nothing but the worst things of slavery, but they have made the bad worse than it is. 
 
 Not to justify slavery God forbid we should do that it is nevertheless true, that nearly all 
 the evils ascribed to it, may be found in other regions and in other relations of society, in forms 
 equally aggravated, though not, perhaps, in cases equally numerous. Do we hear of owners 
 of slaves treating them with great severity, or maiming, or killing them, in a fit of passion ? 
 The same is to be found in the relations of masters and apprentices, of parents and children, 
 of husbands and wives, in the free States. Are slaves, in some cases, as on the cotton, sugar, 
 and rice plantations, over-worked ? If we take the evidence of British Parliamentary records, 
 furnished by Government Commissioners, there is a greater amount of oppression of this kind 
 inflicted on the half million of operatives in British manufactories, than on the whole, two 
 million and a half of slaves in the United States, as derived from any sources of evidence 
 whatever. Does the extensile mingling of European and African blood evince the prevalence 
 of the crime that produced it ? We have not, indeed, the same species of evidence to establish 
 this indictment against the white population of the free States ; but there are Other proofs of 
 the fact to a wide extent. To the domestic slave-trade, and its consequent moral and social 
 evils, there is confessedly no exact parallel in the free States ; nevertheless, there are practice* 
 of the same moral character, leading to like results. As to acts of cruelty and inhumanity, 
 of maiming and killing, they are not peculiar to a state of slavery ; and the interest of masters 
 in preserving unhurt the physical constitution of their slaves, is a better security against in 
 humanity, than any laws of society. In British manufactories, masters have not the same 
 motives of interest to preserve the physical vigor of operatives by humane treatment, as the 
 maimed and the helpless are cast on the parish. Hence we find, that the human constitutioa 
 is more frequently destroyed, in British factories, by overwork and cruel treatment, than 
 among the slaves of the United States. A case of the latter is rarely to be found, while thost 
 of the former are numerous. 
 
 71 
 
8 
 
 This, we believe, is a fair statement. But it would doubtless subtract somewhat from the 
 force of abolition preaching, among those who depend for information on the lecturers. 
 
 22. But it is slavery. 
 
 This can not be denied. But the Abolitionists are doing nothing to help that. Not a 
 single step have they yet taken tending to relieve the doom, but every measure they have 
 adopted, has only served to confirm it, and to make it worse. They proclaim liberty, and 
 establish slavery. They have stepped into the path of emancipation, arrested its progress, 
 and put it back, no one can tell how long. 
 
 This consideration, established as it is by fact, ought to have great weight on the conscience 
 of those who, we think, must stand responsible before God and man, first, for having turned 
 the favorable feeling toward emancipation in those who alone have power to effectait, into 
 disfavor, and to a large extent, into opposition ; and secondly, for having made the condition 
 of slaves much worse, and more hopeless, than it was before. 
 
 We are aware, that some Abolitionists will fly from this charge, by saying, they are not 
 responsible for consequences, after having done their duty. But the very question of duty 
 depends, in part, on a consideration of consequences. If, before action, it should be said, we 
 can not believe in such consequences, or we trust it will not be so, there might be some 
 "apology for ignorance. But, when the consequences have actually come to pass, and give a 
 sure index of a continued result of the same character, from the same cause, we do not see 
 kow there can be any apology or excuse for such action. 
 
 The following are facts of history, as they bear on this question: 1. The Constitution of 
 the United States has left slavery in the slave States, entirely under the control of those States, 
 No persons, and no power, foreign to those States, can reach or touch slavery in their bounds, 
 without their consent. 2. There was a growing favor, in the slave States, toward emancipa 
 tion, before Northern Abolition commenced its movement toward and upon them. This feel 
 ing had existed, to a wide extent, among the greatest and most influential men of those States, 
 and commendable efforts were in progress among slaveholders, to meliorate the condition of 
 slaves, to instruct, moralize, and Christianize them, and to prepare the way for whatever of 
 Sfood might result from such efforts. The State of Virginia had made a powerful movement 
 in a Convention called to amend the Constitution, and in her legislature, for an Act of eman 
 cipation. But, 3. It is no less true, as all know, that this feeling has been repressed, and 
 this movement checked, since Northern Abolition broke out, the former being the effect of the 
 latter as a cause. The intellectual and moral improvement of the slaves has been to a great 
 extent suspended, and they have been treated with greater rigor. Their bondage has been 
 made stronger, and its evils aggravated, 
 
 Is there no responsibility in this, when it was known, that, there was a Constitutional barrier, 
 over which Northern Abolition, as a political movement, could not pass, and when it might, and 
 therefore should have been known, that, by moral necessity, such would be the effect of such a 
 cause ? Though it should be said, it is wrong that the slave States should have been so pro- 
 voked, is there no wrong in the provocation ? We can not but feel, that the provokers will 
 be held responsible for this result, as well in the court of heaven, as in the moral sense of 
 mankind. It can not be denied, that they have laid waste that garden of good feeling in the 
 slave States, which Providence had planted and nouriohed so long, and which promised so 
 much good fruit for the benefit of the slave, and converted it into something like a sterile 
 wilderness. Nor can it be denied, that, by the same means, the chains of slavery have been 
 riveted tighter than before, its evils enhanced, and its prospects darkened. We speak offacU,, 
 and all know, that these are facts, and that such is the CAUSE. 
 
 23. What the people of this country will not permit. 
 
 In our opinion, they will not permit the Constitution of the United States to be broken, to 
 accomplish the ends of Abolition. The Constitutional boundaries of influence and control 
 over slavery, are now pretty well recognised by all parties. They have been much better 
 defined since the movement of Northern political Abolition commenced, than before. This 
 debate, and this recognition of the Constitutional rule on the subject, have brought multitudes 
 in the free States to a pause, who were otherwise disposed to favor this movement, and who 
 are always ready to do everything Constitutional for the Abolition of slavery throughout the 
 Union. This feeling of respect for the Constitution, and of opposition to slavery, is the pre 
 vailing feeling of the free States ; and for our part, we desire it may ever be so. In this state 
 of things, since the people of the free States can not Constitutionally, in the use of their 
 political rights, step over the bounds into the slave States, to act upon the institution of slavery, 
 they will very naturally, and for aught we can see, may very properly, desire and require to 
 be rid of its responsibility, being, as they generally are, conscientiously opposed to it. This, we 
 doubt not, the slave States will be disposed to grant. It can hardly be denied, that the people 
 ef the free States have had reason to feel, that* heretofore they have been made in some degree 
 responsible for slavery by the action of the Federal authorities, by requirements made of their 
 
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own State authorities, and in other ways. It is probable, however, that results of this kind 
 will be very much, if not sati.sl actorily relieved, by the operation of the principles settled in 
 1842 by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Prigg vs. the Commonwealth 
 of Pennsylvania. That decision must necessarily be respected by all parties. We have 
 assumed, in the former part of this Tract, that the free States are not responsible for slavery, 
 which we believe to be sound doctrine resulting from the terms cf the Union. Consequently, 
 they can not fairly be made practically responsible. Let this be understood and acted upon 
 by all parties, and we do not see any insuperable difliculty in maintaining harmoniously the 
 original terms of the Union of these States. All minor controverted questions, arising out of 
 slavery, can only be settled by time and the regular action of Constitutional authorities. 
 
 24. What follows. 
 
 By such an adjustment of the slave question, which has so long and so greatly agitated the 
 public mind of this country, it will follow, if we mistake not, that slavery must be left where 
 the Constitution has placed it, on the responsibility, and under the control of the States in 
 which it exists. It will also follow, that any political action, originating in the free States, to 
 act on the slavery of slave States, will not only be necessarily ineffectual, but improper and 
 injurious. It will follow, moreover, that a return to the original mode of action on slavery 
 for its abolition, by moral means, is the only course, which the opposers of slavery in the free 
 States, can Constitutionally pursue. With this, will also follow the hope of an ultimate attain 
 ment of the end. Manifestly, there is no hope for it as a result of political Abolition in the 
 free States. Every aspect of the question has only waxed worse and worse, and the end in 
 view has been placed at a farther remove by this agitation, as we have before had occasion to 
 notice, and the facts of which are undisputed. Moral means have heretofore operated well. 
 They are the means of Christianity means which GOD himself has ordained, benevolent in 
 character, and beneficent in their effect. 
 
 25. The duty of anti-slave men in the free States as American citizens. 
 
 They can not of course disregard their obligations of fealty to the Constitution of the 
 United States, for any foreign object, however good and meritorious it might be in itself con 
 sidered. It would be equally proper for them to violate the Constitution to suppress slavery 
 in any of the nations of Europe, or in any other foreign parts, as to violate it to suppress 
 slavery in any of the States of this Union. As regards slavery, the States are as independent 
 of each other, and of the General Government, as any two nations are in their relations. 
 
 All citizens of the free States, therefore, who desire to see an end of slavery in this Union, 
 by Constitutional means, can hardly have failed to have their attention arrested by the deplo 
 rable spectacle exhibited in the slave States, as the result of Northern political Abolition, in 
 the putting back of the work of emancipation so far and so greatly, in destroying the better 
 feelings of masters toward their slaves, and in creating a strong current of feeling in those 
 States against any purpose or plan of emancipation whatever. They must have seen, that 
 political Abolition in the free States, has committed an error, not only of infinite magnitude, 
 but of a corresponding responsibility. As friends of the slave, therefore, as the enemies of 
 slavery in all forms, and as good citizens, owing allegiance to the Constitution, we think they 
 can not fail to see a line of duty marked out to them, which will induce them, not only to 
 abstain from countenancing, but to lend all their influence in opposing so destructive and 
 hopeless an enterprise as political Abolition. If a " tree be known by its fruits/ the evi 
 dence of its character in this case, one would think, ought to be deemed sufficient. 
 
 26. Indications of Providence. 
 
 It is the prerogative of Providence to bring good out of evil, and out of the evil actions ofi 
 men. Observe the following facts : 1. Ai rican slavery, in the West, was begun by the nations 
 of Europe. 2. Those very nations, including those which sprung from them in this Western 
 world, are now, for the most part, acting in concert to suppress the slave trade. 3. Christian 
 philanthropists, from among these nations, are making simultaneous efforts, to explore Africa, 
 to develop its resources and capabilities, to Christianize and civilize its tribes, and to present 
 inducements for lawful commerce. Witness the plans and progress of African Colonization 
 from the United States, and corresponding labors in Great Britain, for the benefit of the Afri 
 can race. 4. The torrid regions of Africa appear to be the natural home of the colored races, 
 and as such constitute a Providential indication of the course to be pursued by those who seek 
 to elevate and establish them in a social and political standing among the nations of the earth. 
 5. Great, atrocious, and indisputable, as was the crime of the slave trade, which has justly 
 received the reprobation of all mankind, it has nevertheless been so overruled by Providence, 
 that those portions of the race which have survived the cruelties and inhumanities inflicted, 
 have been improved and elevated in a state of slavery. They are the best portions of the 
 race, and most capable of doing good to their brethren, whenever a general emancipation 
 shall be eflected. 6. The slaves of the United States are the best and most capable portions 
 
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10 
 
 of the race anywhere to be found. 7. And consequently, the crime of man, for which neither 
 defence, nor palliation, can be made, may be overruled by Providence for the general good 
 of the race, when a plan of universal emancipation shall be perfected and carried out. That 
 the tendencies of human society are in that direction, is sufficiently evident. To retard this 
 movement, by attempting to precipitate the event with violent means, is what we object to. 
 
 Believing in the progress of society, we may see, in this great circle of Providence, an 
 apparent preparation for the social elevation and political independence of the African race. 
 This grand result, however, can not be forced. A race so debased as the African tribes were, 
 when they themselves, in barbarous warfare, made captives of each other, for purposes of 
 trade, and thus originated this public mart of their own flesh and blood, were never known 
 to be raised to the highest conditions of man s earthly existence in a brief period. 
 
 If the United States were one State, a political movement for the emancipation of slaves, 
 might be hopeful of good. It is still so in any component parts of the slave States. But any 
 movement of this kind, foreign to those States, designed to act upon them, will of course be 
 regarded as an interference, in view of the terms of the Union, and thus, by moral causes, 
 thrust in by force upon the surface of society, this great movement of Providence, gradually 
 tnd constantly developing, in favor of the African race, is arrested and put backward. 
 
 27. The best judges. 
 
 It is very uncharitable, and not less injurious to the cause of emancipation, for those who 
 know nothing of slavery by experience or observation, to undertake to dictate to slaveholders 
 how they shall act. It is injurious, because they who give this advice, have no power of 
 oontrol, and it is only regarded as an interference. It is uncharitable to condemn slaveholders 
 in the mass, because a large portion of them solemnly aver, apparently in all good conscience, 
 tfcat they look upon slavery as an evil, and desire to see an end of it, but are deterred from 
 immediate emancipation by considerations of humanity to the slaves themselves. The sweep 
 ing and indiscriminate denunciations of Abolitionists on all slaveholders, have a pernicious 
 effect on those who are favorable to emancipation. They know, at least they think, that 
 davery, as a question of moral casuistry between themselves and God, is one which can not 
 be. fairly adjudicated by those who know nothing about it. 
 
 28. Where the power lies. 
 
 It is manifest from what has been said, that the power of emancipation is vested exclusively 
 in: the slave Slates, as far as respects slavery in their own bounds. 
 
 29. Northern Abolition inhuman. 
 
 We do not mean that it is so by design, but in effect. Doubtless the design is quite the con 
 trary. But the effect, as we have seen, and as all eyes must observe, is to put obstacles in 
 the way of emancipation, and to defer the day to an unknown period. The way in which 
 Northern political Abolition has been managed, is the unkindest thing that could be done for 
 the slave, and most subversive of the cause of humanity, because they have no power in th 
 ease, by such weapons, except to do harm to the cause which they profess to espouse. 
 
 30. The most effective way. 
 
 The moral position of the free States, eschewing slavery, and denouncing it, side by side as 
 they stand with the slave States, and members of the same great national family, is one of great 
 fiarce, and can not fail of its influence, on a large scale, and with great effect. Recognising 
 tie limit of their power for political action, as defined by the Constitution, they are then at 
 liberty to employ all moral and social influences, by speech and the press, which private 
 citizens may choose to put and keep in action. In that course, they would find numerous 
 allies in the slave States, and among slaveholders, as formerly. 
 
 34. The moral influence of the antislave feeling in the free States is suppressed, by the existence 
 of political Abolition in the North. 
 
 Wot only so, but the tendency of the controversy raised by it, is to abate this feeling of 
 antipathy and opposition to slavery. It is the natural feeling of the free States, and ought to 
 be cherished by them. But while they are obliged to contend against political Abolitionists, 
 they are in danger of imbibing a feeling of toleration toward slavery itself. In the meantime, 
 their moral influence against slavery is almost necessarily suspended. It is hardly possible for 
 them to act in this field, as formerly, lest they should be suspected or accused of alliance with 
 political Abolitionists; so that the effect of political Abolition is not confined to the positive 
 injury it is constantly doing, by putting obstacles in the way of emancipation, in the slave 
 States ; but it puts a stop to the cause of emancipation in all forms, and in all quarters, and 
 suspends, for the time being, nearly all action and influence of the entire anti-slavery phalanx 
 of the Union. They can do nothing, while these mischief workers are in the field ; but orto 
 forced to be employed in preventing the evil of their machinations. 
 
 74, 
 < 
 
11 
 
 32. Republican inconsistency American Declaration of Independence. 
 
 The following clause of the Declaration of American Independence : " We hold these truths 
 to be self-evident That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator witk 
 certain inalienable rights ; that among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit, of happiness" 
 is often quoted, in the ears of Americans, with the ringer pointed to American slavery ; nor 
 can it be denied, that the principles here announced, are a condemnation of the fact. 
 Nevertheless, the purpose for which that Declaration was framed, and the object to which it 
 was then applied, was simply to deny the divine right of kings, and the claimed prerogatives 
 of high birth, and to assert and establish the right of a people .to govern themselves. That 
 the principles here stated are more comprehensive than this, there is no doubt, and that they 
 ^pply to slavery anywhere, must also be admitted. But there is no inconsistency in this De- 
 daration, as it was applied by those who framed and adopted it, they having exclusive regard 
 to the relations of the Colonies to the British Crown, and to the tyranny of the latter over th 
 former. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, the Author of the Declaration, professed to be an emancipationist. His 
 views on slavery were frequently and freely expressed, and the following passage in his original 
 draft of the Declaration of Independence, not adopted, will show where he put the blame: 
 " He" (the king) " has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred 
 lights of life and liberty, in the persons of a distant people, who never offended him, captivating 
 and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur a miserable death in their 
 transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare 
 of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN 
 should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative 
 attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of 
 horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very people to ris 
 in arms against us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering 
 the people upon whom he also obtruded them thus paying oft former crimes committed against 
 the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of 
 another." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson also took the first opportunity, after the separation, and during the war, to 
 cause an act to be passed in the Virginia legislature, to prohibit the importation of slaves. 
 And the other slave States followed the example. 
 
 33. Slavery a wrong. 
 
 Slavery is undoubtedly a wrong done to the natural rights of those enslaved, and the earliest 
 possible emancipation, when unable to gain their own freedom, will be contrived and effected 
 for them by those who appreciate the value of the right. But when it is to be effected by 
 offices of mediation, it is a moral enterprise, and the muster is to be consulted. If it is to t 
 done by/oree, it is a political enterprise, and the cost must be counted. 
 
 34. But the wrong should be righted, and righted now. 
 
 That it should be righted, we agree ; but that righting it now, will itself be right, is a 
 question; and that may depend on many other questions. 1. It may depend on who did th 
 wrong. If he can be found, it is doubtless incumbent on him to set about righting it instantly. 
 2. If he can not be found, the question is, who is to act as his substitute ? 3. It may depend 
 on the present condition of the subject of the wrong. 4. In any case, it depends on who is to 
 undertake it. As a crusade, it might be a wrong interference. 5. As to the great, complicated, 
 stupendous question of slavery, questions equally great, complicated, and stupendous, are ift- 
 volved in its abolition. 
 
 35. The Buffalo Abolition Convention Their Manifesto. 
 
 In August, 1843, a national Convention of political Abolitionists assembled at Buffalo, N. 
 Y., and nominated a President and Vice President of the United States, to be voted for i* 
 1844, at which time they published the following Manifesto, as their latest creed, which, we 
 suppose, is the best authority : 
 
 " Whereas, The Constitution of these United States is a series of agreements, covenants, or contracts be 
 tween^ the people of the United States, each with all and all with each ; and 
 
 " Whereas, it is a principle of universal morality, that the moral laws of the Creator are paramount to aM 
 turnan laws ; or, in the language of the Apostle, that " we ought to obey God rather than rnen ;" and 
 
 " Whereas, the, third clause of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United 
 btates, -when construed as providing for the surrender of a fugitive slave does "rest upon such a basis.* 
 In that it is a contract to rob a man of a natural right namely, his natural right to his own liberty ; and. to 
 therefore, absolutely void 
 
 "Therefore, Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood, by this nation and the world, 
 *at,as Abolitionists, considering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hope for 
 U m our con ormity to the LAWS OF GOD and our respect for the RIGHTS OP MAN, we owe it to the Sovereign 
 ttuler of the Universe as a proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether 
 * private citizens, or as public functionaries .sworn to support the Constitution of the United State** to 
 
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PI 
 
 and to treat the third clause of the fourth article of that instrument, whenever applied to the ca 
 of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and consequently, as forming no part of the Constitution of 
 the United States, whenever we are called upon, or sworn, to support it." 
 
 As we are not in controversy with these gentlemen as to the validity of the claim of the 
 slave to his emancipation, we fully according thereunto, but only as to their mode of accom 
 plishing the end, and also as to the ground on which this document asserts the claim, we ask 
 attention to a few remarks on the Manifesto itself. 
 
 It must be confessed, that this is an extraordinary, and a somewhat startling document 
 How the conscientious men of their party will be al>le to digest the Resolution that sets aside a 
 part of the Constitution of the United States, pronouncing it " utterly null awl void," which, 
 indeed, annihilates it, "as forming no part of the Constitution," is more than we can say. 
 It is manifest, that a right to strike out this part, is a right to strike away the whole ; and so 
 far as we can see, the blow at this part, is a blow at the whole. We can not feel it is too 
 much to say, that that sacred and venerable Charter of our Government, the cost of which 
 shook this Continent and shook the world, is here taken in hand, cast upon the ground, and 
 stamped upon, as of no worth and no authority. 
 
 The reasoning by which this act is justified, is no less extraordinary. The whole transaction 
 is based on the authority of religion^ as interpreted by the actors, and invokes its hihesl 
 sanction, " the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe." It is true, that another element of 
 authority is picked up, by going back to a supposed state of man before he enters into society, 
 commonly called " the state of nature," out of which grow " natural laws," and " natural 
 rights ;" but religion is the foundation, superstructure, and finish of the whole. We will first 
 dispose of the profane part of the argument, or the law of nature part. 
 
 Let it be observed, that we do not undertake to disprove, that man has " natural rights," 
 or that the claim of a slave to freedom is a valid one, both of which we fully accord to. We 
 only wonder, that a conclusion of such tremendous consequence, as that arrived at in this 
 document, should have no other profane authority (profane in distinction from sacred/ brought 
 to its support, than the undefined rule of " natural right." 
 
 " The law of nature," says Blackstone, " is the will of God." Justinian says, " it is to 
 live honestly." Blackslone s comment on this, is, " not to injure society." " The founda- 
 turn" of natural law, Blackstone says, is, " that man should pursue his own true and sub 
 stantial happiness," which, he adds, is " the substance of the law of God." He also says, 
 that " to know the law of nature, it is necessary to have recourse to reason ;" but he adds, 
 as man s " reason is corrupt, and his understanding full of ignorance and error," " immediate 
 and direct revelation, to be found only in the Holy Scriptures," is to be consulted. 
 
 NATHAN DANE, the great American jurist, speaks of " the laws of nature and reason, 
 made by God himself." " The law of nature," he says, " is a perfect rule, but is understood 
 only by a right use, of reason." "A state of nature," he says, " wants a common judge," 
 which society sets up. Again : " Civil laws are those of nature modified and perfected." 
 Again : " A state of nature is a state of despotism and wretchedness," because, " if one may 
 do as he pleases, another may, and each is his own judge, and judges the Judges." He says that 
 justice in this way is obtained, " not probably more than once in twenty cases." Again : 
 " In a state of nature, heated and passionate men are the judges." " Hence," he says, " it 
 is easy to see how much this poor free man s liberty, so much extolled by some, is worth to 
 him, on the whole." 
 
 We have made these quotations, merely to show what an indefinite and unsettled rule the law 
 of nature is. The more we cite legal authorities to this point, the more we shall be puzzled. 
 They themselves don t pretend to understand it. Like sensible men, they set themselves to 
 determine what law is as fixed by society, and they know no other. That there are " natural 
 rights," which men may be compelled to resort to on emergencies, there is no doubt ; but, in 
 stead of being the best, or even good authority, in the social state, they are the worst and 
 most dangerous possible. They are for extremities, as a necessity, not for common use. The 
 result of the whole is, as stated above, by Mr. Donetlmt " civil laws are those of nature 
 modified and perfected." The aims of the structure of civil jurisprudence have been, to as 
 certain, as well as could be, the law of nature, so called, by a general concurrence of opinion, 
 and with Christian jurists, as Blackstone above intimates, by consulting " an immediate and di 
 rect revelation," the Bible. The best authority, therefore, is not to go back to a state of nature 
 for that is where man first began, and is, as Mr. Dane above says, " a state of despotism and 
 wretchedness;" but it is to consult that system of jurisprudence, which the wisdom and jus 
 tice of many ages, and the most civilized and Christion nations, have established. 
 
 A man alone in the world, in a state of nature, would doubtless have a right call it "nat 
 ural," if you please to anything he can lay his hand upon a right to go where he pleases, 
 and do what he pleases, except as his Creator might command otherwise. But the moment 
 he enters into society, this liberty, or system of natural rights, is abridged, while other rights 
 are multiplied ; and if the state of society is good, his newly-acquired rights are more valua- 
 
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13 
 
 ble. His former liberty, or natural rights, yield to the regulations of society ; and we can not 
 think of any one of them which may not be affected, or even taken away, by such regula 
 tions. The right to breathe, for example, is the strongest of all natural rights ; but society 
 assumes the right to stop a man s breath by hanging, if his acts should expose him to such 
 a sentence of the law. We can not conceive of a government of law, which recognises any 
 jr other authority than that of the laws themselves, in determining social rights. They may be 
 right, or they may be wrong. Nevertheless, while they exist, they are the rule. To oppose 
 them, is rebellion ; to live without law, is anarchy ; or what Mr Dane calls the "despotism 
 and wretchedness of a state of nature." To give " natural rights" as authority to resist 
 law, is the most indefinite rule, and the most dangerous authority, that could be adduced. 
 
 And yet, let it be observed, that " natural right" is the only authority, on which this Buffalo 
 
 Abolition Convention Manifesto is founded ! It is first assumed, then merged in religion, ancf 
 
 * the Supreme Ruler of the Universe" is made responsible for the result ! He is appealed to, 
 
 his sanction is invoked, and it is all done in his name ! The whole of it, from beginning to 
 
 nd, is a religious business, based on a religions sentiment ! Read it, and judge. 
 
 36. The proper rule. 
 
 We take the settled and definite, opinions of mankind, as collected and recorded in the most 
 approved systems of civil jurisprudence, and as established in the most free Governments and 
 most liberal institutions of human society, to establish the claim of the slave to his freedom. 
 These are recognised authorities, from which nobody can escape. The American Declaration, 
 of, Independence alone is sufficient. And we take these established principles, to work with 
 them by ways and means equally well established. Here is the essential, the vital, the mo 
 mentous point, in which we differ from political Abolitionists. 
 
 37. Church and State. 
 
 There is not a more religious people in the world, than we of the United States; yet no 
 people have been more scrupulous, by their State papers, by practical legislation, and by 
 general feeling, in separating religion from a participation in the authorities of State. They 
 give full scope to the moral influence of religion, but jealously deny to it political power. 
 If there be any one principle more firmly settled in the public mind of this country, or better e- 
 tablished, by universal consent, and with fixed purpose, than another, or all others, we think it is, 
 
 THAT KELIGION SHALL NOT USURP AUTHORITY IN THE AFFAIRS OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 38. Political Abolition a religious movement. 
 
 Look at this Buffalo Manifesto. Is it not a religious document ? " The moral laws of the 
 Creator are paramount to all human laws;" " we ought to obey God, rather than man;" 
 " considering that, as Abolitionists, the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and 
 our hope for it in our conformity to the laws of God ;" " we owe it to the Sovereign Ruler of 
 the Universe, as a proof of our allegiance to Him," &c., " to regard and to treat the third 
 clause of the fourth Article of the Constitution of the United States," &c., "a* utterly null 
 and void," &c. Is not religion the rule, the sanction, the everything involving responsi 
 bility in this transaction ? Nor is it a declaration of principles to suffer, but of principles to 
 act ; nor of submission, but of aggression ; nor for the use of moral means alone, but to take 
 hold on political power ; they are a political party, and were at that moment assembled to 
 nominate a President and Vice President of the U,nited States ! 
 
 Men, making the highest religious pretensions, have taken lead, and are at the head of the 
 movement; numerous religious papers are employed to advocate it ; a large corps of religious 
 missionaries are in the field to preach it ; numerous churches and pulpits are chiefly devoted 
 to it, and are thence called Abolition Churches ; its most religious Champion, Mr. Gerritt 
 Smith, has publicly announced, that he will go forth, and preach the doctrine in Christian 
 pulpits, on the Christian Sabbath ; and religion everywhere is the high and holy sanction 
 relied upon to enforce the doctrine. Nearly all the political Abolitionists, and with scarcely 
 an exception, all the abolition preachers, lecturers, and missionaries, are religious men. It 
 is, indeed, a proper religious enterprise. In this statement we have disclosed A GREAT, IMPOR 
 TANT, MOMENTOUS FACT. 
 
 39. Confession of a leading Abolitionist. 
 
 Since we published the first edition of this Tract, we have had a conversation with a leading 
 Abolitionist, than whom no one has been more prominent or more influential as such. He 
 expressed a wish, that we would make some alterations in this sheet, for greater good, as we 
 have done. We were surprised at the interest he took in it, and are only sorry we could not 
 follow his advice in all its extent. He said, "The Abolitionists, as a body, are honest people, 
 BUT THEIR LEADERS ARE CORRUPT AND UNPRINCIPLED." We were startled at this, coming 
 from such a source ; but he repeated with emphasis : " THE LEADERS ARE CORRUPT AND 
 UNPRINCIPLED. We were forced to believe, that such was his conviction, and that no man 
 knew better. It was said so seriously, so emphatically, and apparently with such honesty of 
 
 77 
 
14 
 
 purpose, that we have taken the liberty to think, he would not object, that the public should 
 be aware of it. 
 
 40. " We must obey God rather than man." 
 
 So says the Buffalo Manifesto, having assumed the thing to be proved, viz : that God com* 
 mands it. It is obvious there is no answer to this reason, or no reasoning with such persons, 
 if they think they have such authority. If they could prove their mission by miracles, it 
 would be sufficient ; but as this is only tlieir opinion, a sentiment of their own, the conscience of 
 those who think otherwise, is at least as good as theirs, and worthy of as much respect* 
 Other Christians, ami the great majority think, that God has not commanded this; that, in 
 the days of the Apostles, when the state of political society was a great deal worse than it i$ 
 now, anJ slavery far worse and more extensive, as history attests, not only was submission to 
 " the powers that be," enjoined on all Christians, even to martyrdom, but "servants" (slaves) 
 were commanded " to obey their masters in all things ;" that St. Paul sent back Onesimus, 
 * fugitive slave, to his master, Philemon, to be treated according to his will, thereby recogni 
 sing Philemon s authority in the case ; that the Apostles not only had a special authority by 
 immediate revelation from God in regard to the matters referred to when they said, " We 
 ought to obey God rather than man," but that they did not say this as a reason for disobey 
 ing existing regulations of society ; that both Christ and his Apostles were most scrupulous 
 observers of all such regulations, and could always defend themselves on that ground ; that 
 the duty of such submission to such authorities is paramount to man s individual right to 
 arraign the law ; that obedience to civil society results from Divine command ; that political 
 ociety, as it exists at any time, in any place, is " the ordinance of God," requiring our sub 
 mission ; that God s government, or Christ s kingdom is moral, in distinction from the political 
 edifices of man ; and that the design of Christianity is to avail itself of the order of political 
 ociety, without being responsible for its defects, to set all things right, by making all hearts 
 good. Hence, as they think, the scrupulous care and frequent injunctions of Christ and his 
 Apostles not to disturb society, as its peace and order are necessary to accomplish the aims of 
 Christianity. 
 
 41. j3 Deduction. 
 
 If the above thoughts are correct we believe "they are it will follow, that no man can, 
 with propriety or good reason, invoke Divine authority to justify a use of political power in up>- 
 setting political society, or reforming the State. If a Christian employs political power to 
 attain what he thinks desirable in the State, he does it as a member of the political common 
 wealth, and not as being on a mission from God, armed with a Divine command, imperative 
 on himself, and which he may proclaim as imperative on all others. No Christian, in our 
 view, is authorized to invoke such a Divine sanction for such an act. It is, if we mistake 
 not, identical with the principle, which we, as American citizens and American freemen, in 
 our organization of political society, have very distinctly and very emphatically repudiated, 
 viz : the authority of religion in the State and over it. And yet, as all will see, this is pre 
 cisely the sanction of the Buffalo Manifesto, and precisely the principle on which that docu 
 ment is founded. The American people have solemnly resolved and declared, against the 
 usurpation of authority in the State by religion. And yet, here it is, sprung upon us by sur 
 prise, by the public act of a public Convention, with the declared object of overrunning and 
 revolutionizing the State, and the first stef) taken has been to plant its foot on the Supreme 
 law of the land, proclaiming a part of it, " to this nation and to the world," " AS UTTKRLY 
 
 NULL AND VOID" " ABSOLUTELY VOID !" 
 
 42. The actual junction of religion and political power. 
 
 They have organized as a party on the platform of this religiose-political creed ; they have 
 nominated a President and Vice President of the United States ; they have gone forth into the 
 field, established presses, opened churches, and set up pulpits ; they have an army of agents 
 and missionaries ; their candidate for the Presidency, himself acting as an agent and mission 
 ary, boasted in Faneuil Hall, Boston, that they had increased from 7,000 in 1839, to 35,000 
 in 1843; and that it is an actual junction of religion and political power, appears from the 
 facts, that religion is the sentiment, and the machinery of State the means employed to accom 
 plish the end. If we rightly understand the essential elements of Church and State united, 
 apart from the accidents of form, this appears to be the thing. It comprises the most potent 
 agencies of the kind recognised in history, as it takes hold of the fundamental power of th 
 State, and would sweep all before it, when once it shall have gained the ascendency. 
 43. The Abolition Church. 
 
 It is the party, and the party is a religious brotherhood. They have one creed, one faith, 
 one baptism. To all others intolerant and denunciatory, they regard themselves as the only 
 pure Church. They call, not only their political, but their religious opponents, " a brotherhood 
 of thieves." " manstealers," robbers," murderers," adulterers," liars," infidels," &c. 
 
 78 
 
15 
 
 ff e take these epithets, thus bestowed, as they come from their presses, and are heard frttta 
 t^eir pulpits. 
 
 44. This the only mode by which Church and State can be united in this country. 
 
 If it is to come at all, it will not come in the forms heretofore known in history, but it wilt 
 steal upon us. The old form would be instantly recognised, and reprobated. But, to succeed, 
 it must take a form corresponding with the popular modes of action in American society. 
 Can anything be nearer to it than this ? It is the very model, the perfect type of our social 
 system, in an original popular movement. It is nothing more, nothing less, but the very 
 thing. We have only to ask, what is the element of this movement ? Is it religion ? Or is it 
 not ? If it is, then it is Church and State, and an attempt to unite the two. 
 45. This would be a fearful power, if it should prevail. 
 
 It is a power that mounts the hobby of one principle to ride over all others a sword that 
 cuts all ties, however sacred, for the sake of cutting one admitted to be bad. They do not 
 consider, that the great principles of the moral and social system are numerous, all having 
 {heir respective claims, and that, like men in society, they modify each other, in their practical 
 application ; but they take one out from all the rest, and propound it as an abstraction to gov 
 ern the world to break down every other that comes in its way. 
 
 It is no disparagement to state the well-known fact, that all religious sects have their fa 
 vorite opinions, and often one favorite opinion. Holding them dear, they of course wish to see 
 them reduced to practice, and if they had the power, they would not only urge them elo 
 quently, but, preadventure, would enforce them rigorously. It is for this reason that religion is 
 held to be a dangerous power in the State certainly so, until we can be sure that the opin 
 ions adopted are sound. If a favorite opinion of a religious sect is unsound, and if it is to be 
 come a hobby in power, to be enforced any how, and by whatever means, it then becomes a ter 
 rible power. History exhibits too melancholy a record of devastations wrought in society by 
 this cause, not to be a solemn warning. 
 
 46. A difference between religion and true religion. 
 
 There are a thousand, not to say ten thousand religions in the world, but only one that is true ; 
 and there are forms of Christianity by no means free from error. As a general rule, the mor 
 intolerant, fierce, and bloody a religion is, the farther is it from the pure religion of a pure 
 Christianity. Is not political abolition intolerant ? Is it not fierce ? And who will say, 
 fhat, in all its tendencies, it is not rushing onward to the opening of rivers and seas ot 
 Wood ? 
 
 47. The duty of all true Christians in regard to this movement. 
 
 The time is coming, has come, when religion, in the face and in violation of the American 
 political creed and of American fundamental political law, is to be made responsible for an 
 attempt to usurp the powers of State. It behooves all true Christians among us, to see, that 
 Christianity is not held responsible for this. Christianity, rightly interpreted and properly 
 understood, can not, in our view, be responsible for it. We do not deny, on the contrary we 
 admit and believe, that many true Christians, with sincere and conscientious minds, have been 
 and are being persuaded into the ranks of this religioso-political sect, and that it is chiefly 
 effected by an appeal to their religious feelings. They are persuaded to believe things which 
 are not true, and they listen to interpretations of Divine command, which are unwarranted 
 in the application that is made of them. The line of demarcation between " rendering unto 
 Caesar the things that are Cesar s, and unto God the things that are God s," is effaced from their 
 minds by the doctrines they read in abolition papers, and hear from abolition pulpits, and they 
 lose sight of that great and fundamental principle of American institutions, equally impor 
 tant and equally precious to all freemen and to all religious sects, viz : that religion shall not 
 have authority in the State, and may not usurp it. They are told, that "we ought to obey 
 God rather than man ;" but they are not told that one part of such obedience is to "submit 
 to the powers that be," that is, to the ordinances of civil society. The very precept that is 
 invoked to lead them astray, is most directly in point to keep them right. They do not see, 
 for the time being, though they may afterward see it with regret and sorrow, that religion, 
 taking hold of the machinery of Slate, as religion, is entirely out of place, not only in regard 
 to the design of our political institutions, but equally so in regard to the design of Christian 
 ity. The latter, in maintaining the character of a " kingdom not of this world," has a loftier 
 mission, and more universal functions, than to raise a conflict with political powers, by using 
 Political weapons. Its errand is with the heart, and its power is over the heart. Its moral 
 power is disarmed, the moment it resorts to political power, and God is no longer with it. The 
 spirit has fled, and it is not Christianity, whatever may be its pretensions; nor can Christian 
 ity be made responsible for that which its precepts and spirit alike forbid. If these are just 
 thoughts, every true Christian, as well as every true patriot, will be apprized of his duty in 
 regard to political abolition. Most respectfully, most kindly, and with affectionate 1 concern, 
 
 79 
 
16 
 
 would we implore those Christians, who have honestly enlisted in this enterprise, to pause and 
 consider. Their allegiance to God is doubtless first, highest, and most sacred. It is for that 
 we invoke their allegiance to the State, because God has enjoined it. We implore them to 
 consider both the scandal and prejudice that will attach to Christianity, by forcing religion 
 into a political warfare, by buckling upon it a political harness, and putting into its hands 
 political weapons, for an inevitable discomfiture. Can it for a moment be imagined, that the 
 American people, having once opened their eyes to such an attempt, will tolerate it ? 
 
 48. Great Britain and American Abolition. 
 
 TOy r*.. .; : . ./ 
 
 In the political aspects of this question, it is scarcely possible for us to shut our eyes to th 
 fact, that American citizens should stand up in the world s Convention at London, and pandei 
 to the lust of empire, and of the world s empire, nourished in that capital and by the Govern 
 ment of that country, by denouncing the Government of the United States, and conspiring 
 with those who would embrace the first opportunity to overturn our institutions in a servila 
 and civil war. That the policy of Great Britain is morally allied to the abolition movement 
 of this country, is certain. The language that has been used by American Abolitionists, in 
 Exeter Hall, London, and in other public places of that empire, can not but be regarded as 
 utterly hostile to that fealty which every American citizen owes to the Government of his 
 country. When words, and such words, are so strong, can the heart be right i If they have 
 not already conspired, can there be any doubt, that they would at any moment conspire with 
 the Government of that country to overthrow the Government of this, to accomplish their 
 end ? Doubtless they are looked upon as fellow-workers, whenever the British Government 
 shall have occasion to employ them. 
 
 49. The denationalizing influence of political abolition. 
 
 The conduct of American Abolitionists abroad, as above referred to, is an anomaly in the 
 results of human society ; at least, it is what no one dould have anticipated, or would have 
 predicted. If, indeed, there be anything in political abolition, which can so utterly denation 
 alize Americans born, and set them against their own country, to denounce it publicly in 
 foreign parts, and to show a disposition to enter into any conspiracy to overthrow the Ameri 
 can Government, it is high time, that so unpatrioiic a movement be understood and appre 
 ciated. 
 
 50. Perjury. 
 
 We must farther solicit that honest and conscientious portion of the community, who, witl 
 the most upright designs, have, as we believe, been seduced by the leaders of political aboli 
 tion into that faith, to consider the position in which they are placed as religious men, by ad 
 hering to and acting with the Abolitionists, in the way proposed. How can they, as Amer 
 ican citizens, bound by all the solemnities of an oath of allegiance to the Constitution an( 
 Government of the United States for that oath is always implied in a ballot, and in manj 
 States actually administered as a qualification how can they subscribe to such a declarator 
 as the Buffalo Manifesto, and then vote the abolition ticket, or how can they vote tha 
 ticket at all, having such a declared object, without contracting the stain of PERJURY on the* 
 touls ? And is not the Manifesto itself a subornation of perjury ? 
 
 51. jUnother view of this perjury. 
 
 It is certainly a most extraordinary case, as it is perjury proposed and publicly proposed 
 In this view it is shameless. It is farther than crime has ever before presumed to go. Bu 
 observe the spectacle it would present, if it were carried out. The proposal and enterprisi 
 is, to obtain a political ascendancy in the national councils, and to elect the Federal officers 
 to administer the Government of the country. They invite this whole nation to perjure them 
 selves at the ballot-box ! Is it not so ? What a scene would that be! And they set up th 
 pulpit of religion to persuade them into it ! They profess to do it all in the name and by th 
 sanction of " the Supreme Ruler of the Universe !" 
 
 When they shall have accomplished this end, the President elect is to stand up before the 
 nation and the world, and take the following oath : " I do solemnly swear, that I will faith 
 fully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, 
 preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." And he is to do this, witk 
 a proclamation in his right hand, before uttered and published, that he will do neither, and that 
 he will violate every part of this oath ! And the Vice President, and every member of Congress, 
 and every Federal Officer, throughout the land, belonging to this party, is to do the same thing ! 
 Was such a scene ever before projected to be enacted in human society ? How it is \ >3sible 
 to come to any other result, under the Buffalo Manifesto, we are utterly unable to see. A 
 perjured people, a perjured Government, a perjured nation, punishing, in a common court of 
 justice, with the heaviest penalties, that by which they attained their eminence ! 
 
 80 
 
THE 
 
 | ; JUIIUS TRACTS. 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 JAN Y.] PUBLISHED EVERY SECOND MONTH. [1844, 
 
 DEMOCRACY. 
 
 BY JUNIUS. 
 
 Author of " THE CRISIS OF THE COUNTRY," and other Tracts of 1840. 
 
 Price, 3 cents single, $2 50 cts. per 100, or $20 per 1000. 
 
 TRACTS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 
 No. I. THE TEST, OR PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS. 
 II. THE CURRENCY. 
 III. THE TARIFF. 
 IV. LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 V. POLITICAL ABOLITION 
 VI. DEMOCRACY. 
 
 ID" NOTICE : Committees, Clubs, and all persons desirous of obtaining these Tracts, 
 are requested to send their orders, with remittances, to the publishers, Greeley fy McElrath, 
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 CD" Postmasters are authorized by law to make remittances under their frank. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY GREELEY & McELRATH, 
 
 TRIBUNE BUILDINGS, 160 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1844. 
 
 [Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by CALVIN COLTON, in the Clerk s office of 
 the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern District of New York.] 
 
 U7* EXTRACTS in Newspapers, for purposes of review, are allowed and invited; but a violation 
 of copyright is forbidden. 
 
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 81 
 
2 
 DEMOCRACY. 
 
 1. A story. 
 
 A Member of the House of Representatives, in Congress, a friend of Mr. Van Buren, met a 
 Whig Senator, in a steamboat, in the early part of the Presidential campaign of 1840, when 
 the former said to the latter, " Your Log Cabin, and Hard Cider is no go. We shall beat 
 you. How so ?" asked the Senator. " Mr. Van Buren," answered the Member, " relies 
 upon the words Democracy Democrat and Democratic. We all rely upon them, as a party. 
 While we wear this name, you can not beat us, but we shall beat you." This is a story of 
 fact, told us, with some other details, by the Senator himself. It happened, however, for that 
 occasion, that there was more democracy in " Log Cabin and Hard Cider," than there was 
 in " Democracy" itself. The Member of the House was right, and the very reason he gave, 
 prevailed on the other side. Mr. Van Buren was beaten. 
 
 2. The Lesson. 
 
 As the above is a story of fact, and as it doubtless tells a truth, and confesses a secret, 
 though perfectly obvious to all observing minds, the Whigs will be very simple, if they do not 
 profit by the lesson. All know, that these self-styled " Democrats," place their chief reliance 
 on this word, in its different forms of application. Not only so, but they rely equally on stig 
 matizing their opponents with the name of " Federalists." Look at the Globe and the other 
 papers of that party throughout the Union. Is it not so ? With an unwavering constancy 
 they adhere to this rule, in print and in speech. They are aware of the importance of it. 
 They " rely" upon it. 
 
 3. Etymology. 
 
 The word Democracy is formed of the Greek words Demos, people, and Krated, to rule. 
 Compounded, it signifies a ^eqp/e-government, in distinction from Monarchy, or One Man gov 
 ernment. The word Monarchy is compounded of the Greek words Monos, sole, and jlrkos, ruler, 
 and means as above defined. In grammatical construction, therefore, these words, Monarchy 
 and Democracy, stand opposed to each other, thus : Monarchy means the government of One 
 Man, and Democracy a government by the peopk. There is a perfect grammatical purity 
 and propriety in both, and they announce and declare precisely what they are intended to do. 
 
 4. Historical Origin. 
 
 The term Democracy, we believe, was first applied to the small republics of Greece, where 
 the people ruled in primary assemblies. Hence the word is of pure Greek origin. That was 
 the purest land of democracy, where the people avoided the representative forms of a republic, 
 as much as possible, and enacted their laws, and made their decrees, in primary assemblies of 
 the people, though it is obvious, that the executive functions of the Government were neces 
 sarily, for the most part, performed by individual and selected agents. The word, Democracy, 
 is therefore of very ancient historical use, and has never since been laid aside, because men, 
 in different parts of the world, have been constantly struggling for liberty, for a peopk-govern- 
 ment, in opposition to the claims of Monarchy, or One Man Power. Democracy and Monarchy, 
 Democrat and Monarchist, Democratic and Monarchical, in their several substantive and 
 adjective forms, have passed down through all languages, in all countries, from their pure 
 Greek origin, with little variation in form or meaning, always and everywhere standing 
 opposed to each other, as correlative terms. The fact of this uniform and general use of these 
 terms, with a uniform meaning, amonf all nations, for so many ages, three thousand- years, 
 more or less, is conclusive evidence, not only of the uninterrupted and equally extensive 
 agitation of the political questions which they involve, but of the general tendency of society, 
 all the world over, and of the persevering aims of mankind, for the universal establishment of 
 Democracy, or a ^eq/)/e-government. 
 
 5. The political position of these terms. 
 
 This, we should think, ought to be considered as settled by the etymological derivation and 
 historical origin and use above given. Such facts have a character of high and emphatic 
 teaching. They have a potent influence over the mind of the world, high and low, in political 
 philosophy, as well as in the hearts of those, who have felt the iron hand of monarchical 
 power, and are struggling for release, or who have obtained their freedom. It is for democracy 
 as opposed to monarchy, which the whole world are striving for, and which they are resolved 
 to have. 
 
 6. De Tocqueville. 
 
 De Tocqueville e "American Democracy" is very instructive, not alone for the objects he 
 had in view, but it is especially pertinent to our present purpose, which he never thought 
 o( t simply because he never thought it could be made a question. He took for granted, that 
 
 82 
 
the word, Democracy, in all history and in all countries, with all political sects, in political 
 philosophy, and in the common mind, occupies precisely the same position as it does in gram 
 mar, to wit, as opposed to Monarchy. Hence he everywhere treats of democracy as standing 
 in this relation, and only in this general and comprehensive sense. He assumes, that there 
 are different kinds of democracy, as of monarchy, and undertakes to treat of American democ 
 racy as one of the varieties. We hardly need say, that, by American Democracy, De Tocqua- 
 rille means our popular farm of government, such as it actually is. 
 
 7. Other authorities. 
 
 In the same manner, all political writers of the old world, give the same meaning to these 
 terms respectively, and uniformly use them in their relative grammatical sense. All attempts 
 to put down monarchical power, and elevate the people, they call Democracy. It is the same 
 in England. The antagonist of Monarchy there, is Democracy, and the growth of popular 
 influence in the Government, and in general society, is used synonymously and interchangeably 
 with the progress of Democratic power. 
 
 8. The feelings of immigrants. 
 
 There is probably not a single exception we have never known one in the case of emi 
 grants from European states to this country, so far as political reasons enter into their motives, 
 where they have not come over for democracy as opposed to monarchy. They come because 
 they are democrats. Democracy was the object of their affection and the theme of their 
 praise before they came, it was their song on the voyage, it is their anthem here, and they all 
 go for it. It is because they hate monarchy, having, no doubt, the best of all reasons, a sad 
 experience of its evils. 
 
 9. Republicanism. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that, while DEMOCRACY is a word of high and pure significance in the 
 European world, representing simply what we have already indicated, to wit, a people-government, 
 in distinction from Monarchy, the words, Republicanism and Rejmblicans, have fallen under 
 deep reproach. It results entirely from the atrocities of the French Revolution of 1790- 93, the 
 authors and actors of which, as is well known, were called Republicans. We are known to 
 the world as a Republic, and the phrase, " a republican form of government," is used in the 
 Constitution of the United States, as guarantied by that instrument to every new State; but 
 the denomination of republican has never adhered long to any political party of the country. 
 The cause is not apparent, unless it be supposed to result from the fact, that there is no 
 obvious meaning in the term itself indicative of the precise character of our institutions. It 
 is well understood, however, to denote a popular government, acting by representative agents. 
 
 10. TJie effect of accidental causes. 
 
 It has happened, undoubtedly, that the terms, Democracy and Democrats, have to some 
 extent, and more especially in particular sections of this country, been for a time rather odious, 
 on account of what has very justly been regarded as the hypocrisy of pretenders to democracy, 
 in the same manner as some dislike the name of Christian, because they observe the charac 
 ter of religious hypocrites. Let us not be accused of making a profane comparison. It i 
 the only fit one to describe the case. But, as Christianity can never be ultimately and per 
 manently prejudiced by the hypocrisy of false pretenders, so neither can Democracy, and the 
 latter holds a like place in the political world, as the former does in the moral. Democracy, 
 in our regard, is as sure to outlive this transient odium, as Christianity is to triumph over her 
 foes. For as GOD will vindicate the former, so will truth the latter. The world is the theatre 
 for both, and the little accidents of evil which may come in the way of either, here or there, to 
 asperse their character, or retard their progress for a season, will not impede their steady 
 onward course, nor bar a final triumph. The action and history of human society for three 
 thousand years, have decided, that Democracy is the opposite of Monarchy, and no accident, 
 no fleeting shadow of a day, can disturb or modify this relation. 
 
 11. Our Government a Democracy. 
 
 We are aware, that some have denied this ; but we think it is from want of an enlarged 
 and philosophical view of the question. The grammatical and historical facts, already adduced, 
 would certainly seem to decide, beyond controversy, in favor of our position. We think this 
 question, if any choose to make controversy about it, is to be decided by the position which 
 the term, Democracy, holds in the public mind of the world at large, and in the records of 
 history, and not by the narrow views of our own political sectarians, nor by a nice scrutiny 
 of the constitutional structure of our Government, as compared with an original and pure 
 theoretical democracy, sitting and governing themselves in primary assemblies of the people. 
 This latter picture is doubtless the purest theory of a democracy ; but it is an impracticable 
 mode of government. We choose rather to regard the more notable and fixed character, and 
 to adopt the names, which history and immemorial usage have given to the different forms of 
 
 83 
 
government, as they actually appear from time to time, in. different countries, and these are 
 generally classed under the heads of Monarchies and Republics, or Monarchies and Democ 
 racies, Republics and Democracies being used as synonymous and convertible terms. Each 
 of these two classes, as before observed, has its varieties. But the representative forms of 
 popular governments, however one may diifer from another, if all the powers of govern- 
 mfiU originate in the people and periodically return to them, or if those powers may be 
 constitutionally resumed and modified by the people, cannot divest them of their democratic 
 character. They are still Democracies in distinction from Monarchies . With the first of 
 these classes, the government of these United States is properly, and for aught we can see, 
 necessarily ranked. It is a Democracy. And ours is a very democratic government, in its 
 practical operation, as compared with any that has ever existed permanently by its own 
 inherent strength. Who does not know, how the slightest breezes of a political nature, 
 moving over the popular mind, may affect and change the policy of the Government ? Will 
 any deny that this is democracy ? 
 
 12. Aristocracy. 
 
 As it is not found convenient for monarchies to stand alone, and being socially at a lofty 
 remove from the level of the people, it has been thought necessary to surround a throne with 
 orders and ranks of nobility, having chartered privileges, large endowments of wealth, heredi 
 tary rights, patented honorary distinctions, &c., &c., each occupying a mediate stage between 
 the sovereign and the people, till the chasm is filled up ; and the interests of these numerous 
 parties are so connected and identified with each other, and with the throne, that all are 
 interested in maintaining the rights of the Monarchy against the claims of the Democracy. 
 With the sanction of time and usage for their position, with their wealth, and with the 
 physical force at their command, they support their power, and the supremacy of the sovereign. 
 An aristocracy, in form or substance, is considered a necessary appendage of monarchy. 
 
 13. An Oligarchy. 
 
 An Oligarchy, or government of a few, associate and equal, is considered the most odious 
 of all governments, and is doubtless capable of the most cruel despotism. Venice existed for 
 centuries under this form of government, flourished as a commercial and warlike state, but 
 was finally dissolved, and tumbled to ruins, by the atrocities of its Administration. 
 
 14. Democracy as a party in the Republic. 
 
 A democratic party in a democratic state, would seem to be an anomaly. The curiosity d 
 a stranger would naturally demand, What, then, can the other party be ? Are they monarchists ? 
 or what ? An exclusive claim of one of two parties to democracy, in a democratic country 
 like this, is, to say the least, not a very modest pretension, and a scrutiny as to the propriety 
 and grounds of such a claim, must of course be expected. 
 
 15. A retrospective glance. 
 
 It is a well-known fact, that, in the time of the elder Adams, a party, of high standing and 
 great influence, existed in the republic, called Federalists, the leaders of which were accused 
 we do not decide whether justly or unjustly of aristocratic aspirations and monarchical 
 schemes. It is also known, that the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws, was the signal 
 for the uprising and organization of a party, which assumed the name, and was called 
 democratic, as being opposed to these imputed monarchical designs. With this color of 
 propriety to start with, sounding their alarms, and urging their cause, they succeeded, under 
 the lead of Thomas Jefferson, in 1801, in obtaining the government of the country, and the 
 Federalists were thoroughly routed, so that they never appeared again, with any effect, as an 
 organized party, were soon scattered, and after a few years, were merged in other parties, some 
 going one way and some another. It is remarkable, however, that no small portion of the 
 most prominent, most pretending, and apparently most influential leaders of the present self- 
 styled " Democratic party," came from the Federal ranks. It is a fact to be observed. 
 
 16. A young Champion of this original Democracy. 
 
 Henry Clay, of Kentucky, roused by his eloquence, marshalled by his skill, and led on by his 
 valor, the democratic army of that Commonwealth, as their chosen captain. He was recognised 
 and honored, as such, by Mr. Jefferson, throughout his Administration. He was neither the 
 least, nor second, among the leaders of the Democracy under the administration of Mr. Madi 
 son. (See the "Life of Henry Clay," Tract No. IV.) From the beginning of his political 
 career, down to this hour, he has been a true, consistent, American Democrat, "original, 
 dyed in the wool," as we shall by and by have occasion to see. 
 
 17. A Hint. 
 
 Nothing is more obvious, than the truth, that, since the decline and dispersion of th 
 Federal party, no other party in this country could, with propriety, modesty, or decency, 
 
 84 
 
claim the exclusive title of democratic, even if it were proper before. It was first assumed 
 for the occasion, and continued to be applied from habit ; but even the Federalists, as is 
 well known, denied the charges which were alleged against them ; and if, indeed, there were 
 traitors to the country then, not a few of the worst and most dangerous of them are now 
 figuring largely and prominently in the self-styled " Democratic" ranks. 
 
 18. Ji Likeness. 
 
 The history of political parties in this country has been very much like the movements of 
 flocks of wild pigeons and shoals of fishes. A cloud of these birds comes sweeping through 
 the air, in a dense mass and long train, apparently following one leader, and anon, they divide 
 into two, or three, or four armies, separating and circling away to different quarters of the 
 heavens, under as many captains. They may form a junction again, in whole, or in part, or 
 they may not. The chances are, they will never all get together in the same order. The 
 same is it with shoals of fishes. Now a solid body moves steadily on, when all at once, they 
 branch off, and dart away, no one knows where. It is supposed they have gone off under 
 new leaders. 
 
 19. The state of parties under Mr. Monroe s Administration. 
 
 There has been one period of comparative repose in our political history, when all parties 
 were apparently blended in a common mass. It was under Mr. Monroe. 
 
 20. The new " Democracy" no Democracy. 
 
 After a calm, comes a otorm. The evoking of new political parties, of such character and 
 force, out of such a state of things as existed under Mr. Monroe, can be accounted for only 
 by special influences. The causes will be found in our Tract No. IV., pages 9 and 10. A 
 violence was done to the repose of the public mind, and that violence was supported by a long 
 protracted fraud. Principles were laid aside, and a MAN set up. The influence was PERSONAL, 
 not political. 
 
 In this there could be NO Democracy, but the very opposite. When Napoleon rose, it was 
 all for liberty , for the people, for France. It is always so, when MEN rise, in the place of 
 PRINCIPLES. They call things by names directly opposite to the FACTS ; and it becomes neces 
 sary to insist upon it, with an emphasis and an energy, proportionate to the falseness of the 
 pretensions, and the danger of detection. Popular deception can not be carried on and carried 
 through, without heaps upon heaps of false asseveration. Democracy and a democratic party 
 had been popular in the country. What more prudent, or more politic, than to call this new 
 development by the same name ? They had all power, could do as they pleased, and would 
 be believed. They called it Democracy ! An implicit giving up of the control and manage 
 ment of everything to ONE MAN, democracy ! Such is not the decision of grammar, nor the 
 utterance of history, nor is it very nearly allied to common apprehension. 
 
 What resemblance, or what connexion there was between the se//"-styled "Democracy," which 
 ruled in the land from 1830 to 1840, and that which rose in 1801, and long presided over the 
 destinies of the country, we are utterly unable to see. Jeffersonian democracy, for aught 
 that appears, was the power of the PEOPLE. Ja-ckson " Democracy" was the ascendant star 
 of ONE MAN. The first grew out of an alarm for the safety of popular rights ; the last sprung 
 from an obsequious regard for a Military Chieftain. 
 
 21. The. Democracy of Mr. Clay. 
 
 The position of Mr. Clay in the democratic party which triumphed in 1801, and long 
 swayed the sceptre of this republic, has already been recognised. He was first, most eloquent, 
 and most influential in the ranks of the Kentucky democracy of that era ; he had the entire 
 confidence of Mr. Jefferson ; he was the main pillar of Mr. Madison s administration, and to 
 iio man is the country more indebted than to him for the success of our arms in the last war 
 with Great Britain, and for an honorable and advantageous peace. A true American demo 
 crat from the beginning, rising from the humblest origin, poor and friendless, and depending 
 alone on his personal industry and energy, he was ready, and full armed, for the service of 
 his country such service as we have endeavored briefly to set^forth in Tract No. IV. 
 
 22. Defining a position. 
 
 While the Subtreasury Bill was under debate in the Senate, Mr. Calhoun cast some reflec 
 tion on Mr. Clay, as having on his side members of the Federal party. "Sir," said Mr. Clay, 
 addressing the President of that body, " I am ready to go into an examination with the 
 honorable Senator at any time, and then we shall see if there be not more members of that 
 same old Federal party among those whom the Senator has recently joined, than on our 
 aide of the house. The plain truth is, that it is the old Federal party with whom he, is now 
 acting. For, all the former grounds of difference which distinguished that party, and were the 
 subjects of contention between them and the republicans, have ceased, from lapse of time and 
 change of circumstances, with the exception of ONE, and that is the maintenance and increase 
 
 85 
 
of executive power. This was a leading policy of the Federal party. Jl strong, powerful, 
 and energetic Executive, was its favorite tenet." * * "I can tell the gentleman, that 
 he will find the true old Democratic party, who were for resisting the encroachments of power, 
 and limiting executive patronage, on OUR aide of the Senate, and not with his new allies, the 
 Jackson- Van-Buren democratic party, whose leading principle is to sustain the Executive, and 
 deny all power to the legislature, and which does not hold a solitary principle in common 
 with the republican party of 1798." 
 
 This accidental skirmish affords a true definition of the position of the two great parties at that 
 time and now existing in the country, and which were formed by the accession of General Jack 
 son to power. " The plain truth is," said Mr. Clay, " that it is the old Federal party, with 
 whom he (Mr. Calhoun) is now acting." * * "I can tell the gentleman, that he will find 
 the true old Democratic party on our side of the Senate." No man had a better right to under.- 
 stand this matter, than he who was born and raised in a democratic family, who was educated 
 in a democratic school, who had worked all his life in the democratic harness, who had never 
 once kicked in the traces, nor balked, and of whom, in regard to the true democracy of the 
 country, it might be said, he was chief among the chief, and always foremost. Mr? Clay had 
 never deserted his old family connexions, and passed from one side to the other ; but he stood 
 proudly on his patrimonial estate. He was never heard to say, like one of his rival opponents 
 for the Presidency, lately withdrawn, " I thank Heaven, that I have not a drop of democratic 
 blood in my veins." A democrat originally, and a democrat always, unchanged and unchange 
 able, he knew how to maintain the principles of democracy, and vindicate its honor. When 
 he said, " I can tell the gentleman," &c., he said what every one knew to be a truth, and that 
 truth was a hard one for his opponents. 
 
 23. Mr. Clay s Democracy as a Senator of the United States. 
 
 The position we have given to Democracy in the grammar of language, in all history, in 
 political philosophy, and in the universal sense of mankind, as a people-government in oppo 
 sition to One-Man Power, we desire to be constantly borne in mind. It is only by this distinct 
 perception, by this discrimination, that we can properly and fully appreciate the thing, when 
 it comes up before us, in its various practical forms. 
 
 In this light, observe the career of Mr. Clay as a Senator of the United States, always 
 jealous of all encroachments of Executive power on the legislative branch of the Government, 
 and of all its abuses and usurpations in other applications. The national legislature is the 
 representative power of the people, of the democracy acting through its own agents and organs. 
 It is the people, standing up by proxy in that place, to enact laws for themselves. Invade the 
 rights of that body it can be done from no quarter but the Executive and you invade the 
 rights of democracy ; destroy them no power but the Executive can do it and you destroy 
 democracy. Congress is the home of American democracy, its theatre, its sacred ground. It 
 is more : IT is ITS THRONE. The Executive is but the servant of democracy, to do its will. 
 The bidding, the mandate goes out from the Capitol, not from the White House. It is the 
 duty of the latter to obey, when the former has published its orders to do the whole thing pre 
 scribed, and nothing more. Excess is as bad as short coming. 
 
 Of these prerogatives of American Democracy, in the Congress of the United States, where 
 can be found so constant, so vigilant, so faithful a sentinel so bold an advocate, or a defender 
 so uncompromising, as Henry Clay has been 1 
 
 It can not be said, that the rights of American Democracy have never been menaced, never 
 assailed there. More than once, or twice, or thrice, have they been violated on that ground. 
 But it was not without resistance not without a warning voice, and a prophetic utterance. 
 A minority sentinel can interpose no effectual democratic veto there. He can say, Nay ; but 
 it is on the weaker side, and doomed to be overpowered. When a despotic and lawless Execu 
 tive has obtained for himself an obsequious majority in that body, he snaps asunder the cords 
 of the Constitution, and tramples on the rights of democracy. 
 
 It was from a long protracted and painful experience of this kind, that Mr. Clay, on bidding 
 adieu to the Senate "of the United States, in 1842, never more to appear in that place, where 
 he had served the people so long and so faithfully, left on the journal of that body, as his 
 last will and testament in capacity of a Senator, a proposal for an amendment of the Consti 
 tution in three particulars, designed to restrict and limit Executive power, so as to prevent 
 such violations of the rights of democracy. (See Tract, No. IV., page 14.) 
 
 24. Mr. Clay s Democracy in private life. 
 
 We do not mean as to his manners, which in him require neither eulogy, nor defence ; but 
 those things which he can not but speak and do for the country, wherever he is. In all 
 the emanations from his mind and heart, through private organs, which have found their way 
 to the public, we find the same stamp of patriotism, the same regard for the rights of democ 
 racy, the same concern on account and in remembrance of abuses of Executive power, the 
 
 86 
 
same desire to see these evils of the country rectified, which have illustrated his public life, 
 from beginning to end, with indelible characters. 
 
 25. The pledge of Mr. Clay s democracy to the end. 
 
 A public man s estate is his reputation his fame. Is it morally possible, that a man, who 
 has done so much for democracy, who has toiled nearly half a century for its extension and 
 security, and in defence of its rights, should turn round, undo what he has done, blast the 
 work of his own hands, tarnish his fame, or wantonly leave in the minds of men a doubt of hia 
 fidelity ? If men can trust anywhere on instruments of Providence, duly appreciating th 
 frailty of such supports, they will know how to Irust in such a case. 
 
 26. Modern Democracy a new thing. 
 
 We speak of that which is modern in our own history, as compared with its earlier dates. 
 There is scarcely a feature of resemblance between the democracy, which preceded the amal 
 gamation of parties under Mr. Monroe, and the self-styled. "Democracy" that has sprung up 
 since, and for twelve years held the reins of power. This is entirely a new thing. It is as 
 remote from grammatical, historical, and philosophical democracy, and from any democracy 
 ever recognised as such, as Monarchy itself. It involves the two principles of Monarchy and 
 Oligarchy, with a strong smell of Aristocracy ; but we have never found in it a single element 
 of a Constitutional democracy. The people have had -a part in it, without doubt ; but it was 
 only to do as they were told. They were mustered and organized under the personal popularity 
 of One Man, and the original, afterward transmitted vitality of the party, consisted in obsequious- 
 ness to one man s will. Does any man need to be told, that General Jackson s will was the 
 law of his party ; or that the party was a body of which he was the soul ? It was a party 
 formed around him personally as a nucleus, centre, and source of influence. Is it not ap 
 parent, at a single glance, and from moral necessity, that such a party could not be democratic? 
 The head was monarch of the party, sole and absolute. And as all monarchs require privileged 
 and rewarded agents, he put his finger upon, appointed, and endowed such as would answer 
 his purposes, and captains of tens, of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands, were made all 
 over the land. It was a strictly disciplined party, under one Chief, who was also at the head 
 of the nation. It had a military character in its organization, discipline, and effect. 
 
 Men do not usually give such confidence, without a consideration. In the first place, they 
 were gifted with a flattering name Democrats. This was understood to denote equality of 
 rights. In the next place, they were told and believed, that their Chief would do for them some 
 very nice things, in the way of making equality realized. In the third place, there was held 
 out the bait of a sort of undefined license, a kind of political Millenium, not far ahead, of which 
 some din of preparation was heard as an earnest of fulfilment. In this way was organized 
 an obsequious party, every fragment of which was under the discipline and guidance ol 
 recognised leaders, all of whom, in grades, were connected with their Chief. This, we suppose, 
 will be allowed to be a fair picture. And is this Democracy a pcqp/c-government ! 
 
 27. The Oligarchic and jJristocratic features of this party. 
 
 The Monarch is recognised. A government, under the will of One, is doubtless a Mon 
 archy, whatever may be its Constitutional name. It was impossible to carry out such a party 
 system, without sub-chiefs, and licensed authorities, in all its parts. The position of these 
 agents lends them personal importance, and a sense of the obscurity of their origin and sud 
 denness of their elevation, mounts into aristocratic pride of the worst kind. It is Aristocracy 
 without grace, and without decency loving power, but not knowing how to use it. Hence it 
 has been remarked, that no party ever developed so distinctly the features of Aristocracy, or 
 was ruled so entirely by Oligarchs. This fact has struck the party itself so forcibly, that some 
 of them have waggishly dubbed it " the Cod-fish Aristocracy of Democracy." 
 
 28. j$n Anecdote. , 
 
 " How many legs will a calf have," asked a fellow of another, whose depth and 
 shrewdness he wanted to prove, "if you call his tail a leg?" "Five," was the answer. 
 " O no, that s impossible." " But certainly, he will have five." " Does your calling his tail 
 a leg, make it a leg ?" " Well, now, I never thought of that." 
 
 It is strange, indeed, that it should have taken the people of this country so long to find 
 out, that a calf s tail could never be made into a calf s leg, by the act of calling it a leg ; or 
 that One-Man Power could not be converted into democracy, by calling it democracy. We 
 have already partly suggested the reason why this misnomer was given, and the manner in 
 which it was done. Democracy had been in good repute. And why should it not be, in a 
 democratic country ? But, as this new " Democracy" was known to be spurious, it was neces 
 sary to insist on its genuine character with special urgency to affirm it over and over again* 
 A falsehood is allowed to be made good, by telling it often and strong, and swearing to it, if 
 
 87 
 
8 
 
 29. Discoveries. 
 
 That certainly was a very strong stamp, which the Chief of this seTf-styled "Democratic" 
 party gave to it, and the impulse of his hand kept the machinery a-going long tune after he 
 bequeathed the charge of it to his Successor. But it was not long before it began to be dis 
 covered, that there was not much democracy in this particular kind of democracy. It was i rue, 
 that the captains of tens, fifties, hundreds, thousands, and so on, were generally rewarded ; 
 but the lower subalterns, who fought well, and worked hard, got nothing. As the principle 
 proclaimed was, " to the victors belong the spoils," this partiality seemed very unreasonable. 
 These dissatistieJ members of the family could not with safety jump over the fence, because 
 their faces would be recognised ; they were therefore forced, for a long time, to work on, and 
 fight on, in sulky mood. But in 1840, many of them broke loose, and quit, as the bondage 
 had become intolerable. Captain Tyler s treachery gave hope to others, and he got a good 
 many of the disaffected. Poor Mike Walsh, captain of the " Subterraneans," in the city of 
 New York, after having done valiant and distinguished service for his masters, without reward, 
 first tried Captain Tyler, till he saw his foundation giving way, and then rebelled openly, and 
 was thrust into prison by his own party ! Ungrateful " Democracy" ! 
 
 But the most remarkable case of all the penitents, is that of Mr. Brownson, formerly Editor 
 of the Boston Quarterly, since associate Editor of the Democratic Review, and now, in 1844, 
 setting up again for himself in "Brownson s Quarterly," published in Boston, in the first num 
 ber of which he gives Mr. Van Bureh and the party a most terrible scathing. It appears by 
 his statements, that he has long been dissatisfied (doubtless many others have), and that he is 
 now his own man again, having swung clear of his old associates. Mr. Brownson is an origi 
 nal, vigorous thinker, an able writer, and utters some striking truths ; but one hardly knows 
 where he will land, if it be possible to tell where he is now. According to his own definition, 
 he is a man of "progress." 
 
 One who has been admitted to the altars of this new "Democracy," and officiated there, 
 ought to know something about it. The following are a few extracts on this subject, from his 
 Review for January, 1844 : "What passes for their voice (the voice of the Democracy ) is 
 only the voice of the corrupt and intriguing few, who contrive to manage them, and to cheat 
 and" wheedle them out of their votes." ..." This talk about the voice of the people is all 
 moonshine." ..." The confidence which these politicians ( Democrats ) have in the people, 
 is in the facility with which they may be gutted." ..." Would they willingly let the people 
 iato their secret caucuses, into their councils to contrive ways and means of plundering the 
 flunple and unsuspecting ? Would the pure patriots, the democratic sages of Lindenwold and 
 elsewhere, let the people know their various speculations and contrivances by which they 
 cheat and swindle the laboring classes out of their hard earnings, to enrich themselves and 
 their associates ? No ; there is nothing that these men more distrust than they do the peo 
 ple." ..." The real enemies of freedom are your democratic politicians, who with their lips 
 praise the people, and with their hands pick their pockets." 
 
 As for Mr. Van Buren, though Mr. Brownson voted for him in 1840, very reluctantly, he 
 seems to think he was a sort of nightmare on the party at that time. In speaking of the re 
 appearance of Mr. Van Buren, as a candidate for the Presidency, he says : "He comes not 
 alone, but as the chief of a band, which the country had devoutly hoped was dispersed, never 
 to be collected again. He comes as the representative of the same old corrupt and corrupting 
 system of party tactics, followed by the same swarm of greedy spoilsmen, with their appetite 
 for plunder sharpened by the few years abstinence they have been forced, through the remains 
 of the original virtue and patriotism of the country, to practise. Gratify his wishes, restore 
 him to the place he is personally soliciting, and we lose all that was good in the defeat of the 
 Republican ( Democratic ) party in 1840, and retain only the evil. We restore what, with an 
 almost unheard-of effort, the country had thrown off, and place the Republican party in the 
 condition in which it must be defeated again, or the country be inevitably ruined." . . . "Mr. 
 Van Buren has, in politics, no standard of right and wrong but the will of^ his party, on the 
 surface of which he foats, ready to take any direction the selfish views of its managers may 
 jive him. He is always pliable, manageable, with no obstinate views of his own, in his or 
 anybody s way." 
 
 Well, this is a pretty stout confession for one who still belongs to the party, and only prefers 
 Mr. Calhoun. It will be observed, that Mr. Brownson above substitutes Republican for Dem 
 ocratic. He has got tired of "Democracy" (not much wonder), and prefers a " Constitution 
 al Republic." He calls himself a " Conservative," though he likes "progress" progress on 
 the past, not in upsetting the past and we honor him for it. 
 
 30. TA<? Radicalism and Revolutionary tendencies of this modern "Democracy." 
 
 When the Dorr insurrection broke out in Rhode Island, Mr. Brownscn bravely attacked lire 
 principle of that rebellion in the Democratic Review, with which he was then connected, and 
 really did good service to the country, though he had the misfortune to offend his readers, live 
 
 88 
 
patrons of that magazine. He showed very clearly, that all changes in the fundamental law 
 oi a Stute, must be made according to the provisions of that law. Else, it is a revolution. This 
 doctrine was a manifest condemnation of the Dorr party and movement. 
 
 It has all along been but too apparent, that this new " Democracy" was not overcharged 
 with respect, either for Constitutional or Statute law, or any law whatever, that might happen 
 to come in its way. But the outbreak in Rhode Island unmasked the party, in regard to the 
 reliance to be reposed in them on such occasions, and evinced how much more they are swayed 
 by passion (some, it is to be feared, by hope of plunder), than by law. It will not soon be 
 forgotten who favored, and who rebuked that disturbance. The peace and welfare of our 
 country, and the stability of our Government and its institutions, demand, that we should 
 know who will sustain them, or who will consent to overturn them in an unpropitious hour. 
 
 3L The design and importance of party names. 
 
 We have already suggested, what we think can not be too well considered, that no party ia 
 this country is fairly entitled to the exclusive name ofvdemocratic. The government of the 
 United States comes under the category of Democracies, in the general classification of the po 
 litical forms of human society, and all the people of all parties are, or ought to be, democrats. 
 They are not monarchists. Technically and specifically we are a Republic and Republicans ; 
 but for the general and more common purposes of language, both in political philosophy, and 
 in the common speech of the world, we are a Democracy and Democrats. These are national 
 designations, not prty titles. The assumption of these titles by a political party, is a robbery 
 of the other party of their national character. It is investing a sect in such a case self-in 
 vested. for their exclusive use, with the honors which belong to the entire Democratic com 
 munion, in this country and elsewhere. 
 
 32. WJiigs and Locofocos. 
 
 Positively we know no such parties in this country as Wfiigs and Democrats. We deny that 
 there are such. There are Whigs, and we maintain that the Whigs are THE Democrats, if 
 there must be a party of that name. Certainly, they are the true Democrats, if there be any 
 such in the land. We mean no disrespect to the Locofocos by this party designation. They 
 eam^ by it accidentally, i as the name of Whig was first acquired. Under these names, or any 
 others not national and generically comprehensive, the issue is fairly made, and always stands, 
 as is proper and important, which of the two is more truly, or more Democratic than the other, 
 according to the democratic standard of our Government and its institutions ? Neither party, 
 BO far as we know, proposes any other standard. But if either of these divisions of the people 
 is permitted to wear the name of democrats, as an exclusive party designation, and if they are 
 fairly entitled to it, the question is conceded, and the argument at an end, as to which is dem 
 ocratic, or more truly so. 
 
 33. The cheat and stealth involved in this misnomer. 
 
 The name of democrats was stolen by those who now claim to wear it exclusively. They 
 had no title to it. It is an American, not a party name. In such an appropriation it is a 
 cheat. The advocates of One-Man Power in the veto, as it has been used (abused) by our 
 National Executive, are Monarchists, not Republicans. Much less are they Democrats. They 
 have also been the advocates of other abuses and usurpations of Executive power. They were 
 the first party in the country, since the formation of our Government, that set up and upheld 
 One-Man Power, and the most remarkable fact is, that they did this at the very moment when 
 they stole and put on the name of "Democrats" ! They have justified and sustained the 
 President of the United States in the use of monarchical powers, we might say absolute powers, 
 which would have cost the Sovereign of Great Britain a throne and a crown, and which would 
 have revolutionized almost any kingdom in Europe all under the name of " Democracy" f 
 
 At the same time, and all along, the Whigs have resisted these encroachments of One-Maa 
 Power, and been the advocates of popular rights of true Democracy. Such is their position 
 before the country at this moment. It is for the rights of the PEOPLE that they maintain a per 
 petual strife. It is for this that Mr. Clay has contended uninterruptedly, untiringly. The 
 rights of American Democracy, if sacrificed anywhere, will be sacrificed in the Capitol of the 
 Republic, in the Congress of the United States, in the persons of the Representatives of the 
 people. Repeatedly have blows against democracy been struck there repeatedly have the 
 rights of the people been trampled on in that place by the iron heel of Executive power, with 
 the consent and by the aid of these self-styled " Democrats" ! It is to shield and protect that 
 citadel of Democratic power and of popular freedom, from these invasions and irruptions, that 
 Mr. Clay, and those associated with him, have so long strived, and still strive. 
 
 34. The object of the political revolution of 1840. 
 
 It was solely and alone to restore the democracy of the country to restore it. For many 
 years it had been giving way and was beino: swallowed up by Executive power. One en- 
 
 89 
 
10 
 
 f 
 
 croachmcnt after another had been made on the rights of the popular and legislative branch of the 
 Government, abuses multiplied, usurpations thickened, till the powers of legislation, directly 
 or indirectly, by influence or mandate, chiefly emanated from the Executive chair. Congress, 
 instead of originating public policy and public measures, and giving form and substance to 
 them, by its own independent action, became a mere registrar of Executive decrees, a mechan 
 ics work-house for a master at the other end of the Avenue. The Democracy of the nation 
 was prostrate it was nearly annihilated. It was to restore the Democratic prerogatives of 
 Congress, to reassert and reconfirm the independence of the national legislature, that the great 
 struggle of 1840 was undertaken, and the aim triumphantly achieved. The people saw that 
 their power was gone, and must be recovered, and they came to the rescue. 
 
 35. The genius of Locofoco Democracy." 
 
 The way in which it originated, and its history since, will show what it is. It began by the 
 personal influence of one man. It had, therefore, an emanation from and concentration in one 
 point. It whirled around one centre. There was no independence in the body, but a universal 
 obsequiousness to the soul. Mr. Brownson, who has been a member and oracle in this party, 
 and who is still a member, says, in describing this character : " One sees the original every 
 where. The evil has become great and menacing. We have lost our manliness ; we have 
 sacrificed our independence ; we have become tame and servile, afraid to say that our souls are 
 our own." . . . "To keep the ranks of the party full, to prevent members from breaking 
 away, and asserting their independence, appeals are made to the lowest and most corrupting 
 passions of the human heart. The individual who shows himself a little uneasy, or disposed 
 to kick at the party traces" (like Mike Walsh, or like Mr. Brownson himself), " must be de 
 nounced, thrown over, and declared to be an enemy, and no longer entitled to the confidence 
 of the party. Thus men must be kept in the party, and faithful to its usages, decisions, and 
 nominations, not by attachment to its principles and measures, but through fear, that, if they as 
 sert their independence, they will lose their share of the spoils." 
 
 This is a true picture of the party from its origin, by one, than whom nobody understands it 
 better. There never was any democracy in it. From its character, its vital and all-pervading 
 principle, obsequiousness and obedience, it was impossible there should be. It came from *man, 
 born to command, and he infused his spirit into the whole machinery. The genius of Locofoco 
 * Democracy," therefore, is obsequiousness and servility in the masses, and despotism in the 
 leaders. It is utterly hostile to true democracy, and a suitable foundation, on which to erect a 
 despotic throne. 
 
 36. The genius of Whig Democracy. 
 
 The Whig party of the Union is composed of men, who have been long out of power ; who 
 kave been forced in the meantime to act on the conservative side, that is, as far as possible, to 
 prevent mischief; who are of course, and necessarily, Jean men, as regards the fattening effects 
 of office; have none of the corruptions which are at least supposed to appertain to a protracted 
 tenure of power; and if such men can anywhere be found, may fairly be regarded, as in a 
 reasonable degree, disinterested patriots, from the fact of their choice to remain in the minority 
 so long a period. Principles alone, not power, have bound them together. Their party 
 organization has been sustained, not by the patronage of office, but by putting their hands in 
 their own pockets. It was a glorious sight, in 1840, to see what sacrifices and efforts they 
 could make, to rescue the country from bad hands. The obvious truth of their facts, and the 
 force of their arguments, brought a great majority of the people over to their side, and they 
 triumphed ; but treachery has left them precisely in the situation they were in then. Still 
 without power, still relying on principles, and the practical results of principles, "though 
 betrayed, not dismayed," they still adhere, and press onward. 
 
 Every man in the Whig ranks, is a MAN a man that thinks for himself, and acts for him 
 self an uncompromising American Democrat. It is perhaps an evil in the Whig party, that 
 they are all leaders ; but it is not an evil, that they are SERVILE to leaders. Nobody has ever 
 dared to name in their ranks that wicked, corrupt, and corrupting maxim, that " to the victors 
 belong the spoils." The great mass of them would never care who governs the country, if 
 it were well governed. But when it is badly governed, they resolve, in the spirit of true 
 patriots, to put the reins in better hands, that they may return to and prosper in their own 
 private affairs, as independent American citizens as Democrats. 
 
 Such, for the most part, is the genius of Whig Democracy. They recognise no authority 
 of leaders, that binds them to obsequiousness ; it is not party, but the country they go for ; it 
 not MEN, but PRINCIPLES ; and they adopt party organization, and sustain it, not as 
 au end, but as means to an end. 
 
 37. Democracy will prevail. 
 
 And it will prevail under that name. It is too late in the age of the world, in history, and 
 In the progress of human society, to give another name to this thing. That is the common 
 
 90 
 
n 
 
 symbol destined to be employed, throughout the world, to denote popular forms of government. 
 It is stereotyped in the public mind of all nations, and everybody, everywhere, understands it. 
 
 It is true this name has been somewhat confounded in the practices of the political sects of 
 our own country, and we are perhaps a little disqualified to judge of its general and perma 
 nent influence. A portion of our citizens also have prejudices in relation to it, which it is 
 hard to get over. In the first place, those who were opposed to the first party in this country 
 which assumed and wore this name, (it was a party of no affinity whatever with the present 
 self-called " Democrats,") have not even yet forgotten their feelings of disl ; ke to it, although 
 they may be at this moment, and to a great extent are amalgamated with that party. But the 
 distaste which they have for this name as having been put on by the Locofocos, is fresh and 
 strong. They despise the hypocrisy which they have found lurking under this garb, and 
 can hardly help associating the thing with the name. Not unlikely they may often have been 
 heard to pronounce the name of " Dem-o-crat" with unmitigated contempt and emphatk 
 scorn, simply because they think of the character that claims the exclusive use of it. 
 
 We entreat all such to look at this subject with more enlarged and more philosophic views. 
 We are, personally, fully convinced, that we do not mistake in the political importance we 
 attach to this word. We have shown it is a pure word, apart from our oAvn political atmo 
 sphere, where, we confess, it has been somewhat contaminated. But even here, it is to a great 
 extent purified already, and is becoming more so every day. It was assumed by a large por 
 tion of the Whig party in 1840, under the style of Democratic Whigs, because they knew it 
 belonged to them, and to them alone. This feeling and determination have been gaining 
 strength ever since, and before the campaign of 1844 is closed, we doubt not it will generally 
 be felt and acknowledged by the people, that the Whigs are the only true Democrats. It i* 
 vain to rely on common power of discrimination between principles and names. Every prac 
 tical man ought to know, that names embody principles, and are the symbols of principles to 
 the mind. The word, Democracy, is a universal symbol, of uniform import, and no power can 
 arrest or limit its influence. It will prevail over everything, and carry all before it. 
 
 38. The duty of the, press, and of common speech. 
 
 It is perhaps true, that half of the Whig press, and half the Whigs in the land, are at this 
 time in the habit of calling the Locofocos Democrats, of speaking of them as the Democracy, 
 of honoring their party with the title of Democratic, and of using the word in all its forms in 
 this application. Are they aware of the consequence, and that they are probably doing more 
 to help the Locofocos by this recognition of their claims, than all the counter influence they 
 can throw into the other scale, by any means whatever? We are sure, if they thought as 
 we do, believed as we do, they would from principle, from a sense of duty, abstain at once 
 and for ever from such an application of these terms. It is unjust to all parties to the Loco 
 focos themselves ; for they, of all men, are least entitled to it. It is a cheat they have palmed 
 on the community, by which they acquired and retained their power for twelve years, and by 
 which, sooner or later, if permitted to continue the fraud, they will rise again, and rule in 
 spite of opposition. In 1840 they were beaten, because, through the democratic symbols of 
 "Log Cabin and Hard Cider," in connexion with the facts brought home to the people, the 
 people saw on which side the true democracy was. And we shall doubtless triumph in this 
 campaign of 1844, because the democracy of Henry Clay is unquestioned and unassailable. 
 But still, as revealed by the story in the first section of this Tract, Mr. Van Buren and his 
 party "rely" on the word "Democracy" and on stigmatizing their opponents as "Federalists." 
 They understand the potency of these words. Believe it, dear friends, they have done more, 
 and will do more, by this fraud, than by all other means whatever. Strip them of that name, 
 and we put the question Who believes that they could live a day ? Without that name, they 
 never would have succeeded. How, then, can a true Whig be so suicidal as to award it to 
 them, in the press, or in common speech ? They have a name, Locofoco, accidentally ac 
 quired, as the name of Whig was originally, and there is no discourtesy in using that desig 
 nation. They then stand upon their naked principles and practices, and the issue is fairly 
 made before the people, Which are the true and best Democrats ? 
 
 39. The importance of this question in its relation to immigrants. 
 
 It appears by official records, that the number of immigrants who arrived at the port of 
 New York, from August, 1832, to August, 1842, ten years, was 507,131. We have not the 
 means of knowing what proportion this bears to the entire immigration of foreigners into the 
 country ; but we have noticed immigrations, by way of Canada, for some years, which, at the 
 same rate, would make an aggregate in ten years, but little short of this statement for 
 New York. But suppose the average immigration into the country is fifty thousand a yeai, 
 which was the average for ten years, at New York alone, as above ; and suppose that one 
 half of these become voters by naturalization; we then have an aggregate acquisition of 
 voters, from foreign parts, every four years, not much short of the majority which elected 
 General Harrison! We have before shown, that all these, or nearly all, come here foi 
 
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12 
 
 Democracy as opposed to Monarchy., and that they will be Democrats. Most of them are 
 ignorant of our language, all are ignorant of our state of society, they know nothing of the 
 principles which distinguish political parties here, but they are governed chiefly by the name* 
 which parties bear. - The party that is called democratic, if there be such a party, they are 
 sure to join. What other rule can they go by ? And such, we generally find, is the result. 
 Is not this fact alone sufficient for all the purposes of our argument ? 
 
 40. The effect of this name on native Americans. 
 
 It is impossible to tell how great it is, but it can not be small. We know, that the head and 
 leaders of the Locofoco party "rely" upon it, and our conviction is, that they rely upon it chiefly. 
 We do not believe they would make another effort, if this name, by any means, could be taken 
 away. They are shrewd men, and understand this matter well. Observe how they manage in 
 their press and speech: We are the "Democrats;" they (the Whigs) are "Federalists ; >3 and 
 for twelve years, they made the people believe it, notwithstanding that, all this while, they were 
 acting on the very principle, which made the old Federal party obnoxious, to wit, a strong and 
 overpowering Executive, while Mr. Clay and the Whigs, with all their might, were opposing it, 
 and laboring for democracy. The moral influence of this name, in favor of the Locofocos, so 
 long as it is awarded to them, must be immense, and we do not think it would be overstating 
 it, if we were to put it down at fifty per cent., half of their entire strength. 
 
 Is there not good reason, then, why Mr. Van Buren should "rely" on this name? Mr. 
 Brownson asks : " Who ever caught the weasel asleep ?" If they are entitled to the name, 
 let them have it. But we have shown it is a fraud. 
 
 41. "Democrats" the friends of the laboring and poorer classes. 
 
 This has not only been a standing text, but there has been much effective preaching from 
 it, by the Locofoco " Democracy." But the laboring and poorer classes have made an impor 
 tant discovery in three particulars. 1. That they have been made tools of, as described in our 
 quotations from Mr. Brownson, who, from his long standing and public labors in the Loco 
 foco party, will no doubt be accepted as a very credible witness. 2. That Whig policy and 
 Whig measures ore best for them. 3. They like that democracy which does them most 
 good; which gives them food, clothing, and a comfortable home, instead of promises. They 
 have at least begun to make this discovery, and are advancing in it rapidly. The tariff, a 
 great Whig measure, is diffusing its blessings everywhere, and gladdening the hearts of the 
 laboring and poorer classes. We have just noticed the remarkable fact, that a little girl, in a 
 Cotton Bag Factory at Cincinnati, earns six dollars for five and a half days labor every week, 
 and that there are fifty-five females and forty-five males working in the same factory, with 
 similar results. (See also our tract on the Tariff,) 
 
 Take away the name, by which the Loeofocos have deceived the people, and their powei 
 is gone. 
 
 42. The great Indexes of Democracy. 
 
 That party which seeks to maintain and defend the prerogatives of the popular branch of 
 the Government against the encroachments and usurpations of the Executive, and to guard the 
 Constitutional rights of the people in the persons of their immediate representatives, is the 
 democratic party. All know, that this has been the position of Mr. Clay, and of the Whigs, 
 and that their opponents have been constantly seeking to strengthen the Executive in its inva 
 sions of the rights of Congress. The former have constantly and steadily braced up against 
 the Executive, in their defence of the democratic powers of the Government ; while the latter 
 have as constantly and as steadily prompted and aided the Executive in all its attempts to cur 
 tail and abridge those powers. To secure the exercise of the powers of Government by the 
 people, in all that the Constitution prescribes and warrants, has been the undeviating aim of 
 Mr. Clay, in all his public life and labors; and in doing this, for many years past, he has beea 
 found in uninterrupted conflict with the Executive and the Locofocos. These facts are signs, 
 indexes, and infallible proofs of democracy in those who thus take the side of the people ; and no 
 less are they conclusive evidence of the lack of democracy in those who take the side of th 
 Executive against the people. 
 
 43. The Veto Power. 
 
 This is but one of the many forms, in which the Chief Executive of this country has invaded 
 tie prerogatives of democracy, in violation of the design of the Constitution. It is a pure 
 monarchical power, and is liable to be very momentous in its results. It has actually been so 
 in our case. The framers of the Constitution thought the occasions for its proper exercise 
 would be very rare, and it was even supposed at the time, that it would scarcely be used at all, 
 on account of the great responsibility. It has not been used by the Sovereign of Great Britain 
 for more than a century, and probably never will be used there again. But with us it has 
 been used as wantonly as if there were no democracy in the Constitution, or in the country, or 
 ever could be, to call this absolute power to account ; and what is most remarkable is, that the 
 
 92 
 
13 
 
 .Locofoco " Democracy" should be its chief advocate and defender ! Its most daring use com 
 menced under the Locofoco Dynasty, and it has been cherished by that party ever since. But 
 nothing could be more inconsistent with the spirit, or more hostile to the rights of democracy. 
 An examination into the history of the formation of the Constitution will show, that the chief 
 design of the Veto power was to protect the Executive from the encroachments of the Legisla 
 tive branch of the Government ; whereas, it has been chiefly employed, in the later periods of 
 our history, in an aggressive movement from the Executive, on the rights of Legislative au 
 thority, to nullify its functions ; in other words, to nullify the democratic powers of the Con 
 stitution. 
 
 It has been stated by English authorities, that the only practical benefit of the Veto Power 
 in the British Crown, is the knowledge, that it can be used in defence of the prerogatives of 
 the throne. This, probably, will be thought quite as far as it ought to go ; and such, as above 
 recognised, appears to have been the main design of this power in our Constitution, to wit, to 
 protect the Executive. But, as there has been no occasion for that in our history, and some of 
 our Presidents having taken it for granted, that this power was not given to lie idle, have used 
 it freely and wantonly in encroachments on democratic prerogatives. Mr. Tyler gave notice, 
 in his first message to Congress, that there was $uch a power in the Constitution ! Therefore, 
 my dear democratic friends, guardians of the people s rights, take care what you do ! We 
 marked it at the time as an ominous foreboding, and so it turned out. He had at that moment, 
 und even earlier than that, as we may hereafter have occasion to show, made up his mind to 
 use it. 
 
 44. The. confusion of political parties. 
 
 As was sagaciously and shrewdly calculated upon by those most interested, a majority of the 
 people of this country, honest and unsophisticated, took for granted, that the leaders of a par 
 ty, coming into the field, would not call themselves democrats, if they were not so ; and it was 
 generally supposed, that this new party was only a continuation of the old democratic party, 
 and that it occupied the same position ; whereas, it was the reverse, or opposite position. What 
 Mr. Clay said, in reply to Mr. Calhoun, that "it does not hold a solitary principle in common 
 with the Republican (democratic) party of 1798," was perfectly true. It was in the antipo 
 des, at the opposite pole, in relation to that party. It was moreover true, that this new party 
 had adopted it is equally true, that it has uniformly carried out the most obnoxious princi 
 ple of fhe old Federal party, viz. : " A strong, powerful, and energetic Executive," and that 
 with this party still resides all the Federalism there is in the land, which in their case is a 
 reality, whatever may have been the fact in the first case. 
 
 It was also supposed by the people, that the party, since called Whig, was awfo -democratie, 
 and that they succeeded to the Federalists, and inherited their principles ; whereas, they were 
 the only legitimate successors of the Jeffersonian, afterward Madisonian school, and were op 
 posed to this new self-styled. " democracy," because they were opposed to Federalism, and the 
 worst kind of Federalism, as it was developed under the Locofoco Dynasty. 
 
 Such has been the entire and absolute confusion of political parties in this country, growing 
 out of the fraud practised in the assumption of the name of "Democrats" by the Locofocos, 
 who were able, by the irresistible sway of a popular Chieftain, to maintain it for a protracted 
 period. On this account, the two great parties have all this while been in false positions be 
 fore the people, and it was not till 1840, that this fact began to be understood ; nor is it per 
 fectly understood even now. 
 
 45. The unscrupulousness of Locofocoism. 
 
 The fraud of calling itself, and claiming the title of democratic, was bad enough. They who 
 fixed upon this name for themselves and the party, knew perfectly well, that it was a false flag, 
 and they intended to deceive by it. But this was innocent compared with the second part of 
 their offence, in calling their opponents Federalists a name which, in truth, belonged to 
 themselves. The utiscrnpul-ousness with which it was first done, with which it has been main 
 tained, and is practised to this day, is a most remarkable fact. The manner of doing it, all 
 along, betrays a consciousness of the fraud. Else, why crowd every column of their newspa 
 pers, fill every speech and all their common talk, with these names and epithets, thus applied ? 
 That is not the way of honest people. When a case is evident, and when a question is set 
 tled, it is quite unnecessary to be always affirming it. But they " re/y" upon the cheat, know 
 ing it to be such. They know that they are always exposed to detection, and must therefore 
 anticipate all by the repetition of false asseveration. The people generally are honest, and 
 can only be held in their state of deception, by a constant echo of that which first led them 
 into orror, and gained their misgiven confidence. 
 
 The Locofoco press and leaders are also equally unscrupulous in their statements of fact, to 
 maintain their cause. We are aware, it may be replied, that this is always the way with poli 
 ticians, and that it is equally true of both sides. But there is an answer to this, which few 
 people have thought of. It is this : The facts which the Whigs have to state of the Loco- 
 
 93 
 
14 
 
 focos, are so perfectly astounding, that they have no occasion, and no temptation, to go beyond 
 the truth, but are forced, in prudence, to stop short of it, or very seldom to give the whole, 
 lest they should be disbelieved. This we know to be true from our own experience ; and we 
 have never known a statement insisted upon by the Whig press, or often repeated, after it 
 was proved incorrect. This is strong proof of the purity of a political party, and we think 
 it is true. The Whigs have no need of weapons against their opponents, which facts do not 
 furnish ; whereas they are constantly assailed by naked assertions destitute of truth. 
 46. The morals of Locofocoism. 
 
 It results from a moral necessity, growing out of the history of the thing, that it should be 
 corrupt. Founded in untruth, erected and sustained by it, it is impossible it should be pure. 
 The system of party tactics introduced by General Jackson, and carried out by Mr. Van Buren, 
 is one of utter and revolting corruption. Take the testimony of Mr. Brownson, before given, 
 who has been and is yet one of the party, and who has made politics a study all this time, who 
 has been looked up to by the party as an oracle, and whom, we presume, no man, of any party, 
 will accuse of dishonesty, and was there ever a fouler picture of moral loathsomeness pre 
 sented as a subject of consideration ? 
 
 47. Repudiation. 
 
 Out of this infected, foul atmosphere, has grown this MONSTER of American public morals. 
 Who will deny, that it is the sole offspring of Locofocoism ? Fortunately for the Whig party, 
 in this case, they have nothing to prove or disprove. The Locofocos not only father the child, 
 but they glory in his moral qualities, and think him a prodigiously smart fellow. While the 
 flesh of this nation is smarting and writhing under the lashes which the public opinion of the 
 world is inflicting upon us for this great offence, its authors are dancing and singing around 
 the fires of their barbarous faith. 
 
 48. Nullification. 
 
 See our Tract, No. I., page 14, for a statement of the Districting law of Congress, and its 
 Constituional authority. Can anything be imagined more utterly subversive of all law and 
 order, or more radically revolutionary, de facto, and in its tendencies, than the action of the 
 House of Representatives of the 28th (present) Congress, in trampling that law under foot ? 
 Admitting that the law is unconstitutional, as the nullifiers say it is, still it is law, till the 
 proper Constitutional authorities shall have reversed it. The Constitutional action of a Con 
 stitutional body, (that is, acting according to its established rules,) is Constitutional, in its bind 
 ing force and effect, till a Constitutional Cour^, whose province it is to determine that question, 
 shall have decided otherwise. It sometimes happens, that the judiciary does so decide. But 
 their decision has no retrospective, but only a prospective effect. The operation of the law, 
 previous to such decision, is allowed to be Constitutional and valid, because it was the Con 
 stitutional action of a Constitutional body, notwithstanding they erred, according to the judg- 
 ment of the judiciary, which is a final umpire. Such is the necessity of society. If any per 
 son or persons, or State, may act on the assumption, that a law of Congress is 7m// and void, 
 because in their opinion, it is unconstitutional, where are we, but in a state of anarchy ? And 
 yet we are often astonished to hear members of Congress, in their places on the floor of legis 
 lation, say this, and act upon it, as they did in admitting members of the present House of 
 Representatives, contrary to law ! Is not this nullification by the law-makers themselves ? It 
 is Locofocoism not of the people, but of leaders. The people know it is wrong. 
 49. Locofocoism and Tylerism. 
 
 Some one has suggested, that John Tyler s Administration should not be embodied with our 
 history, but put in a parenthesis. But it will yet be recognised as a legitimate sprout of an 
 old trunk. One of the " GUARD" said to us, while we were remonstrating with him against 
 the course about to be pursued, before it was begun, " THE PEOPLE LIKE BOLD STROKES or 
 POLICY" by which we understood him to intimate, that they liked such things as General 
 Jackson did, and that Mr. Tyler was going " to tread in his footsteps," make himself a third 
 party, and be re-ekcted. We are perfectly sure we did not misunderstand this conversation, 
 and that such was its point and drift ; and we moreover believe, that it was a true echo of 
 the sentiments of the White House at that moment. General Jackson had led off the nation ; 
 why could not John Tyler ? Doubtless this conclusion was a non sequitur a thing that did 
 not follow of course. 
 
 But the facts show how much example had to djo with it. The nation had been once and a 
 long time deceived ; why could they not be deceived again ? Faith with the people had been 
 broken with impunity, and with great success ; and the reason seemed to be plausible, that one 
 might and could do it as well as another. Indeed, if the history referred to, proved anything, 
 it would seem to prove, that deceiving the people, is the best way to prosper. " Sold 
 strokes of policy," was certainly the language employed with us, in justification of the course. 
 
 We have never for a moment doubted, that Tylerism is Locofocoism gone to seed, though the 
 latter, as a stock, has shaken off the former as its fruit. Dishonesty begets dishonesty, and 
 
 94, 
 
15 
 
 treachery to the interests of the country in one case, for selfish ends, if prosperous, will 
 tempt to treachery in another, for like ends. 
 
 50. The great error of the Whigs, Whig party, and Whig press. 
 
 Look at the Whig press, and listen to the common talk of Whigs. In large portions of the 
 East, in some portions of the West, not a little in the South, and more or less all over the 
 country, the Whig press, and Whigs in conversation, speak of Whigs and Democrats, the 
 Whig party and Democratic party, Whig ticket and Democratic ticket, Whig votes and Demo 
 cratic votes, &c., &c. We hope we have said enough to show, that this is not only a great 
 mistake, but absolutely suicidal. The Whigs may toil and sweat in this way, to row their 
 boat against the current ; but, if they will look at the trees on the shore, they will see they 
 are oil the while going down stream, except as now and then a breeze of "Log Cabin and 
 Hard Cider," or such a name as Henry Clay may come to fill their sails and help them. With 
 a favorable breeze, or without one, they are all the while toiling against a strong and irre 
 sistible tide of nature. The world has pronounced in favor of Democracy, and is resolved to 
 have it. The great majority of the people of this country are Democrats, honest Democrats, and 
 always will be, unless the stealth and frauds of Locofocoism shall succeed in bringing them 
 under a despotism. It is of no use to say, that the people will distinguish principles from 
 names, so long as the Locofocos are called democrats. The word, Democracy, is the symbol 
 of Democracy all the world over, and no power can make it otherwise. If it be said, that we 
 underrate the intelligence of the people by these remarks, it is not true. We only give them 
 credit for honesty. They have a right to take things as they are called, and there is no other 
 honest rule. It is the Locofoco leaders alone who underrate the intelligence of the people, by 
 the frauds they practise upon them. They assume this want of intelligence, and act accor 
 dingly, and the people are betrayed, not for want of discernment, but by their easy confidence. 
 The people, as a body, are not politicians ; much less are they abstractionists ; but they take 
 tilings by their names, and go straight ahead. 
 
 In 1840, the people began to see, what is the fact, that Locofocoism is servility in the masses 
 and despotism in the leaders. But the sheepskin was only lifted from the head of the wolf. 
 It requires to be snatched entirely off. 
 
 51. How to set it right. 
 
 1. Let the Whig press be reformed in this particular. It would do much less hurt by advo 
 cating Locofoco principles, than by calling Locofocos Democrats. The principles, in their naked 
 form, will not bear scrutiny, and are generally a sufficient answer to themselves. But wrap 
 them up in the name of Democracy- and they will .mislead the majority of the people, simply 
 because the people are honest, anl take things by their names. 2. Let the Whig press en 
 deavor to set this whole matter in its true light, debate the question, and dispute the point. 
 3. Let all Whigs, everywhere, scrupulously abstain from applying these terms to Locofocos, 
 show why it ought not to be done, and if necessary to counterbalance the fraud of their oppo 
 nents, let them take and wear the name themselves, as their right. It has already been done 
 extensively. Let it be done universally, and it will be an approximation to justice. In the 
 end, it will cure the evil, 4, Show Mr. Clay s position, historically, in the ranks of true de 
 mocracy ; where he was under the Administration of Mr. Jefferson ; where under Mr. Madi 
 son ; and how faithfully he has fought the battles of Democracy, under the Locofoco Dynasty, 
 against One-Man Power, against Executive encroachments on the democratic prerogatives of 
 the Constitution, as vested in the Representatives of the people, in the legislative branch of the 
 Government. 5. Show, that the Whigs have occupied this position, all along, and still occupy 
 it ; and that Whig measures are for the whole people, against the claims of officeholders and 
 public agents. 6. Show, that the genius, doctrines, and practice of Locofocoism, are alike 
 hostile to liberty and democracy. All these things are manifest, and the facts need only be 
 cited, to be felt. 
 
 52. Apology. 
 
 It is with some diffidence, that we have ventured on the suggestions of these pages. W 8 
 trust, however, we shall not be deemed presumptions in hoping that they will have some in 
 fluence ; that the Whis:s will see and feel the false position they have occupied before the 
 people, so far as they have awarded the name of Democrats to their opponents ; that, from 
 a sense of justice to the public, to all parties, from principle, from conscience, they will pause 
 and check themselves, before they allow this name, in such an application, to flow from their 
 pens, or fall from their lips ; that they will see what is due to themselves, and to their cause ; 
 that they will challenge the name of democrats as properly belonging to the Whigs alone, and 
 how the reasons ; and then may we hope, that things will not only get righted, but stay put. 
 
 53. Importance of symbols. 
 
 Whig democracy prevailed in 1840, in our opinion, only because it was believed to be 
 true democracy. We are also persuaded, it can only prevail now and ultimately for the same 
 
 95 
 
16 
 
 care \vho makes its laws." Let it not, however, be supposed we recommend drinking. We 
 only speak of "Hard Cider" as a symbol. Doubtless, there will be many new and appropriate 
 devices. The Poetry of symbols is the natural language of the heart the first and everstand- 
 ing altar of enthusiasm. 
 
 54. Mr. Clay as the Candidate for the Presidency. 
 
 It is fortunate for the Whig democracy of the country, that the democracy of their candidate 
 for the Presidency, is so legible and apparent in the chapter of his public life. It may sur 
 prise some of the Whigs, but it will be a poser to the Locofocos, to find, that nowhere in the 
 republic can be found, among our public men, an American democrat from the stump, so con 
 sistent, so firm, so unchangeable, so uniform, amid all the fluctuations of parties, that have 
 characterized our history. THERE HE is, the SAME under Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, 
 J. Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler always and invariably the uncompromising Advo 
 cate of democracy of the people s rights, against the encroachments of Executive power ; 
 always defending American interests against foreign interests ; always advocating protection 
 for American labor and industry ; always toiling for the welfare and glory of his own country; 
 always sympathizing, not only with American democracy, but with democracy in every part of 
 the globe, where the people were oppressed, or struggling for freedom; always the defender 
 of the democracy of the Constitution, as the organ and instrument of the democracy of the 
 country ; always taking in charge the interests of the masses, not only for the equity of the 
 principle, but as the surest way of promoting the general welfare ; the same in defeat as in 
 success, in adversity as in prosperity, under the dark clouds of calumny as in the bright sun 
 of popular favor ; never disheartened, never weary, never flagging ; but ever prompting and 
 cheering the nation onward to honorable fame and great achievement. 
 
 The Locofocos know full well, that they can not impeach the democracy of Henry Clay, 
 nor blast the reputation he has won in the service of his country, and there is nothing they 
 fear so much as the word, democracy, in such an application. Their trade in detraction, 
 viLfl. i i.on. and slander, will avail them little on such a mark. Their only task is now to hold 
 on Ught Ji3 garment which they stole. We shall see, ere long, whether they do not stand 
 shi/erinj n the cold, or burning in the sun, for lack of a covering. 
 
 55. Sum of the matter. 
 
 The result of the whole i<? 1. That Locofocoism is a v&w system of party tactics, never be 
 fore known to the country, having no politics in particular, except such as lead to power and 
 the spoils of office. 2. That the leaders only are benefited, while the people are made tools 
 of, and necessarily injured. 3. That it is chiefly indebted for its success, to the assumption of 
 a false name for itself, and to bestowing a false one on its opponents. 4. That it still " relies" 
 on the continuance of this fraud for future success. 
 
 That it is a new system, will be apparent to the slightest reflection on its origin, rise, and 
 singular developments. That it has no principle, but the profit of the Oligarchs, is demon 
 strated by the facts of our history since its advent. That the people are injured, behold the 
 devastations and overthrow of our national prosperity under its rule. That its success is at 
 tributable to the cause we have assigned, observe the facts we have recited. And that they 
 still rely on this, take their own word for it. 
 
 56. The way to do it. 
 
 ONE thing, all, doubtless, will agree in, to wit, that to have a good crop in the autumn of 
 1844, the seed can not be put in the ground too soon. It is surprising, that the importance of 
 early efforts to inform the people, is not more deeply, more practically felt by those whose 
 appropriate business it is to put the means in their hands. The Locofocos have nothing to 
 gain, but everything to lose, by debate before the people. In every important position they 
 occupy, they are forced to defend, and they are exceedingly vulnerable, while the Whigs oc 
 cupy precisely the position they did in 1840, viz, carrying the war into Africa. All the facts 
 and principles which gave the Whigs triumph then, are now more clearly brought out, more 
 impressively stated, and are in all respects more available for effect. It only requires, that 
 they should be thrown into the lap, and put under the nose of the people. Let the Locos fire 
 back. It is only the fire of a retreating, discomfited foe. Their last rally is a forlorn hope. 
 Give the people- ammunition, and let the word go round, "Pick your flints, and try it again." 
 REMEMBER all they want is AMMUNITION, IN GOO*) TIME. " WHIGS !" cried he, whose 
 voice for forty years had been heard from the high places of the land, now speaking to his 
 neighbors, near his own hearth, the 9th of June, 1842 " WHIGS! AROUSE! AWAKE! 
 
 SHAKE OFF THE DEW-DROPS THAT GLITTER ON YOUR GARMENTS, AND ONCE MORE MARCH TO 
 BATTLE AJTD TO VICTORY." 
 
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 OjT EXTRACTS in Newspapers, for purposes of review, are allowed and invited ; but violation* 
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LABOR AND CAPITAL. 
 
 1. What is labor? 
 
 It is any man s or woman s efforts to live and prosper, whether of body or of mind, or of 
 both ; whether in agriculture, or commerce, or manufactures, or mechanics, or in either of the 
 numerous branches of these great and comprehensive pursuits ; whether in the useful or fine 
 arts, in digging ditches or digging out the sciences ; whether in a professional career, or in 
 making books ; in teaching, or in study ; in legislation, or in government ; in making pins, or 
 casting cannon ; in the use of hands or of feet, of fingers or of toes, of muscles or of brains; 
 in search of knowledge, or in its application ; in inventions, or their uses ; in making canals, 
 or building ships ; erecting railroads, or constructing locomotives ; in burning lime or brick, in 
 quarrying or in masonry; in wielding a sledge-hammer, or making watches; in grinding 
 knives, or selling brick-dust ; in fishing for oysters, or harpooning whales ; in any one of the 
 thousand occupations, of the city or the country, on the land or on the sea ; and so on, and so 
 on, to the end of that infinite diversity of human pursuits, by which men and women toil for 
 a, livelihood, and to get on in the world. In a free country each one chooses his own vocation, 
 and it is not easy to say, whether mind work or muscular effort is hardest. 
 
 2. What is capital 1 
 
 Money is usually called capital. But it is not exclusively so, unless it is intended to com 
 prehend everything that will fetch money ; or everything that is worth money. In this sense 
 labor is capital. Labor, certainly, is the foundation and cause of wealth. All the world would 
 be poor, and come to nothing without it. Whatever any man has, which others want, and 
 which, being wanted, will fetch money, whether it be a capacity for labor, or any species of 
 property, it is capital. For any man, therefore, to know how rich he is, or how much capital 
 lie has, he has only to inquire what he can do and what he has that will fetch money. 
 
 3. The capital of labor. 
 
 He who is able to work, and who can find employment with fair pay, is rich to begin with, 
 and may become rich in the usual sense of the term. A power to labor, where labor is in de 
 mand, is the best, most independent, and most productive of all capital. Money at interest, 
 or in stocks, usually produces, in this country, an income averaging perhaps six per cent. 
 Some get more, some less, and some none at all. They are liable to go backward, and lose 
 principal itself. But labor, with economy, can hardly ever be worth less than fifty per cent. 
 That is, a laborer can live satisfactorily, and lay up, as vested capital, half of his wages. In 
 some kinds of employment, he can lay up three-fourths, it may be more than that. Economy 
 and skill in the management of his earnings, may also be made productive of wealth, in addi 
 tion to the profits of his labor. Some laborers, by a careful use of past earnings, soon get to 
 realize a hundred per cent, on their capital, including labor ; and then they are growing rich, 
 wealthy. Industrious labor of any kind, in a country like ours, with economy, and being ap 
 plied where labor is in demand for wages, is a sure foundation of wealth. Man does not have 
 to labor to acquire the power. It is a capital with which he is endowed by creation, an inde 
 pendent faculty, and more productive than any other. 
 
 4. Skill in labor, and in the management of its avails, is capital. 
 Man has not only bones, sinews, muscles, and other powers of bodily labor, but he has mind 
 to direct it, to improve in it, to make it more available, to put all its proceeds to a profitable 
 use, and to improve even its uses. Labor turns bodily power to account, and skill multiplies 
 the profits of labor, so that when a man gets a-going in the world, he goes fast. Riches flow 
 in, and wealth accumulates. A man s power of labor is limited ; but his skill is unlimited. 
 Skill is often a thousand times more productive than what is commonly called labor. But, it 
 is to be remembered, that, skill itself is the fruit of the labor of mind, or is the employment of 
 mind, as muscular effort is labor of the body. But skill is capital. It is equally applicable to 
 agriculture, as to manufactures ; to the mechanic, or the useful, or fine arts. It is applicable 
 to trade and commerce, to every pursuit and occupation of life. 
 
 5. Enterprise is capital. 
 
 It might seem quite unnecessary to say, in view of what enterprise has accomplished in and 
 for this country, from the beginning of our history, that enterprise is capital. With slender 
 means, it has evoked unbounded wealth from the long repose of a continent, and erected there 
 upon a vast national estate. No other species of capital has contributed so largely to this 
 stupendous result. As the collective power of national enterprise is composed of individual 
 enterprise, we find accordingly the same character in isolated conditions, chequering the whole 
 surface t*f society with great achievements effected by single persons. There was capital 
 ough in the soul of Washington, to humble the greatest nation, and to make another, witfc 
 
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3 
 
 that would hare been laughed to scorn as a subject of prophecy. In all our history, 
 and in the various walks of life, are to be found like miracles of enterprise, originating in the 
 profound and inexhaustible wealth, and carried forward to consummation, by the invisible 
 power of man s moral attributes. 
 
 6. Moneyed capital. 
 
 Money is most coveted, because it is most convenient ; and its convenience arises from th 
 fact, that it will procure, in exchange, everything which a man wants, or desires. But, in 
 itself, it is dead capital, and the least worthy of respect or affection, as compared with labor, 
 and skill in the application of labor and its avails. When money is put to use, it is said to be 
 active ; but it has no natural, inherent productive power. Hoarded money, while in that 
 state, is no better than rusty old iron in a farmer s garret. And when put to use, the income 
 is not the natural product of a natural agent, or natural effect of a natural cause, but a mere 
 commercial result, which is limited and small as compared with the products and avails of 
 labor, and that little is contingent on good management and good security. The principal 
 itself is subject to the same contingency. 
 
 Nevertheless, moneyed capital may be an important instrument in the hands of the owner, 
 and is usually an effective power, within certain limits. It will always supply wants, and 
 gratify desires, so long as it lasts. But as productive capital, put to use in the hands of second 
 and third persons, for the increase of itself, it bears no proportion to the productive power of 
 human labor and skill. The fact, that they who employ money, can afford to pay interest for 
 it, and often double, sometimes quadruple the principal sum annually, by the use of it, is proof 
 of this point. 
 
 7. Vested capital. 
 
 By vested capital is commonly understood money put to use for what is called interest or 
 income. The most common forms of vested capital, are bonds, mortgages, negotiable notes, 
 silent partnerships in business firms, stocks in banks, insurances offices, turnpike and railroads, 
 canals, fishing companies, great commercial enterprises, steamboats and steamships, navigation 
 companies, manufactories, state and government securities, and any undertaking that is beyond 
 the ordinary means of individuals, and which requires the combined and aggregate capital of 
 numerous persons having money to put to use. The capital of corporate companies or bodies, 
 formed for these objects, is usually divided into small shares, which, being made negotiable, 
 that anybody can buy or sell, are thence, called stocks. 
 
 8. Corporations. 
 
 The object of corporations is to combine the surplus or spare capital of numerous individ 
 uals, for enterprises which are usually beyond the reach of single persons. Properly organized 
 by the statute of incorporation, by a division of the capital into small shares, and securing to 
 men of small means equal chances, they are well adapted to a democratic state of society, by 
 bringing down the powers of government, distributing them among the people, and vesting 
 them in the hands of all persons who can raise twenty, or fifty, or a hundred dollars, according 
 to the price of shares. Few and large corporations, monopolizing power in their own specific 
 spheres, are objects of popular jealousy, and justly so. But the multiplication of them, with 
 moderate capital and powers, divided into small shares, spreads them out over the surface of 
 society, and whatever powers they have, be it more or less, is so much resigned by the govern 
 ment, and vested immediately in the hands of the people, who are able and disposed to be 
 owners of stock. It is a wider and more democratic distribution of power. The responsibility 
 of the managers, is to the stockholders for the use of the capital, and to the government, and 
 through the government, to the great body of the people, for the use of their powers. That is 
 the best, most democratic, and most beneficent system of corporations, which enables and 
 encourages laborers and men of small means, widows and orphans, and the more dependent 
 and helpless portions of the community, to become interested in them, by the investment and 
 application of their funds, which they themselves could not employ to advantage. For exam 
 ple : Two men, in partnership, were joint-owners of mills of great value in the state of 
 Maine, and one of them died, leaving a widow and several children. The widow and chil 
 dren, of course, could not manage such a business ; but by an act of incorporation from the 
 state, the widow and the guardians of her children became corporators and managers, and the 
 joint-interest went on as before. It will be seen, that cases are constantly occurring in so 
 ciety, which require the aid of such privileges. All helpless persons, who have capital enough 
 to support them, but who are unable to manage it, naturally resort to such helps provided by 
 the state, in parental care, and by considerations of humanity, as well as for the general 
 welfare. 
 
 9. Laborers may be stockholders and corporators in corporate companies. 
 The town of Lowell, in Massachusetts, which has risen from nothing in twenty years, to ft 
 population of more than twenty thousand, has between eleven and twelve millions of dollars 
 
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vested in her manufactories, employs upwards of nine thousand laborers, male and female, 
 pays for their work annually $1,800,000, about fifty per cent, of which, on the average, or 
 $900,000, they can save, or lay by, after paying their board and necessary expenses. Their 
 savings support a Savings bank in the place, where deposites are constantly being made, 
 Some of them, after having laid up a satisfactory sum, go home with means to settle down for 
 life, while others vest their savings in the manufactories, and become stockholders and cor 
 porators managers of their own stock, and presiding over themselves as laborers, gradually 
 accumulating their interest in these companies. In one manufactory alone, $100,000 of 
 stock is owned by those who work in the factories for wages ; in another $60,000 ; and so 
 on. Factory girls, and women who live by their needles, are often stockholders in these and 
 other institutions. It will be observed, that in all these cases, the capital of labor creates the 
 moneyed capital thus or otherwise vested, and that in the case of a laborer at Lowell, who 
 receives in wages $200 a year that is the average and lays up one hundred dollars, the 
 profits of labor are ten to one of the income of moneyed capital at five per cent. In other 
 words, the profits of labor in these cases, are fifty per cent., on the cost or principal, that 
 being $200. 
 
 . 10. The effect of corporations on the general welfare. 
 
 1. Manufactories. In our tract on the Tariff, No. III., we took occasion to adduce the 
 case of the Glenham woollen factory of Fishkill, N. Y., with a capital of $140,000, which, as 
 proved, actually employs other capital of the country, chiefly agricultural, but yet embracing a 
 variety of other kinds, in all to the amount of $1,432,000. From this aggregate of other 
 capital, thus employed, it will easily be seen, what a great variety of other occupations find a 
 profitable employment by this investment of $140,000. Among the items specified, vre notic* 
 66,000 sheep, 22,000 acres of pasture land to feed them, 2,600 acres of farm land to supply 
 the wants of the families belonging to the factory, and $8,000 annually used up in the small 
 articles of teazles, firewood, coal, provender, &c. All the laborers and their families belonging 
 to this factory, are, of course, supported by it. All the farmers connected with this establish 
 ment, and the owners of the 66,000 sheep, are also supported by it, to the extent of their in 
 vestments thus employed. It will be seen that the individuals and families connected with thp 
 capital of $1,432,000 employed by this factory, are neither few in numbers, nor small in the 
 aggregate of their various interests. All of them derive their support from this source, and it 
 is satisfactory, else they would look to another quarter. 
 
 Let us carry out the rule furnished by these facts, to another and more comprehensive stage. 
 The entire capital vested in all the manufactories of the United States at this time, is estimat 
 ed at $300,000,000, (three, kutulrtd millions of dollars). If we suppose that this aggregate, thus 
 vested, employs an amount of other capital of the country, corresponding with the case of the 
 factory at Fishkill, as above stated, then the whole amount of the other capital employed, ami 
 profitably employed, by the manufactories of the Union, would be $3,068,571,428, or a little 
 over three, thousand millions of dollars ! This is doubtless an unexpected, it is even an as 
 tonishing result. It may be, that other manufactories, different in kind, do not employ an 
 equal proportion of other capital ; there are doubtless some which do not ; but some, for aught 
 we know, may employ a greater proportion, enough even to swell the aggregate. The vast- 
 ness of the amount, at the lowest possible estimate, is sufficient to show the importance of 
 these corporations to the various occupations and interests of the country. There is no occu 
 pation, however humble, no man, however poor, that is not materially affected and essential 
 ly benefited by them. The wool growing interests of the country, which are chiefly connected 
 with our manufactories, and sustained by them, are estimated at two hundred millions of dol 
 lars, and the farmers of the country receive annually from the manufactories, for all their va 
 rious supplies, an aggregate of sixty six millions of dollars, which is nearly nine times as much 
 as the avails of all our exports of flour, beef, and pork, to all parts of the world. Massachu 
 setts, a great manufacturing state, alone consumes annually more than forty millions of dol 
 lars of the products of other states, which is nearly a moiety of all our exports to foreign 
 countries. 
 
 2. Collateral evidence. The assessed value of property of all kinds in the state of Massa 
 chusetts, as reported by her legislature in 1841, is three hundred millions of dollars. As it is 
 known that official assessments of this kind are very much less than common estimates, often 
 fifty per cent., on an average, in Massachusetts probably twenty five, per cent., it may, perhaps, 
 
 be fairly assumed that the aggregate value of the property of that commonwealth, is not less 
 than/oitr hundred millions of dollars, about one fourth of which, or one hundred millions, lies 
 in Boston and its immediate vicinity. The capital vested in the manufactories of that state, 
 is about fifty millions of dollars. We have endeavored from the best sources of information to 
 ascertain, as near as possible, the amount of value imparted to the wealth of Massachusetts 
 by the manufactories, and the result is, that it can hardly be less than one hundred millions of 
 dollars. It has been stated as high as one hundred and. fifty miUioi>s. That the first of these 
 statements is not too high, may be presumed from the fact, that the assessed value of all the , 
 
 100 ( 
 
property of the state of Maine, with a little less than two thirds of the population of Massa 
 chusetts, but three times as much territory, is only seventy millions of dollars, resulting ap 
 parently from the fact that she has few manufactories. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, in his speech at the agricultural meeting at Tamworth, England, in 1843, 
 said : 
 
 " Therefore, gentlemen, in this favored locality, we have no excuse for being behind-hand in the rnoe 
 of agricultural prosperity. Another advantage we possess is, that we live in the neighborhood of a great 
 manufacturing distiict, and you all know of what importance Birmingham and the great iron district in its 
 neighborhood is you know also what influence it has in the demand for your agricultural produce and 
 you have hud ample experience tftat with the decay or increase of the prosperity of that district there are 
 corresponding sympathies on the part of the agriculturists. Thus you have not only a country formed 
 by nature, but possessing the advantage of a great manufacturing district in its imn.ediate neighborhood, 
 and creating a market for its produce." 
 
 Every one will see, that this species of evidence is to the same effect, and of the same value, 
 hi all parts of the world. 
 
 3. Canals, railroads, $c. The construction of works of these kinds, disburses over the 
 country tfie entire amount of their cost, be it more or less, giving employment to laborers, 
 
 manufacturers, mechanics, artisans, and various classes, who do the work, supply materials, 
 and aid in accomplishing the end. We have not the means for an exact statement of the cost 
 of these works, already completed or begun in the country ; but the aggregate must be very 
 large, not less, probably, than some hundred millions. Most of this has been realized by la 
 borers of various classes employed to do the work and supply materials. And it is to be 
 understood, that if all these works were good for nothing when done, the money which they cost 
 has all passed into the hands of those who made them. But in most cases they answer their 
 design, and contribute permanently to the employment and profits cf labor, and to the activity, 
 facility, and profits of the business of the country, on an immense scale. They also enhance 
 the value of the property of the country to a great extent. A gentleman owning a very large 
 estate in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, though not bordering on her public works, told 
 us he would be glad to be taxed at any moment for his fair proportion of the whole amount of 
 the state debt, and that such a tax would be but a fraction of the increase of the value of his 
 property on account of these works. If this be true, as doubtless it is, the state, though en 
 cumbered with a public debt, by the erection of these works, is yet richer on account of them. 
 The only embarrassment is, how to liquidate the debt most satisfactorily to the people of the 
 commonwealth. All the erections of this kind, whether made by states or by corporate com 
 panies, are greatly beneficial to the wide community, in the disbursement and realization of 
 their costs, in the permanent use to which they are applied, in the increase of the general 
 value of property, in the additional and profitable employment which they give to labor, and in 
 promoting the facilities and activity of business. All classes, more especially the poorer class 
 es, feel and reap the benefit. Individual capital could not accomplish these great works. It 
 is only by states, or by the combined capital of numerous individuals, in the form of corpora 
 tions, that such enterprises can be achieved. 
 
 These remarks are equally applicable to all other enterprises on a large scale, which can 
 only be accomplished by associated capital. They are beneficial to the whole country, and to 
 all classes, in the same way, and by the operation of the same causes. 
 
 4. Banks. For want of space, we are forced to refer to our Tract on the Currencj r , No. II., 
 or to presuppose an acquaintance with it, for a proper appreciation of the few remarks made 
 here. It is a settled fact, that the business of this country can not be carried on without a 
 paper medium, and the only question is, whether it shall be supplied by private and irrespon 
 sible persons, shop-keepers, and the like ; or by corporations created and regulated by the 
 government, and responsible to it ? Experience has decided, that the evils of the former plan 
 can not be endured, and bank corporations are the result of the necessity of the public. Their 
 powers are specified, their modes of business regulated by law, and they are held account 
 able to the authorities which gave them being. They have a reasonable amount of the con 
 fidence of the public, and the reasons why that has been in some degree shaken, are exhibited 
 in our Tract on the Currency, which are, briefly, the effects of the mal-treatment of govern 
 ment, in a war against its own offspring. Can a child do well, with a father striking heavy 
 blows on its head ? 
 
 A good system of banking supplies a sound, convenient, and indispensable circulating me 
 dium for the demands of business. It is physically impossible, that the vast trade of this vast 
 country, should be carried on with an exclusive metallic currency. The people will use the 
 paper of private and irresponsible persons, with all its evils, if they can not have that of re 
 sponsible and law-governed institutions. Besides the general soundness of a bank-paper me 
 dium, they are usually able, by the conditions on which they are chartered, to supply an 
 adequate currency. But not the least of the benefits of a good banking system, is its effect in 
 suppressing exorbitant usury. By far the greater portion of the sacrifices of property in this 
 country, as the consequence of the revulsion of general credit through which we have recently 
 passed, has been occasioned by exorbitant interest exacted by private money-holders, when the 
 
 101 
 
banks could not loan, and all commercial agents were in trouble. Much of the fanning to* 
 terest and other property of the country, has changed owners in this way, by the foreclosing 
 of mortgages, and the original proprietors, who were well off before, have been ruined by mer 
 ciless usurers. But in the operation of a sound banking system, exorbitant usury is always 
 kept down, because it is forced to moderation, to a specified limit, by law. (See Tract on the 
 Currency.) 
 
 5. Insurance companies, etc. The benefits of these and similar institutions, are too well 
 known to require defence. They absorb a large amount of capital, which is thus put to prof 
 itable use, at the same time that it secures the private property of individuals on an immense 
 scale, at a premium which all can afford, if they can not afford to lose it. A ship insured, is 
 lost, but the owners and shippers do not suffer ; a house insured, is burnt, but the owner re 
 ceives cash for the value; a valuable life insured, is lost, but the surviving relatives get an 
 equivalent for the services of which they are deprived ; and in this way the most afflicting 
 strokes of Providence are greatly relieved of their severity. Men bear one another s burdens 
 from motives of interest, where charity would, be cold and unproductive. It is a beneficent 
 result of civilization. 
 
 6. Corporations secure, activity to moneyed capital. It is best for all, that money should be 
 in constant use. While lying still, it is dead to all the world, and good for nothing. But they 
 who have money, will not trust it to second and third persons, without security. The rights 
 and powers of corporate bodies, are indispensable to evoke hoarded wealth from its hiding- 
 places, and bring it into use for the benefit of society. 
 
 7. Money vested in corporate institution*, is put under the control of general society, through 
 Hie government. This is a prime consideration, especially for those who are jealous of moneyed 
 power. The government is virtually trustee of all funds vested in corporate institutions, 
 prescribes the objects to which they shall be applied, and the manner of using them, employs 
 the corporations as its agents, and holds them accountable. The government is supposed to be 
 partial to the public, and will always endeavor to serve and promote the interests of the pub 
 lic. To have the moneyed power of the country under such control, can not but be regarded 
 as better than to have it in the hands of private and exorbitant usurers, or shavers. 
 
 8. There are many important objects indispensable to the interests of the country, which can not 
 be accomplished, except by the power of associated capital. The objects of the various institu 
 tions we have had under review, will sufficiently show this. If they must be done, they can 
 only be done in this way. And what and where would the country have been without them ? 
 Half-way back to barbarism. 
 
 11. The controlling power of labor, industry, and enterprise, over tnoneycd capital. 
 
 We have before recognised the substantial capital and productive power of these capacities 
 of man. We have seen that they are many times more productive than moneyed capital. It 
 remains to show, that, in this country, they command and control the latter. Money and 
 property, we know, among us, are constantly changing hands. A man has only to work on, 
 and wait patiently, and with industry and enterprise, he is sure to get both. The wheel of 
 American fortune is perpetually and steadily turning, and those at bottom to-day, will be 
 moving up to-morrow, and will ere long be at the top. The rich man of this year, may be 
 poor the next, and the wealthy family of this generation, is likely to dissipate its fortune in 
 the next. Scarcely ever does it remain in the same line to the third generation. And where 
 is it, when no longer found with the same owners ? It is in a thousand or ten thousand hands. 
 Where the laws of primogeniture and entail are abolished, as in this country, and where ev 
 erything is put under the control of labor, industry, and enterprise, there is a substantial 
 equality. All property, among us, tends to the hands of those who work and wait for it. They 
 are as sure to get it, as the sun is to rise and set. 
 
 Where now is the vast estate of Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia ? The two millions left in 
 charge of that city, is chiefly in the hands of the lime-burners, brick-makers, quarry-men, 
 stone-cutters, masons, carpenters, carters, architects, artisans, manufacturers, mechanics, lum 
 ber merchants, trades of many kinds, and agents of great variety, whose labors, services, and 
 materials were put in requisition for the erection of Girard College without the city, and Gi 
 rard Square within it. And the immense estate of John Jacob Astor, of New York, where 
 will that be in the next generation ? A considerable fraction of it has already gone into th 
 Astor House and other edifices in that city ; that is, into the hands of those who built them, 
 and furnished the materials. Every expensive house and establishment that a rich man set* 
 op, scatters the entire cost over the wide community, putting that amount of money and prop 
 erty into other and many hands. Money never stays, except with the miser, and all the wealth 
 of the wealthiest, for the time being, is for the most part in use by somebody, benefitting the 
 poor, and helping those who are not so well off, to rise in the world. It is impossible to keep 
 money and property out of the hands of those who work for it, who are industrious and enter 
 prising. They earn it, and they get it. And the productive and absorbing power of frugal 
 ftd industrious labor is go much greater than that of moneyed capital, that the latter stand* m 
 
 102 
 
ehance in the competition. It must yield, and give up, and it always does. The relative posi 
 tion of the capital of labor and moneyed capital, is, not that the latter commands the former, 
 but that the former commands the latter. Moneyed capital employs labor, because its owner 
 has need of the service ; and the second step of the relation is, that the parties have changed 
 places. Labor, industry, and enterprise, in this country, are all absorbing. They lay their 
 hands upon everything. Their compensation is a fair one, as between the parties. The in 
 dustrious and frngal toil of the last generation, possesses most of the wealth of this. So will 
 it be with this generation, and so with the next. It is the natural order, and necessary result 
 of American society. Labor is the master here ; it is the great capitalist ; the embryo mil 
 lionaire; and he who can stand up, in the bloom and vigor of ripening manhood, pure in heart, 
 and determined to prosper, though he has not a penny in the world, may look abroad, and be 
 hold a large estate within his reach. Within his own skin, and deep down in his own soul, 
 lies the capital, the productive power, with which he is to trade. All wealth lies in abey 
 ance to these physical and moral energies, and comes into hand at their summons. 
 
 12. The lazy character of moneyed capital. 
 
 We speak of the general character of its owners, and with them, it is not only lazy, but 
 often improvident. Its proposal and its terms are, use me and give me my dividend. When 
 men get beyond the necessity of labor, they never like to return to it. They seek repose, en 
 joyment, and exemption from the rude occupations of life. It is seldom, if ever, that they 
 realize the satisfaction they hoped for. But they have become lazy, and by their lazy position 
 they fall into the power of the active mind of the country. They who work are going ahead, 
 while these fall back on their resources, can command nothing but their dividends, and are fit 
 only to make their wills in favor of heirs, who anticipating the future, are waiting only for 
 the good luck that death may bring them, to dissipate, it may be, the estate that falls into 
 their possession. At best, the investments of moneyed capitalists, are only valuable as they 
 are in demand for use by the active, laborious, and industrious portion of the community, who, 
 of the two parties, always derive the greatest benefit from them, and in the end are likely to 
 have the whole. Labor is all powerful, and destined to supplant opulent indolence, by gaining 
 possession of the means of its luxurious ease. Guard their wealth however they may, " rich 
 es take to themselves wings and fly away." There is no law of inheritance in American so 
 ciety, that can secure wealth in the same family line, while it is always open to the acquisition 
 of industrious labor. The gifts of fortune are always tendered to those who toil for them, and 
 snatched from those who riot in affluence. Already we behold no inconsiderable fraction of 
 the large investments of the Lowell manufactories in the hands of those who began there 
 by spinning and weaving, and who still spin and weave. And who that has observed the mu 
 tations of society for half a generation, or even a less time than that, does not see the same 
 operation going on everywhere ? 
 
 13. The mutual dependence between laborers and moneyed capitalists. 
 
 The rich man can not eat his money ; nor clothe himself with bank notes, or gold leaf, or 
 silver plate; nor shelter himself from the inclemencies of the seasons by these materials; nor 
 make of them any of the comforts of life. If he chooses to live at ease, for all necessaries, 
 and for all means of enjoyment, he is entirely dependent on those who produce them. For 
 all these he must give his money in exchange, which enables those who minister to his con 
 venience and comfort, to better their condition, and rise in the world. In these very acts of 
 exchange, they are gradually exchanging positions in society. Nor can the wealthy get a re 
 turn for their investments, or an income from their estates, if there be nobody to use the former, 
 or work the latter. Both parties are served by their relative position for the time being, 
 though it is possible, and not unlikely, that their children will stand in directly the opposite 
 position of their parents, in relation to each other. 
 
 The laborer wants the reward of his toil, first for necessaries not in his line ; next, to add to 
 his comforts; and thirdly, to increase his stock in trade, or augment his estate. But how 
 could he get this reward, if nobody had it to give in exchange for his services ? On the other 
 hand, the consideration paid would be of no value or use to its owners, except as it is in de 
 mand by those who carry on the active business of society, and minister to its wants. 
 
 14. Which of these parties is more benefited by the other? 
 
 It is true, that the moneyed capitalist wants his dividend ; but the profits of labor, united 
 with moneyed capital, well applied, are many times greater than the proceeds of money as an 
 investment in the usual forms. Labor is the source of all wealth, and with money, as tool* 
 in hand, multiplies the principal in manifold quantities. The laborer, working on his own es 
 tate, gathers the rich harvest into his own barns, and gives the moneyed capitalist a small 
 fraction for the use of his sickle for moneyed capital, in the hands of labor, is only an instru 
 ment. Or if he works on the estate of the moneyed capitalist for wages, as at Lowell, h 
 won gets enough to retire in a condition to satisfy his ambition, or becomes part owner of tb 
 
 103 
 
estate, gradually gaining on the original proprietor, with the prospect of supplanting him. 
 Such is the advantage of labor, united with skill and enterprise, over the mere instrument 
 which it employs. 
 
 15. Labor the original and fundamental power of society. 
 
 The recognition of the true position of labor, in relation to moneyed capital, is of no incon 
 siderable political importance. We mean its position in the actual state and practical opera 
 tion of American society, where labor is free and sovereign, and not as it stands under a des 
 potism, or in the monarchical and aristocratic countries of Europe. It is our own politics, 
 and our own political powers, with which we have to do. In this country, labor, since our 
 independence was acquired, always has been and still is, not only an original and fundamental, 
 but a controlling power in society, and in the state. We are characteristically and distinctively 
 a nation of workers. There are some who do not work ; but most people do. Work is the 
 fashion, and the proudest distinction in American society. Nobody looks with respect on those 
 who live in idleness, or who riot in luxurious ease. To have no business, is a kind of living 
 death. A man is lost, who does not work. 
 
 Moneyed capital, with us, is a mere tool in the hand of labor, and is good for nothing, ex 
 cept as labor will bid for it. The millionaire would be scarcely better off than the owner of 
 a single penny not even so well off, in regard to his physical wants if he could not call the 
 laborer into his service ; whereas the laborer is much more independent, and can better 
 do without the rich man, than the rich man can do without him. This independence, this 
 high ground of labor, is perfectly well understood in this country, by all parties. As the 
 great majority are workers, and all workers sympathize with each other, the ground they oc 
 cupy is not only an elevated social position, but a controlling political power. Just show the 
 working power of the country what laws, and what policy of government, will be best for it, 
 and the ballot box will soon demand those measures. Who will say that this demand can b 
 successfully resisted ? W T ho, regarding the well being of the country, would desire it ? 
 
 1G. The true and best interest of moneyed capital. 
 
 It is to give labor a fair reward, and to make it profitable. But as this can not be forced, 
 as between the parties, trade being always a voluntary transaction, the ability to do it can 
 not be separated from the action of government. All workers, therefore, as well as money 
 ed capitalists all laborers are deeply concerned in supporting a public policy, which will 
 put labor in good demand, and thus enable it to command a good price. This depends en 
 tirely upon the proceeds of moneyed investments. While these are good, labor will be in 
 demand, and the price of it, or its wages, will be proportionately high. Moneyed invest 
 ments are sure to pay well, if it can be afforded; and the more they can afford, the better 
 for them. But generally, this ability to give good wages, depends very much, sometimes en 
 tirely, on the policy of government, in the privileges it confers on such investments, and the 
 chances it gives to them. If the government wars against them, instead of extending to 
 them its fostering care, if it endeavors to cripple and break them down, instead of protecting 
 and sustaining them, this hostility may and does injure the moneyed capitalist, by rendering 
 his investments insecure and unproductive ; but it injures the working classes of the com 
 munity much more. The rich can hide themselves in a storm of government hostility, 
 though they may be losers ; but the poor perish, or are in great distress, for want of em 
 ployment. Our remark above on the comparative independence of labor, applies to an 
 ordinary state of things, and not to a crisis of this description. 
 
 17. A false notion. 
 
 It has been a prevalent and fatal doctrine in this country, with a certain class of states 
 men, that it is always a safe policy and a duty in the government, to fight against moneyed 
 capitalists, in whatever place or shape they lift up their heads, whether in banks, or in 
 manufactories, or in any and all other forms and enterprises requiring associated capital. 
 In this, it is not considered, that the employment and thriving of the people depend on the 
 profitable investment of the moneyed capital of the country; nor that the wages and profits 
 of labor, and the price of its products, depend on the profits accruing from the use of the 
 moneyed capital which labor employs. Moneyed capital is regarded by this policy as a mas 
 ter, not as a servant and instrument; as a hostile power, not as a friendly auxiliary; as 
 having in itself a faculty of independence, not as deriving all its value from labor ; and as 
 aiming to acquire a supremacy over society. But a little reflection, in view of what has 
 been said, one would think, ought to show, that the condition of moneyed capital, in this 
 country, is passive in the hand of labor, and not active to rule over it, and that it is not 
 possible to change this relation of dependence in the former on the latter. Moneyed capital, 
 in itself, is an inert power, and derives all its vitality from the touch of labor. For govern- 
 ment, therefore, to open the way, by its policy, for the profitable use of money, is the same 
 as to provide for the success and fair reward of industry and work ; and that policy which 
 
9 
 
 destroys the profit of money, destroys the profit of labor. Let government strike at t&e 
 rich, and the blow falls on the heads of the poor. 
 
 18. The effect of allowing foreign labor to compete ivith home labor, on the same level. 
 
 Estimating the value of moneyed capital in any country by the average price, or interest,, 
 paid for its use, American moneyed capital would fall at once to about two thirds of its 
 present value, and the price of home labor would sink to about one third or jointly the de 
 pression would be fifty per cent. and the value of all other property would sink in like 
 proportion. For it is manifest, that, with no tariff to protect us, the price of American la 
 bor must fall to the average price of European labor. They who work for the same mar 
 ket, must work for the same wages. Besides this, we should, to a very great extent, be 
 driven from our own market as producers, and forced, commercially, into the condition of a 
 dependent and tributary colony. [See our Tract on the Tariff, No. III., for a farther eluci 
 dation of this point.] 
 
 19. A comparative view of the position of labor in America and Europe. 
 
 We have told in the outset what we mean by labor. IT is THEY WHO WORK REAL 
 WORKERS, no matter in what, or with what, or for what aid, if it be lawful and honorable 
 work, to supply the wants of civilized man, or the increasing wants of advancing civili 
 zation. The more wants, the more work, and so much the better for all, where each chooses 
 his own calling, and finds employment. 
 
 But the position of labor in this country is, in a variety of important particulars, a new 
 one in human society. 1. It is free with the exception of African slave labor. This spe 
 eies of freedom, which is a most important attainment in the progress of society, implies 
 a practicable alternative to working on wages at the price fixed by the employer. In Europe, 
 for the most part, there is no such alternative, and the laborer is compelled to work at a price 
 in which he has no voice, or he must starve ; and for the reason that he has no voice in fix 
 ing his wages, they are too scanty for comfort, much more for bettering his condition, and 
 often too scanty for subsistence. European wages are next to a state of starvation. At best, 
 it is a state of slavery, without hope. But in this country, labor occupies a high social and 
 political position. It is never compelled to work for wages fixed by employers, because there 
 is always open to it the alternative of working on its own hook. American labor, therefore, 
 does not accept a price imposed, but commands its own price. At least, it is always an in 
 dependent party in the compact. It is made freely, and can be as freely dissolved, without 
 incurring the doom of starvation or distressing want. 2. The social position of American 
 labor is such, that none but workers are held in respect and work is held in the highest 
 respect. No power, in this country, can enforce respect for the man who has nothing to 
 do, and who does nothing. Just in proportion as a rich man retires from society, to wrap 
 himself up in selfishness, does he lose his influence, and the idle, lazy poor man gets little 
 pity in his poverty. Our fathers brought with them both the necessity and spirit of work, 
 and made it respectable. It has been transmitted as the highest recommendation, and the 
 most honorable character. 3. The political position of labor here is all-powerful, and so 
 long as it is so, it can not but be respectable. As a nation of workers, we demand from Gov 
 ernment a security for the interests and rights of labor, and one of those rights is, that/re* 
 American labor shall not be put on the same level with the forced labor of other countries, 
 or any country. It is only necessary for the people of this country to understand correctly 
 what the true interests and rights of labor are, and they are sure to have them secured at 
 the ballot-box. No earthly power can hinder it. What more elevated or more commanding 
 position, can labor possibly occupy ? The free American laborer is the most powerful, and 
 may well be the proudest of men. 
 
 20. The dignity of labor. 
 
 " The mandate of God to his creature man is, WORK !" " The GENIUS of work is the 
 Conqueror, the supreme Lawgiver, the born King over affluent idleness." " The Leaders 
 of Industry are the Captains of the world. If there be no nobleness in them, there will 
 never be an aristocracy more." 
 
 This is higher-toned phrase than we are addicted to employ, as they who read us well 
 know. Nevertheless, as there is such a vast body of comprehensi\e truth in it, we have 
 borrowed it for the sake of brevity. It plants labor where God intended it should stand, in 
 the loftiest, most influential position. The plan of Creation is visible in her works. Be 
 hold the constitution of man, contemplate the character of his mind, and judge, if he was 
 not made for work, if idleness is not a disease, a fatal malady. Creation itself is called the 
 WORK of God. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," which, though announced 
 as part of the DOOM of the first transgression, is, by the remedial scheme of man s redemp. 
 tion, converted into a BLESSING AND A DIGNITY. Earth is a work -field, and heaven a rest. 
 It is as bad, as vicious, not to work here, since God has so appointed, as to violate any other 
 
 105 
 
10 
 
 precept of Divine authority. The example of God in the WORK of Creation, and the exam- 
 pie of Christ in the WORK of Redemption, aside from the force of command, impart the 
 highest possible sanction and the highest possible DIGNITY to those labors of man which 
 have become necessary in this life. Human labor will never have attained its true position, 
 till it shall stand at the head of human affairs. " The Leaders of Industry are the Captains 
 of the world." Such was the design such is the tendency. They who work, will govern.. 
 We know it has not always been so, and that was a vicious state of society when and wher 
 ever it was not so. We know that labor has not, in all history, received due homage. Bui 
 this fact does not affect, nor impair the validity of its claims. 
 
 21. The physical and moral healthfulness of labor. 
 
 Doubtless, in the best possible state of human society, labor should be neither a toil, nor 
 a task, but the healthful action of all the faculties, bodily and mental. Labor, in 
 most parts of the world, has been so unequally divided, that parts of the race have been ex 
 cessively burdened, while others have suffered equally for want of a proper share. The 
 pauper or forced labor of Europe is an example of the first, and the pampered ease of it 
 masters an example of the second. The whole Eastern world is full of scenes of this kind. 
 But wherever labor is rising, or has risen to its true position in political society, we observe 
 both the physical and moral healthfulness which it diffuses all around. It is good for man 
 and woman to work, and neither can find the greatest comfort and happiness attainable in 
 the human state, without employment. Nor is it possible, without diligence in some indus 
 trial pursuit, to have the best state of health in body and mind. The results of Providence, 
 reveal and announce his designs, viz., that idleness is the curse of the human state, and dil 
 igent occupation, in a lawful and useful calling, the consummation of its blessedness. 
 
 22. The content of labor. 
 
 When society shall have made labor what God designed it should be, it will present a 
 happy scene of contentment. Specimens are frequently found, in actual life, to illustrate 
 this desirable state of things. Who has not seen them ? And who, seeing, has not envied 
 them ? Behold the farmer, happy in his own domain ; and listen to the housewife, joyously 
 exulting in song, in the midst of her children, or soothing her infant to repose with a hymn 
 of early love. The wagon boy s whistle, the woodman s laugh, the boatman s glee, the 
 sailor s jolly face, and all the forms of labor s rest on the past, satisfaction in the present, 
 and hope in the future, are so many various symptoms of labor s content. What industrial 
 calling has not its quiet aspects by day, and its refreshing sleep at night ? 
 
 23. A new Era of labor. 
 
 It is impossible not to observe, that labor has taken up a new position on this continent, 
 in our state of society, and that a new Era in its social and political importance, is opened 
 on the world. If no interruption should take place in its progress, it will be the true Mil 
 lenium of labor. During the long nightmare of despotic rule over the European and Eastern 
 world, the breast of humanity felt its heavy tread, and the toiling millions were unable to 
 rise. But here labor has sprung to its feet, lifted up its hands on high, clapped them with 
 joyous exultation, and learnt a new song of freedom THE REWARD OF LABOR. It has 
 risen, at one bound, to influence ana authority. There has never before been such a scene 
 in the history of civilization. And the most remarkable and most auspicious feature of it 
 , that it occupies a wide theatre a vast domain of political power. Erect, in the image 
 of God, imitating and obeying God, as a diligent worker, man here has taken possession of 
 his primitive estate, so long alienated, and cultivates it as his own, himself the heir of 
 his own created wealth; and not only the heir, but the sovereign disposer thereof. W 
 know not what may grow out of this new form, this apparently auspicious development of 
 human society ; but it has much contingent promise of perpetuity, enlargement, confirma 
 tion, and final consummation in all that could be hoped for. 
 
 24. The contingency. 
 
 A protective Tariff is the sole palladium of American labor. Without that defence, it is 
 s sure to fall back prostrate on the level of European, Egyptian, and Asiatic labor, from 
 which it has been lifted up, as the sun will rise in the East and set in the West. If Ameri 
 can labor, having the power in its hand, will not protect itself, the fault of parting with it* 
 lights, will lie at its own door. The struggle has been a great one, and it will yet be long 
 protracted. Either the rights of American labor must give way, or the despotic rule of the 
 old world must yield to the claims of freedom. It is impossible that both should stand. And 
 o long as both are in conflict, we shall not fail to realise a sturdy hostility from tottering 
 mud crumbling thrones, gathering fresh vigor from despair, assisted by their agent* in our 
 wn bouorn, who are paid by their gold. 
 
11 
 
 25. Our domestic and foreign trade. 
 
 From Senate Document, No. 340, 2d Session, 27th Congress, we learn, that the internal 
 commerce, or domestic trade of the United States, is two thousand millions of dollars annually. 
 Having made this quotation, as it stands in a public document, we would add, that in our 
 opinion, this estimate is one fifth or five hundred millions less than the facts would warrant. 
 The Honorable Senator, the author of the above cited document, once stated to us a few 
 facts, from which he deduced the conclusion, that the annual amount of exchanges required 
 to carry on this domestic trade, could not be less than four hundred millions of dollars. Add 
 to this all the money required to be used in paying for the labor employed in producing these 
 fruits of the earth, and these materials, goods, and merchandise ; add all required to pay for 
 their transit from one point to another and in the retail distribution of them, and it will be 
 .seen, that it not only requires a large circulating medium, which nothing but banks Could 
 furnish, but great activity of the same. It will also be seen, as our annual exports do not 
 usually exceed one hundred inillions y that our domestic trade is about twenty to one of our 
 foreign trade, and that on the former, therefore, is our chief reliance for the reward of 
 American labor and industry. The work of production, and the carrying on of this trade, 
 must of course form innumerable commercial relations between the producers and the con 
 sumers, between the employers and the employed, between the laborers and the moneyed 
 capitalits. Nearly the entire subsistence, and nearly all the growing wealth of the people 
 of this country, spring from the employment of this capital, and from the action of the labor 
 and industry sustained by it. 
 
 26. Deductions from the foregoing facts and reasonings. 
 
 1. Though money is usually understood to be designated by the term capital, in the com 
 mercial world, it appears, that labor, together with those moral qualities which enter into it, 
 constitutes the original and fundamental capital of human society, and is more important 
 and more productive. 2. That the capital of labor is more influential and more command 
 ing, socially and politically. 3. That the relation of labor to moneyed capital, is that of the 
 agent to the instrument, of the hand to the tool. 4. And therefore, that the position of the 
 capital of labor is more dignified, and worthy of more respect. 5. That the interests of la 
 bor are best promoted by the activity of moneyed capital. 6. That the interests of labor 
 require the existence of corporate bodies, so far as may be necessary to set on foot and ac 
 complish commercial and other useful works and enterprises., which are beyond the capacity 
 of individual capital and unassociated effort. 7. That since banks and other corporations 
 give security to and invite the investment of moneyed capital, it is the only mode by which 
 that species of capital can be brought into effective use for the benefit of the public. 8. That 
 the multiplication of corporations, on right principles, augments democratic influence, by th 
 distribution of the powers of government among the people. 9. That the tendency of labor 
 is to wealth, and that of wealth to want. 10. That the political power of labor in America* 
 society, is dominant, and only requires correct information, as to its best interests, to secure 
 them, in the administration of public affairs. 11. That the vitality of moneyed power lies 
 in the arm of labor. 12. That, in the relation of moneyed capital to labor, labor has the 
 best chances. 13. That a correct view of this relation, in its practical effects, is of great 
 political importance. 14. That a great and disastrous political heresy, in regard to this re 
 lation, has for a long time pervaded and controlled the counsels of our government. 15. 
 That the rich can hide from a storm raised by government against them, while all its merci 
 less peltings fall upon the poor. 16. That the true policy is always to encourage the in 
 vestment of moneyed capital, so that labor can reap the benefit. 17. That a home market 
 is the most productive source of national wealth. 18. That labor in this country occupies 
 an eminently high social and political position, as compared with labor in all other parts of the 
 world. 19. That labor is honored of God, and therefore worihy of universal respect. 
 20. That it is most healthful to body and soul. 2!. That it is most fruitful of contentment. 
 
 22. That with American society, commenced a new era of labor in the history of the world, 
 
 23. That the advancement and consummation of this era, is contingent on a protective 
 tariff. 24. That our home trade is twenty times as great as our foreign trade. 25. That 
 every American laborer can stand up proudly, and say, I AM THE AMERICAN CAPITALIST, 
 which is not a metaphor, but literal truth. 
 
 27. A picture. 
 
 We will suppose, that the government, in making war on the moneyed capital of the 
 country, and on the various institutions, corporations, and enterprises, in which it was in 
 vested, has succeeded iOgSuppressing them ; that it has broken down all the banks, dissolved 
 all moneyed corporations, stopped all public works and public improvements, and will 
 neither do these things itself, nor allow others to do them. There is no less money in the ; 
 country, than there was before, other things being equal ; but it is chiefly out of sight, and 
 little of it in use. The thousand*, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of laborer^ 
 
II 
 
 Whose families depend on their daily wages for daily bread, solicit employment, but tnere 
 is nobody to hire them; at least, not more than one in many of them can get anything 
 to do. The soil of the country yields bountifully to the labors of the husbandman, but there 
 is no market for its products; the buz and din of our manufactories have ceased, and they 
 who worked in them have disappeared ; the mechanic finds little encouragement for the use 
 of his art ; commerce drops her wings, and her ships are eaten up by worms ; the banks of 
 our canals are falling in like a neglected ditch ; our railways rust, and there is no motive to 
 repair the damages of time ; our cities are noiseless, and the grass grows in the streets ; and 
 the whole country has fallen into a deep sleep, a perpetual sabbath of repose. But there is 
 poverty, hunger, nakedness, and universal misery. The wheels of government go heavily 
 along, for lack of wherewithal to grease them. 
 
 We admit that such a state of things is not very likely to come to pass ; for the people, in 
 1840, proved, that they are capable of foreseeing the evil, and of preventing it. But we 
 respectfully submit, that some such consequences must necessarily come to pass, from a full 
 and complete operation of such a destructive system. Nay, we have had some foretaste of 
 it already, as all the people of this country are witnesses, in the partial operation of such 
 measures. The effect has been, to stop the use of money, by breaking down those insti 
 tutions, through whose instrumentality alone it can be had, to answer the demands of this 
 great and enterprising country. For an eighth ot a century, we had been rapidly marching 
 toward the consummation of such a destiny, and it is yet to be decided, probably in 1844, 
 whether we shall get in that path again. 
 
 28. A great Fact. 
 
 Till within a few years, the prosperity of this country and its increasing wealth, have 
 been unexampled in the history of nations. Small as our population was, comparatively, 
 and comparatively poor, the debt incurred by the war of Independence, was shouldered by 
 the nation, and between that period and the second war with Great Britain, it was nearly 
 liquidated. This second struggle brought upon us another burden, but this too, was all paid 
 off in about twenty years, and in 1836 we had a surplus revenue of thirty six millions to dis 
 tribute among the states. This is a great and comprehensive FACT, to which we desire to 
 call very special attention. During this half century of prosperity, we labored under some 
 disadvantages, from various causes, probably from none more, than from the want of a prop 
 er adjustment and uniform action of our tariff system. Nevertheless, we struggled through 
 them all, and they proved insufficient materially to mar our prosperity, or put in check our 
 increasing wealth. 
 
 29. Another great Fact. 
 
 It is certainly very remarkable, in view of the previous history of our national finances, 
 which had improved so steadily, and at last swelled to such a scale of income, that, on a 
 sudden, this current of our public affairs should be reversed ; that, in a time of peace, the 
 Government could not get money enough to defray its own expenses, without borrowing ; 
 that it was compelled to withhold the fourth instalment of the public funds voted to the 
 States in 1836; and that the expenditures and appropriations of the Government, from the 
 4th of March, 1837, to the 4th of March, 1841 (only four years), should have been somefifty 
 millions of dollar* in excess of the revenues of the same time ! (See our Tract, No. 1, THJS 
 TKST, pp. 10 and 13.) And it would seem, that the nation has been plunged in a slough of 
 this kind, from which it is very difficult to get out. The causes, which have produced such 
 an amazing reverse in our national fortunes, must have been prodigiously potent. The mo 
 mentum of a half century of a nation s rapidly increasing prosperity, rising like the sun, and 
 welling like a mighty river, as it descends into the sea, required no common cause to check, 
 derange, prostrate, destroy it. There is no accounting for this GREAT FACT, except by mis- 
 government, and that, too, on a stupendous scale. It takes a long time to build up a nation ; 
 but destruction is a quick work. 
 
 In our state of society, a good Government makes a prosperous people. It is impos 
 sible, that this country should not be growing great and rich, and that without interruption 
 or check, so long as the various occupations of life are suitably encouraged and protected, 
 each in its fair proportion. But the Government had so legislated away the prosperity of the 
 people, and reduced them to such straits and such distress, that the sources of revenue were 
 cut off and dried up. The public expenditures were also unnecessarily great and prodigal, 
 and altogether unprecedented. (See our Tract, No. 1, pp. 9 and 10.) The people can not 
 supply the wants of the Government, unless the Government gives them a chance. On the 
 other hand, they are sure to make an overflowing treasury, while ina state of prosperity, 
 and under a suitable system of revenue laws. But the success of flR Government, in its 
 war on our moneyed institutions and other great enterprises, in which mbneyed capital was 
 invested, broke down the currency, which was the means of public wealth, by being the 
 means of private prosperity. The entke credit system of the couatry, under which we had 
 
 108 
 
13 
 
 grown up, prospered, become wealthy, and powerful, was also assailed by the Government, 
 and bent and broke under the weight of its powerful hand, and by its repeated blows. Was 
 it strange, under such a destructive policy, that the people, the Government, the whole na 
 tion were impoverished ? The Government had struck the people such heavy blows, so long 
 continued, that the misfortunes of the people fell back on the Government with a weight, 
 under which it reeled, as the people had reeled before, and unfortunately fallen. The Gov 
 ernment had ruined a nation s prosperity, and as a consequence bankrupted an overflowing 
 treasury. (See our Tract on the Currency, No, II. p, 16, for the aggregate of losses to the 
 Country by that Destructive Dynasty.) 
 
 30. The Chief Cause. 
 
 It is undoubtedly true, that the causes, more properly, perhaps, the instruments, have been 
 several, and the system of injury complicated, by which the country has been so fearfully 
 rwn down. But the great aim of that destructive policy, which has been practised upon 
 us, was to set labor to war against moneyed capital, by legislation and Government ; and the 
 mode of this warfare was an endeavor to cripple and break down those institutions and en 
 terprises, in which the moneyed capital of the country was chiefly vested. 
 
 31. The destructive and fatal effects of this warfare. 
 
 Unless it were proposed to rob moneyed capitalists, and divide the spoils directly, any at 
 tempt to cripple them by legislation and Government, with the design of better securing the 
 rights of the laboring classes, must necessarily cripple and destroy the latter. "Whatever war 
 the Government may wage against capitalists, short of robbing, it is always in their power 
 to withdraw their funds from those uses which have heretofore, in our experience, so well 
 served the convenience of the public and the wants of labor, and turn them into investments, 
 which will only serve themselves. In some respects, and to no small extent, they would be 
 able to serve themselves much better than before, as by exorbitant usury, and in other ways 
 taking advantage of the necessities and distresses of the people, which must necessarily re 
 sult from such an administration of public affairs. The rich can protect themselves, but the 
 poor can not, when the Government forces all classes to change their modes of business and 
 of living. If the great law of mutual dependence in society be overlooked or violated, in 
 the policy and measures of Government, and an attempt be made to injure and cripple moo- 
 eyed capitalists, for the benefit of laborers, the most fatal consequences must unavoidably 
 ensue. Facts of this kind have already been alluded to, in cases of exorbitant usury. If 
 the rich can do without the poor, by turning their capital into other investments, than those 
 which give to the latter employment, food, raiment, and a comfortable home, with chances 
 of rising in the world, and of becoming rich in their turn, the poor can not do without the 
 rich, who, in these ways, minister to their necessities, and secure to them the means of bet 
 tering their condition. A war upon the rich, in legislation and government, is a war upon 
 the poor, of the worst kind, and of the most disastrous effects. It is a war upon the most 
 vital interests of society, and upon the relations of mankind in the social state, which, if car 
 ried out, the entire social fabric must bend and break. 
 
 32. A plain statement. 
 
 Nothing but an extraordinary infatuation could have shut the eyes of the people to the 
 FACT, that moneyed capital employed in the country, is for the interests of labor ; that its 
 uses afford chances of improvement to those who have little, and give bread, clothing, and a 
 home to the poor; that rich men seek to invest their funds where they can be employed by 
 labor ; that the modes of investment are naturally determined by the habits and wants of 
 the commercial, agricultural, manufacturing, mechanical, and other laboring classes of the 
 community ; that what these want will be most productive to capitalists, because most bene 
 ficial to labor-, that capital in large amounts, intrusted to the keeping and management of 
 secondary agents, must necessarily be vested with corporate rights, to be secure for all con- 
 cerned, and most effective for general good ; that moneyed capitalists would never put their 
 funds in other hands without such protection ; that banks are necessary to furnish a circu 
 lating medium, convenient in form, and adequate for the trade and business of the country; 
 that all these institutions had their origin in the wants and necessities of the people ; that 
 in putting down and destroying them, by legislation and Government, the people only put 
 down and destroy themselves ; and that the greater the income of capital vested in these 
 various forms, as a permanent state of things, so much greater the evidence of general 
 prosperity. 
 
 But the revolution introduced in the financial policy of the Government, and forced on 
 th2 commercial habits of the people, from 1830 to 1840, broke up all these established rela 
 tions of the different parts of the community toward each other, and left all in a mass of 
 confusion and ruin, to be reorganized and set in order again, as best they could. 
 
 109 
 
14 
 
 
 33. The way it worked. 
 It is true, that this work of destruction was not thoroughly carried out, for there was not 
 time for it, before the people, with ruin staring them full in the face, began to feel their 
 danger, by the pressure of present calamity, and showed symptoms of a desire to avoid it. 
 Nevertheless, these old institutions of the country were shaken by the onset; some of them 
 fell down and were entirely broken up ; confidence in them was impaired ; capitalists knew 
 not where they could safely vest their funds for the uses of the community, and consequently 
 withheld, or withdrew them, or vested them in forms not liable to such attack ; the natural 
 connexion between moneyed capitalists and the laboring classes, was dissolved ; while the 
 rich were trying to protect themselves from the effects of the war waged upon them, in the 
 uses of the functions of Government, the poor were plunged in want and distress ; the 
 financial habits of the Government and the commercial habits of the people were entirely 
 broken up, and precipitated into new modes of action, leading to new, and as could not be 
 avoided, to painful and calamitous results, public and private; the credit and enterprises of 
 the States, were prostrated with the credit and enterprises of the people ; the sources of 
 public revenue were exhausted ; and Repudiation followed, with its indelible stain on our 
 national character. We need not recite more particularly the ordeal of financial embarrass 
 ment and commercial distress, through which this country has so recently passed, by mean* 
 of this vindictive, insane, and fatal policy. 
 
 34. This war unnatural. 
 
 It is certainly unnatural for labor to do that, which deprives it of tools to work with, cuts 
 off its chances, and involves it in distress. For by breaking down moneyed capital, it breaks 
 down itself. It is moneyed capital which makes business grow and thrive, gives employment 
 to labor, and opens to it avenues to success in life. In the state of American society, and 
 in a prosperous condition of the country, a comfortable degree of wealth is within the reach 
 of every honest, industrious, and enterprising man. The moneyed capitalist has no political 
 superiority or advantage over the laborer, and no right in the republic, which is not secured 
 to both. It is, therefore, the laborer s interest, that the wealth of the rich should be so 
 invested as to impart the greatest activity to trade, and the greatest effectiveness to useful 
 enterprise; and in nothing is this end so surely accomplished, as by those moneyed and 
 other corporations, which are organized for this sole purpose. If this capital were to lie 
 dead, the loss to the country would be immense, and that loss would of course be divided 
 among all classes of people, and participated in by the Government. It is as much the duty 
 of the Government, to endow moneyed capital with the faculties of the greatest activity 
 and effectiveness, as it is the interest of its possessors to consent that it should be so used y 
 and of labor to employ it. What supreme folly, then, for labor to go to war with moneyed- 
 capital ! It thereby wars against its own life and means of success. The blow aimed at 
 the moneyed capitalist, strikes over on the head of the laborer, and is sure to hurt the lattei 
 more than the former. 
 
 35. The capacities of our Country. 
 
 Well and rightly governed, it is capable,, not only of astonishing the world, but of aston 
 ishing itself. If things do not go on well, it must be owing solely to the perversion of our 
 institutions from their design. There is no sufficient apology, that our general prosperity 
 should ever be interrupted. It is impossible that it should be, except by a violation or mis 
 application of the trusts reposed in our public functionaries. By a suitable protection of the 
 interests of American labor and industry, from a self-sacrificing rivalship with a foreign, op 
 pressed, and degraded pauperism, which is in no wise mitigated , but only aggravated and 
 rendered more hopeless by the favor done to their oppressors ; by a proper encouragement 
 of the voluntary enterprises of our own citizens, the people of this country, with the rich 
 and inexhaustible treasures of creation comprehended in our jurisdiction, ao*e capable of pro 
 ducing amazing results. That almost astonishing height of prosperity, to which we had at 
 tained, under all the disadvantages of a defective tariff system, before the advent of the late 
 Destructive Dynasty, is conclusive and impressive evidence of what this nation is capable 
 of, under a wise and faithful administration of our public affairs. We had been put in a 
 train, by which we were enabled to discharge with ease the entire and heavy debt incurred 
 by the last war with Great Britain, and to overwhelm the public treasury with surplus funds ; 
 the public domain in the west was in such demand, that the sales of one year amounted to 
 twenty-four millions of dollars, and although there were special reasons for this fact, which 
 could not be expected to operate in perpetuity, to an equal extent, nevertheless, in a pros 
 perous state of things, there would be a steady increase in those sales, which, under an 
 equitable system of distributing the proceeds among the States, whose property they are, 
 would relieve the burdens of the indebted States, and give the others a chance for such en 
 terprises as might best promote their interests. 
 
 110 
 
15 
 
 Providence has assigned us a rich, productive, and glorious heritage, and established among 
 us and over us a new, regene^te, and admirable system of Government. It has been abused, 
 indeed ; but it is good. All we want is good and faithful men at the head of it. The wealth 
 of the country is inexhaustible, and the enterprise of the people is unsubdued, notwithstand 
 ing all our late misfortunes. Give them a good Government, and they can not help going 
 ahead, and outstripping every nation on the globe. 
 
 36. The chances of life in this Country. 
 
 Ours is a country, where men start from an humble origin, and from small beginnings ris 
 {gradually in the world, as the reward of merit and industry, and where they can attain to 
 the most elevated positions, or acquire a large amount of wealth, according to the pursuits 
 they elect for themselves. No exclusive privileges of birth, no entailment of estates, no civil 
 or political disqualifications, stand in their path ; but one has as good a chance as another, 
 according to his talents, prudence, and personal exertions.. This is a country of self-made 
 men. than which nothing better could be said of any state of society. 
 
 37. The mutual dependence between the Government and the People. 
 
 Nothing is more instructive to this point, than the chapter of our own history. Except as 
 the Government, by its policy, shall enable the people to prosper, in a free country like ours, 
 where tyrannical exactions can not be enforced, the Government itself can not prosper, but 
 . ts finances will be embarrassed as soon as its own measures shall have brought embarrasa- 
 .nerit and distress on the people. A crippled and disheartened population, who have no 
 uoney, either to pay taxes or buy luxuries, can not send money into the public treasury. 
 While they are poor, the Government will be poor. 
 
 38. A Retrospect. 
 
 Understanding, as we now do, if what we have said is correct, the relation between the 
 labor of the country and its moneyed capital, we must look back with astonishment at the 
 policy of the Federal Administration, from 1829 to 1841, when the cry rung through the 
 land, and never ceased DOWN WITH THE BANKS ! DOWN WITH MANUFACTORIES ! Dowic 
 WITH CORPORATIONS ! DOWN WITH CAPITALISTS ! It is a history that one can hardly be 
 lieve in ! 
 
 While memory lasts, and fathers are capable of telling the story to their children ; while 
 true Americans are endowed with concern for the welfare of the country, and have virtue 
 enough to stand up for its interests ; and while history may be relied upon to discharge its 
 impartial functions, it will not fail to stand stereotyped in the minds of the American people, 
 to be rehearsed to the listening and succeeding generation, and recorded in the annals of this 
 nation, that, for the period above named, we had a re-lapse and coil-lapse in our national 
 welfare, never to be forgotten; that an unlucky star rose in our hemisphere, ascended 
 to its meridian, and marched to the western hills, leaving an OMINOUS TAIL BEHIND ; that 
 the people were persuaded for a time, that it was the TRUE SUN, and were hard to be con 
 vinced of its eccentric and ill boding character; that it brought famine, pestilence, and 
 death ; that demagogueism was the rage of its season, innoculating the poor with a mania 
 against the rich, and the laborer with jealousy against the moneyed capitalist; that the love 
 of ONE MAN POWER, was the chief malady that afflicted the nation, and its ascendency the 
 most remarkable occurrence of the time ; that the long-established, simple, and democratic 
 habits of the people, social and political, were superseded by the dictation of a Chief, and 
 by the aristocratic assumptions of his menials; that new, unheard-of, and destructive doc 
 trines were promulged for the government of the country ; that a well-ordered system of 
 currency was broken up and destroyed ; that the useful relations between capitalists and the 
 laboring classes, were violently assailed, and so far dissolved, as to bring great distress on 
 the industrious and working population ; that States and large corporations were first enticed 
 to enlist in great enterprises, and then forced to suspend them, and to stop payment, by sud 
 den changes in the policy and measures of the Government ; that our credit at home wa 
 prostrated, and abroad became the by-word and scorn of nations ; that the shameless doc 
 trine of the Repudiation of debts, was for the first time avowed and sanctioned by legislative 
 authority; that the superstructure and very foundations of society were shaken in the gen 
 eral convulsion ; in short, that tunes, modes, customs, morals, and manners underwent a 
 complete revolution, so that the republic that was, could hardly be recognised in the new 
 state of things. 
 
 It was because the relation of labor to moneyed capital, was entirely mistaken and misrep 
 resented, and a war of Government made upon the latter, as if it was the natural enemy of 
 the former. 
 
16 
 
 39. The Future. 
 
 
 
 The dawn of a brighter day has gleamed, or begins to gleam on this long-suffering and 
 much-abused nation. The last (27th) Congress, notwithstanding the TREASON and all its at 
 tendant difficulties, gave us a Tariff, which has put us in a position to start for the recovery 
 of a long lost national prosperity. This great boon of Whig policy has operated like a 
 charm on every branch of the business and trade of the country, has brought back the spe 
 cie, the absence of which had undermined our currency, and the people are beginning to 
 open their eyes to the true character of that Destructive Dynasty through which we have 
 passed. They see what ruin it brought upon us, and begin to understand the causes espe- 
 eiaLy do they see, that the war of Government on the long-established monetary system of 
 the country and its great commercial and financial agencies, was a war on its labor and in 
 dustry. This great discovery will lead to important results. The prophecies of the faithful, 
 uttered in dark days, being now interpreted by their fulfilment, the prophets themselves will 
 be honored. What have we suffered as a nation, that was not foretold as the necessary 
 consequence of that destructive policy ? What of good was predicted, in the beneficent op 
 eration of a Tariff like that of 1842, which the brief experiment does not begin to shower 
 upon us ? Who are they that foretold these things ? Who is CHIEF among them ? The 
 sad and gloomy days of our political misfortunes, it is to be hoped, are drawing to a close. 
 The steady counsels of HENRY CLAY, once and for a long time spurned, are now begin 
 ning to be appreciated. The eyes and hopes of the nation are turned and turning to that 
 bright STAR OF THE WEST, and the suffrages of a great people are waiting to honor him. 
 It is yet indeed a contingent future, into whose vista we gaze with an interest so profound 
 and intense, and with hopes not unmixed with concern, because it is contingent. Never 
 theless, there are certain and numerous facts, rising thick and fast, out of the past and the 
 present, the grateful import of which can hardly be mistaken. The people are waking ; 
 they are coming ; and in 1844, as in 1840, their power is likely to be felt. Now, as then, 
 they understand what is to be done, to make miscreants tremble, and drive traitors for ever 
 from power and influence. Enough of mischief, surely, has been achieved ; LET us TRY FOB 
 THE GOOD. 
 
 40. Revolutions never go backward. 
 
 Under our form of Government, other revolution than that of opinion, is impossible. Can 
 anybody doubt there was a great revolution of this kind in 1840 ? And where is that feel 
 ing ? Have the people changed their minds ? They would not act, till the time of rescue 
 should come, and the silly crew at the head of affairs, took the people s disgust as a 
 compliment to their treason ! The banished horde also took courage. But the sleeping fires 
 have only been made hotter, by that respect for order which sealed them up, and for a time 
 repressed them. The internal pressure tends upward, to open a place of utterance ere long, 
 and cast its broad light on the dark upper sky, and thence to astonish those below. A free 
 nation, once convinced of its wrongs, must be avenged, and wo to them who have done the 
 wrong ! BACKWARD ? OR FORWARD ? is the question for this nation to answer, and it WILL 
 be answered. They have chosen a LEADER, and the cry is ONWARD ! 
 
 41. The means. 
 
 Much of precious time, and of useful appliances, has been lost, irrecoverably. There is a 
 partial remedy, however, in a more diligent application of time and means yet on hand. 
 Will not they who can speak, make themselves heard ; they who can write, take the pen ; 
 they who can work, begin to stir ; and they who have money, give it freely, at the call of 
 the country ? Where is the virtue of 76 ? The Destructive Dynasty has done us infinitely 
 worse things, than the British Crown ever did. Shall a confidence in our Captain he is a 
 good one, truly put us asleep on our arms ? dfter the battle, let us hope for the repose, 
 which, in manly conflict, shall have be^n nurchased. 
 
 i 112 
 
 
THE 
 
 f" JUIIUS TEACTS. > 
 
 ,-:;:.; .NO. VIIL mi^jmiS, 
 
 MAY.] PUBLISHED EVERY SECOND MONTH. [1844, 
 
 THE PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 BY JUNIUS, 
 
 Author of " THE CRISIS OF THE COUNTRY," and other Tracts of 1840. 
 
 Price, 3 cents single, $2 50 cts. per 100, or $20 per 1000. 
 
 TRACTS ALREADY PUBLISHED. 
 
 No. I. THE TEST, OR PARTIES TRIED BY THEIR ACTS. 
 II. THE CURRENCY. 
 III. THE TARIFF. 
 IV. LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 
 V. POLITICAL ABOLITION. 
 VI. DEMOCRACY. 
 VII. LABOR AND CAPITAL. 
 "VIII. THE PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
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 113 
 
THE PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 1. The Question. 
 
 THE question we have to consider is What were the conditions of the Deeds of cession of 
 the public domain from the States to the United States, what were the purposes of those acts 
 as understood by the parties, and what practical rule or rules will result from them, for the 
 administration of this great estate, and for the disposition of its proceeds ? 
 
 2. The original Controversy which led to these Cessions. 
 
 It should be understood, that while the Colonies were parts of the British empire, the pub 
 lic lands were chiefly owned, under charter rights from the Crown, by Massachusetts, Con 
 necticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, while the other 
 of the thirteen original States had no interest in them. It will be apparent, however, that 
 the perils, toils, cost of blood and treasure, and other sacrifices of the Revolutionary strug- 1 
 gle, fell equally upon all the States, while the debts were rapidly accumulating, and in the 
 end rose to a great and oppressive magnitude. It was impossible, in these circumstances, to 
 repress the question, Whether it was fair, that the States which had no interest in the titles 
 of the public lands, should be obliged to fight, shed their blood, and pour out their treasures 
 equally in defence of this vast territorial domain, and finally be excluded from all participa 
 tion in the benefits ? More than this, whether they should be left in the end, with a debt 
 upon their shoulders, without means or power to meet it, while the other States, which would 
 have done no more, would have an estate large enough for an empire, and valuable beyond 
 estimation ? No one can deny the pertinence of such a question. It was unanswerable. 
 
 3. The political Character of the Confederation. 
 
 It was a mere association of separate sovereignties, for common good, and for a common 
 end. We were not a nation, in the common sense of the term, till the adoption of the Con 
 stitution, unless the States be regarded in the light of so many nations, having all the attri 
 butes of sovereign powers, as was actually the case. Of course, in this view, we were not 
 one nation, but several, which leaves the matter as we feel obliged to represent it. The Con 
 federation was capable of dissolution ; the Union is not, except by violence. The question 
 about the public lands, as it existed among the States, was started, agitated, and settled by 
 them, in their capacity and character, as independent sovereignties, not as integral portions of 
 a republican empire. For a right understanding of the case, in determining the question be 
 fore us, it is necessary, that this state of things should be kept in view. 
 
 4. The Action of the old Congress on this Subject. 
 
 Contemporaneously with the agitation of this question among the States, Congress, for 
 several years, sympathized, and formally expressed their views and purposes. To check the 
 progress of discontent, and suppress controversy between the parties to this question, they 
 had recommended a cession of these territories to the United States for common use and ben 
 efit, and in October, 1780, " Resolved, that the unappropriated land that may be ceded or 
 relinquished to the United States, by any particular State, pursuant to the recommendation 
 of Congress of the 6th of September last, shall be disposed of for the common benefit of the 
 United States," that is, of the confederated States, such being their position at the time, before 
 the Union, under the Constitution, was conceived. The recommendation alluded to and this 
 resolution were held out as a lure to the States, and as a security of their rights in the public 
 domain. Considering the character of the Government at that time, under the Confedera 
 tion, it was precisely the same as saying to the States, in order to remove all grounds of 
 jealousy and concern You shall in no wise lose your rights in this property, AS STATES. It 
 was to rescue the lands from controversy between the States, that this arrangement was rec 
 ommended and consummated, and not to invalidate their title as parties. It is obvious, if 
 the States, which owned the lands, were unwilling to give a part interest in them to the other 
 States, that they would never entertain the idea of making over the whole to a third party, 
 and all for the benefit of that party. It would be absurd to suppose, that such was the case. 
 But the term " United States," at that time, was synonymous with confederated States, and 
 that settles the point. 
 
 5. The Deeds of Cession. 
 
 It is to be observed, that, the States, which owned the public lands by charter rights, were 
 Slow and reluctant to part with them, and it was only a sense of justice to the other States, 
 and of the necessities of the country, that finally prevailed. New York came first into the 
 arrangement, in 1780. Virginia, whose domain was vast, held the question in suspense, tifl 
 1783, and although the resolution of Congress, in the foregoing section, was couched in 
 terms expressly to guaranty the ultimate destination of the avails or proceeds of the Jands 
 
 114 
 
3 
 
 to the States, in their State capacity, yet, to make the security doubly secure against any pos 
 sible future interpretation of the cession into a quitclaim, the Legislature of Virginia selected 
 the most explicit terms to guard and defend this point, in their act of cession, as follows : 
 " That all the lands within the territory so ceded, and not reserved," &c., " shall be consid 
 ered a COMMON FVND,forthe use and benefit of such of the United" (confederated) " States as have 
 become, or shall become, members of the Confederation, or Federal alliance of the said States* Vir 
 ginia inclusive, ACCORDING TO THEIR USUAL RESPECTIVE PROPORTIONS in the general charge and 
 expenditure, and shall be FAITHFULLY AND BONA FIDE disposed of for that purpose, AND FOR NO 
 
 OTHER USE OR PURPOSE WHATSOEVER." 
 
 Massachusetts followed in 1784, and having the law of Virginia before them, must have 
 intended the same thing. In 1786, Connecticut passed her act of cession " to the United" 
 (confederated) " States, in Congress assembled, for the common use and benefit of the said 
 States, Connecticut inclusive." In 1787, South Carolina ceded her vacant territory "to the 
 United States, in Congress assembled, for the benefit of said States." In 1789, North Caro 
 lina ceded in terms as follows : " All the lands intended to be ceded by virtue of this act, 
 shall be considered as a COMMON FUND for the use and benefit of the United" (confederated) 
 " States of America, North Carolina inclusive, ACCORDING TO THEIR RESPECTIVE AND USUAL 
 PROPORTION in the general charge and expenditure, and shall be FAITHFULLY disposed of for that 
 purpose, AND FOR NO OTHER USE OR PURPOSE WHATEVER." The cession from the State of 
 Georgia was made in 1802, the conditions of which are as follows : " That all the lands ce 
 ded by this agreement to the United States, shall be considered as A COMMON FUND, for the M 
 and benefit of the United States, Georgia included, and shall be faithfully disposed of for that 
 purpose, and for no other use or purpose whatever." 
 
 6. Exposition of tlie Deeds. 
 
 First, it is to be considered, that they originated and were matured under the Confedera 
 tion, when the States existed as independent sovereignties, with their separate systems of 
 political economy. The agitation of the question commenced early in ihe history of the 
 Revolutionary war, and the principles of cession were settled before 1780, in which year the 
 old Congress, as we have seen, acted formally on the subject, first, by recommending this 
 course to the States, and next, by adopting a resolution to secure the rights of the States. 
 The acts of cession by six of the seven ceding States, bear the following dates : that of New 
 York, 1780 ; of Virginia, 1783 ; of Massachusetts, 1784 j of Connecticut, 1786 ; of S. Carolina, 
 1787 ; of N. Carolina, 1789 ; and the Constitution was adopted in 1789. Thus it appears, that 
 the whole plan was fixed in that state of things, which existed under the Confederation. This 
 is an important fact in the question of interpretation, as it goes to show in what sense the 
 terms and phraseologies of the Deeds of cession were used. The States at that time had no 
 ideas of the UNION, as embodied in the Constitution of the United States, and as enter 
 tained since its adoption ; but they all looked to their separate interests as paramount with 
 them to all other considerations. In this view, let us examine the terms and phraseologies 
 of the Deeds. 1. " Shall be considered a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the 
 United" (confederated) States, as have become, or shall become, members of the Confedera 
 tion, or Federal alliance of the said States." The words common fund," and " such of the 
 United States," in connexion with what follows, most clearly constituted the States, in dis 
 tinction from the Confederation, as the parties to be benefited by this arrangement. Every 
 one will see, that such language was not required in a cession to the nation, for the use and 
 benefit of the nation, and that it is incredible it should have been employed for that object. 
 2. " Virginia inclusive," " Connecticut inclusive," " North Carolina inclusive," " Georgia in 
 cluded." This, it will be observed, is a legal technicality, arising from the principle of law, 
 that when one party of two or more parties, makes a conveyance to the others, as in this 
 case, the party executing the deed retains no right, but conveys all title, except by the in 
 troduction of this saving clause, as "Virginia inclusive," which leaves Virginia her title, ac 
 cording to the terms specified. If the cession had been made for the use and benefit of the 
 United States as one nation., Virginia of course would have been included, and there would 
 have been no need of this phrase ; but as it was manifestly made for the use and benefit of 
 the States, in their separate capacities, it was necessary in law to introduce this phrase, to 
 save the right of Virginia, else she would have retained none. If there were no other evi 
 dence of the intent of this instrument, as being for the States, and not for the nation, this 
 alone would be conclusive. 3. " According to their usual respective proportions in the gen 
 eral charge and expenditure." Here is the rule of distribution. It would be strange, in 
 deed, that it should be possible to suppose that no distribution was intended, when the rule 
 is given ! Can anything be more clear ? 4. Shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed of 
 for that purpose." "Bona fide," in good faith. But what faith is required for a party to 
 manage its ovm for itself ? If the public domain is the property of the United States as a 
 nation, there is no faith with the States concerned in its administration. 5. " And for no 
 other use or purpose whatsoever." If these lands were not given in trust for the use and 
 
 115 
 
benefit of the States as such, then the contracting parties are chargeable with the absurdity 
 of agreeing, that they shall not be disposed of for the use and benefit of foreign powers \ 
 Was there any apprehension of that ? 
 
 With these express and explained conditions (it is remarkable that they were explained by 
 expletive phraseology), the General Government accepted the trust, and became a party to 
 the covenant. It was to settle a most serious difference, an alarming controversy among the 
 States a controversy which had well nigh lost us our independence, and which, if contin 
 ued, would have rendered independence of little avail. It was a great compromise, such as 
 has frequently characterized our history in our more critical emergencies. But the States 
 took care not to surrender their rights. 
 
 7. The Deeds of Cession, Deeds of Trust. 
 
 In all cases of trust, the trustee is not proprietor of that which is put into his hands, but 
 an agent bound by the instructions of the instrument that invests him with his functions. 
 This is a principle which is perfectly understood, because it is one constantly practised in 
 society, in the administration of common law and statute regulations. In the case of Jack 
 son vs. Clark, Supreme Court, U. S., 1 Peters, 635, Chief Justice Marshall, after having cited 
 the terms and conditions of the Virginia cession, as we have done above, says " The Gov 
 ernment of the United States, then, received this territory in trust, not only for the Virginia 
 troops on the Continental establishment, but also for the use and benefit of the members of 
 the Confederation : and this trust is to be executed, by a faithful and bona fide disposition of 
 the land for that purpose. We can not," says the Chief Justice, " take a retrospective view 
 of the then situation of the United States, without perceiving the importance which must have 
 been attached to this part of the trust," &c. Throughout his argument, in this decision, the 
 Chief Justice uniformly calls these Deeds of Cession " a trust ;" and there is probably no 
 man who would presume to call this authority in question. 
 
 In 1825, the Hon. Rufus King, of New York, introduced a resolution into the Senate of 
 the United States, having in view the appropriation of the proceeds of the public lands, by 
 the States, to the emancipation and colonization of slaves, with the consent of parties, which 
 began thus : " Resolved, that as soon as the portion of the existing funded debt of the Uni 
 ted States, for the payment of which the public land is pledged, shall have been paid off," 
 &c. Of this resolution, Chief Justice Marshall, in a letter of Dec. 14; 1831, to the Rev. 
 R. R. Gurley, Sec. of the Am. Colonization Society, says : " I have always thought, and still 
 think, that the proposition made by Mr. King, in the Senate, is the most unexceptionable," 
 &c. This term, " unexceptionable," we suppose, refers to the right of the States to the pro 
 ceeds of the public lands, as the recognised ground of Mr. King s resolution. 
 
 Mr. Madison, in a letter to the same gentleman, on the same subject, Dec. 29, 1831, says : 
 "My thoughts and hopes," (for the aid of Colonization,) "have long been turned to the 
 rich fund presented in the Western lands of the nation, which will soon entirely cease to be 
 under a pledge for another object." General Jackson, in his message of Dec., 1832, says : 
 "As the lands may now be considered as relieved from the pledge, the object for which they 
 were ceded having been accomplished," &c. 
 
 These several authorities, in view of the language of the Deeds of cession, will doubtless 
 be regarded as sufficient to establish the " TRUST." 
 
 8. The Principle of Distribution recognised in the Trust. 
 
 " According to their usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure." 
 Here, as will be seen, is at the same time the principle and the rule. That such was the un 
 derstanding of the compact between the States on one side and the United States on the other, 
 is evident, first from the fact that the Deeds of Cession were familiar to all the parties before 
 they were finally ratified, and next from the fact, that the United States accepted the trust on 
 this condition and with these instructions. If there had been nothing else, either in the his 
 tory of the time, or in the Deeds of conveyance, to settle and determine the -principle, of 
 Distribution, this alone would fix it. But we know very well, that these Cessions were made 
 under the Confederation, as the date and terms of them show, when each State looked after 
 its own interests with a jealous eye. Hence we see the reason, why these Deeds are so care 
 fully guarded against acts of usurpation and fraud on the part of the General Government, 
 which, it was justly apprehended, might be committed on this immense estate. No one can 
 read the history of that time and these documents, and not be convinced, that such was their 
 aim; and if it was, and if it was so understood by all the parties, that is enough. 
 
 9. The Assumption of State Debts in 1790. 
 
 As all the States, united, had fought the battles of the Revolution, and as one of the great 
 advantages of independence acquired, would be the possession of the wealth of the public 
 lands, it was only fair, that the States should be interested in these lands, " according to their 
 usual respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure." After long delays, and 
 with great difficulty, this question was finally and equitably adjusted, and the General GOT- 
 
 116 
 
eminent was made the TRUSTEE of the public domain, for and in behalf of the parties, pro 
 prietors, that is the States, as we have shown. But both the nation and the States were left 
 ander the burden of heavy debts at the close of the war. In 1790, with a population of 
 about 3,000,000, and a gross national revenue of only $2,382,617, the debts of the States 
 were over $20,000,000, and those of the United States, $56,000,000. (See House Document 
 No. 296, 3d session, 27th Congress, page 470.) As the General Government had in charge 
 the public lands, the property of the States, as security, it was required by the States, that 
 the United States should assume the State debts, chiefly incurred by the war, which was done 
 in 1790, as follows -.For New Hampshire, $300,000 ; for Massachusetts, $4,000,000 ; for 
 Rhode Island, $200,000; for Connecticut, $1,600,000; for New York, $1,200,000; for New 
 Jersey, $800,000 ; for Pennsylvania, $2,200,000 ; for Delaware, $200,000 ; for Maryland, 
 $800,000 ; for Virginia, $3,500,000 ; for North Carolina, $2,400,000 ; for South Carolina, 
 $4,000,000 ; for Georgia, $300,000. (See Document as above.) 
 
 To show the grounds of this assumption, and the consideration held in charge therefor, we 
 need only cite the 22d section of the ACT of assumption, as follows : " dnd be it further 
 enacted, That the proceeds of the sales, which shall be made of lands in the Wesiern Territory, 
 now belonging, or that may hereafter belong, to the United States, shall be, and are hereby, ap 
 propriated towards sinking or discharging the debts, for the payment whereof the United 
 States now are, or by virtue of this act, may be, holden, and shall be applied solely to that 
 use, until the said debts shall be fully satisfied." 
 
 Here is a distinct recognition of the " TRUST," and a willing discharge of its obligations, 
 out of its avails, or holding its avails in mortgage. As this debt could not be immediately 
 paid, but must be necessarily funded, the transaction was in effect and simply a loan of the 
 credit of the United States to the States, for their relief, the former holding the property of 
 the latter as security, and being at the same time the Trustee and Agent of that property. 
 It is called assumption. But so far from being a gratuitous assumption, it was a fair com 
 mercial transaction a bargain to pay, for a valuable consideration in this case, a full and 
 safe consideration. The gratuity was rather from the States to the United States, in con 
 senting to mortgage their properly, to pay debts which had been contracted for the party that 
 was made the Agent and Trustee of the public domain, if, indeed, it is proper to erect two 
 such parties m the case. But we admit and maintain, that, in many important respects, re 
 garding public policy, the States are merged in the United States, as parts of a whole, and 
 that the interests of the former can not be easily separated from those of the latter, nor those 
 of the latter from those of the former. The States were magnanimous, and consulted the 
 general welfare, in putting the public domain in charge of the United States, when the coun 
 try was in such straits ; and for these reasons of a generous and noble character, they were 
 and are entitled to equally generous, certainly to fair treatment from the other side. 
 
 10. A great Sacrifice made ly the States for the general Good. 
 
 The Articles of Confederation proved totally inadequate for the necessities of the country, 
 especially in regard to the power of raising revenue, which is the life of any government. 
 With a public debt of nearly eighty millions, and a revenue of less than two millions and a 
 half, what was to be done 1 It was in these straits that the reorganization of the General 
 Government was conceived, and the Constitution oi the United States was adopted, to get 
 out of these difficulties. In the consummation of this great work, the States were called 
 upon to sacrifice all their power of raising revenue by imposts, and to fall back on their in 
 ternal resources and direct taxation, for all the necessities of their respective commonwealths, 
 It was a great demand, certainly ; but they generously, magnanimously made the sacrifice, 
 for the general good, and deprived themselves forever of this important, it might be called indis 
 pensable power of political sovereignties. Had they not known, that the public lands were 
 theirs, subject only to the debts of the United States then existing, would they, could they, in 
 safety and common prudence, have done this ? Never. But it was done done in good 
 faith done for the public weal, from the most patriotic motives, and the States were left to 
 get along as they could, till the lien of the public debt on the public lands should be worked 
 off through the agency of the General Government. Give back to the States this power of 
 raising revenue by imposts, which was so nobly resigned by them to the United States, and 
 Pennsylvania, with the customs of Philadelphia, and of her other entrepots in her hand, might 
 laugh at her debt of forty millions. Every indebted State of the Union could relieve itself 
 at once, and the non-indebted States might enter on magnificent schemes of internal improve* 
 ment. But what would become of the United States ? The Union would be dissolved, be 
 cause it could not subsist without this power. The States might justly claim a consideration 
 for the resignation of it ; but they modestly ask only that which was their own, and is their 
 own* 
 
 11. Another Sacrifice. 
 
 Patiently the States waited for the liquidation of the public debt, when, in 1812, while the 
 debt was yet considerable, we were overtaken with the second wav with Great Britain, and 
 
 117 
 
came out of it with a debt of $168,000,000. Though ^the public lands were not liable for 
 this new debt, still the States generously allowed the proceeds of their own property to be 
 applied to its extinguishment, and it was not till 1836, that the first dividend was awarded 
 in the shape of a d&tiosite, of surplus revenue from the National Treasury, the States being 
 held liable to Treasury warrants at any time for its repayment ! 
 
 12. Early Views of the Government as to the legitimate Source of Federal Revenue. 
 It will be found by an examination of the Journals of the old Congress, while the Deeds 
 of Cession of the public lands from the States were going on, that the lands were not looked 
 to as a source of revenue for the ordinary purposes of the Government, but that the most 
 strenuous efforts were made to mature and establish a revenue system by imposts, adequate, 
 not only for current expenses, but to pay the interest and principal of the public debt. (See 
 Ho. Doc. 296, 3d sess., 27th Cong., p. 177, and onward.) These efforts were continued, till 
 the consummation of the plan in the adoption of the Constitution, the powers of which were 
 supposed and intended to answer this purpose. They are doubtless ample. Not a word is 
 said, not a symptom is manifested, in this early history of the Government burdened as it 
 was with debt, slender as was its revenue not a word of reliance on the public lands to an 
 swer the permanent necessities of the Federal authorities. Nothing can be stronger than 
 this negative evidence, to show the true position which the public lands occupied in the pub 
 lic mind of that period that they were not regarded as the property of the- nation, and could 
 never be legitimately relied upon for the ordinary purposes of Federal revenue. 
 
 33. General Jackson s Opinion on Distribution. 
 
 In his first Message, 1820, after alluding to the different opinions on internal improve 
 ment by the General Government, but acknowledging its importance, he says : " To avoid 
 these evils, it appears to me, that the most safe, just, and federal disposition which could be 
 made of the surplus revenue, would be its apportionment among the several States, accord 
 ing to their ratio of representation." 
 
 In the annual message of 1830, speaking of internal improvement, and of distributing 
 surplus funds among the States for that object, he says : 
 
 " That the plan under consideration would derive important advantages from its certainty, and 
 that the moneys set apart for these purposes would be more judiciously applied, and economically 
 expended, under the direction of the State Legislatures, in which every part of each State is imme 
 diately represented, can not, I think, be doubted." Again : " Each State would receive its quota 
 of the national revenue from a fixed principle, as a matter of right, and from a fund to which it had 
 itself contributed its fair proportion." 
 
 In the message of December, 1832, he says : 
 
 " Among the interests which merit the consideration of Congress, after the payment of the pub 
 lic debt, one of the \most important, in my view, is that of the public lands. Previous to the for 
 mation of our present Constitution, it was recommended by Congress, that a portion of the waste 
 lands owned by the States, should be ceded to the United States, for the purposes of general har 
 mony, and as a fund to meet the expenses of the icar. The recommendation was adopted, and at 
 different periods of time, the States of Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, North and South Car 
 olina, and Georgia, granted their vacant soil for the uses for which they had been asked. As the 
 lands may now be considered as relieved from this pledge, the object for which they were ceded having 
 been accomplished, it is in the discretion of Congress to dispose of them in such way as best to con 
 duce to the quiet, harmony, and general interest of the American people." .... a It seems to me 
 to be our true policy, that the public lands shall cease, as soon as practicable, to be a source of 
 revenue." 
 
 We have not been accustomed to regard General Jackson as openly recognising the right 
 of the States to the proceeds of the public lands ; but we think he has hit the main and most 
 important historical points in the above cited passages, although he may have avoided the con 
 clusions to which they tend. Inadvertently, or otherwise, he has, with equal simplicity and truth, 
 recognised the facts, that these lands were " owned by the States," when the cession was pro 
 posed by the United States ; that the object of the recommendation was " for general harmo 
 ny, and as a fund to meet the expenses of the war;" that the cessions were made "for the 
 uses for which they had been asked ;" that a time had arrived, when these lands were " re 
 lieved from the pledge" of cession, " the object for which they were ceded having been ac 
 complished ;" that the States would receive their respective " quotas of national revenue, oa 
 a matter of right," &c. It was difficult to go into this subject historically, and not bring out 
 the truth difficult not to have some sound reflections upon it, if it were touched at all. We 
 are perfectly satisfied with what General Jackson has proved, and with his opinion, that 
 " the public lands, as soon as practicable, should cease to be a source of revenue" to the Gen 
 eral Government. 
 
 14. Mr. Van Bur en s Opinion. 
 
 When we can find this gentleman in the right place, we like to hold him there, if possi 
 ble. In 1826, Mr. Van Buren said : 
 
 " No man could render the country a greater service, than he who should devise some plan, by 
 which the United States might be relieved from the ownership of this property" (the public lands) 
 
 118 
 
" by some equitable manner. He believed that if these lands were disposed of at once to the sev 
 eral States, it would be satisfactory to all." 
 
 In his letter to Sherrod Williams, 1836, in which he declares his opposition to the distribu 
 tion of the proceeds of the public lands among the States, is the following remarkable pas 
 sage : 
 
 " In respect to the public lands, I need only observe, that I regard the public domain as a trust 
 fund, belonging to all the States, to be disposed of for their common benefit. Ample authority tor that 
 purpose is conferred on Congress, by an express provision of the Constitution." 
 
 To account for this passage in a document, which, in other particulars, makes a decided 
 set-to against Distribution, it is proper to observe, that it is quoted by Mr. Van Buren him 
 self, from a former letter to his constituents in the State of New York, apparently for the pur 
 pose of satisfying those who agree with him, so far as this quotation from an old letter of his 
 is concerned. Mr. Van Buren, as is partly suspected, has an eminent faculty of throwing 
 out crumbs flavored for the tastes of all sorts of appetites. 
 
 15. Mr. Calhouri s Proposal. 
 
 It is to cede all the public lands to the States in which they lie, and hold those States debt 
 ors to the national treasury for a price, a little more than nominal, to be fixed hy law, and 
 suited to the generosity of a parent towards a child. It assumes, that this property belongs 
 to the nation, and not to the States, and that the new States have a natural right to their 
 own soil. Of course, all the thirteen original States, and some others, would be cut off at 
 once from their rights, and from all benefit, except so far as the national treasury might get 
 something, an event not very certain, if the new and favored States should take it in their 
 heads to repudiate, or ask to be discharged. Not to speak of the injustice, the fraud of 
 such a measure towards the States which fought the battles of the Revolution, and which 
 have ever been accustomed to think, that the public domain was one of the things bought 
 with their blood and treasure, suppose the States so munificently endowed, at such vast ex 
 pense of the old States, should at any time refuse to pay the nominal purchase-money 
 Who and what power is to collect it ? And what would be the consequence of enforcing 
 collection ? The Nullifier might indeed be a breeder of nullification, and the feeling left be 
 hind by such a measure would be ill calculated to secure domestic harmony. 
 
 16. Mr. Jefferson on Internal Improvement. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, in his annual Message of 1806, after noticing the rapid liquidation of the 
 public debt, and the prospect of surplus revenue not far ahead, says : 
 
 " The question now comes forward To what other object shall these surplusses" (anticipated) 
 " be appropriated, and the whole surplus of imposts, after the entire discharge of the public debt, 
 and during those intervals when the purposes of war would not call for them ? Shall ire suppress 
 imposts, and give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures ? On a few articles of more 
 general and more necessary use, the suppression will dowbtless be right ; but the great mass of the 
 articles on which impost is paid, are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough 
 to atford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and 
 application to the great purposes of public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of 
 public improvement, as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of Fed 
 eral powers. By these operations, new channels of communication will be opened between the 
 States, the lines of separation wiil disappear, their interests will be identified, and their Union ce 
 mented by new and indissoluble ties." 
 
 It will be seen, that this plan of Mr. Jefferson, for the application of surplus funds, is more 
 enlarged and more comprehensive, than has ever been proposed from the Executive Chair. 
 As, in his opinion, it surpassed the powers of the Constitution, he earnestly proposed such 
 alterations as might be required to embrace these objects. It will further be observed, that 
 Mr. Jefferson appears here, not only as a staunch advocate of the doctrine of protection by 
 a tariff of duties, but makes an appeal to the patriotism of those who pay duties on luxuries 
 for that object, to make them satisfied with their continuance. [See Tract No. III., page 5, 
 for further views of Mr. Jefferson on protection.] 
 
 17. General Jackson on Internal Improvements. 
 
 In his annual Message of 1830, is the following passage, being part of a labored argument 
 on the subject : 
 
 " It may sometimes happen that the interests of particular States would not be deemed to 
 coincide with the general interest, in relation to improvements within such States. But if the dan 
 ger to be apprehended from this source is sufficient to require it, a discretion might be reserved to 
 Congress to direct such improvements of a general character as the States concerned might not be 
 disposed, to unite in, and the application of the quotas of those States, under the restriction of confin 
 ing to each State the expenditure of its appropriate quota. It may, however, be assumed as a safe 
 general rule, that such improvements as serve to increase the prosperity of the respective States in 
 which they are made, by giving new facilities to trade, and thereby augmenting the wealth and 
 comfort ot the inhabitants, constitute the surest mode of conferring permanent and substantial ad 
 vantages upon the whole. The strength as well as the true glory of the Confederacy is founded on 
 *he prosperity and power of the several independent sovereignties of which it is composed, and the 
 
 119 
 
8 
 
 certainty with which they can be brought into successful active co-operation through the agency 
 of the Federal Government." 
 
 Nothing can be more manifest, from this and what we have before quoted, than, that Gen 
 eral Jackson was a Land-Distribution and Internal Improvement man " at heart ;" but Mr. 
 Clay had taken the lead, and General Jackson was not a man tofolloiv. He wanted to come 
 at the same ends, by different routes ; or he would follow up an endless labyrinth, instead of 
 the open and public highway. That he favored Internal improvement and Distribution, no 
 one can doubt. The above-cited passage, and other things of the kind in his messages, to 
 gether with his almost recognition of the rights of the States in the public domain, as before 
 shown, in our opinion, had more influence in securing his second election, than has usually 
 been supposed. These two great objects have ever been popular, \vhen put to a fair and 
 unembarrassed issue. Internal Improvement was arrested only by the regal power of the 
 Constitution, THE VETO, when the voice of the nation, of the people, of the democracy, was 
 in its favor ; and the Distribution policy has never been put to the test in the democratic 
 branch of the Government, that is, in Congress, but that a large majority has uniformly sus 
 tained it. If we are rightly informed, the Legislatures of twenty-two, out of twenty-six States, 
 have formally addressed Congress, or otherwise instituted action, in favor of it. Kingly 
 power alone, in defiance of the popular will, has obstructed these great measures, for the 
 largest part of one entire generation. 
 
 18. The Extent and Value of the Public Domain. 
 
 The public lands unsold on the 31st of October, 1843, as certified by the Commissioner of 
 the General Land Office, were 1.042,731,765 acres, which, at the minimum price fixed by 
 law, would amount to 1,303,414,706 (one billion, three hundred and three millions., four 
 hundred and fourteen thousand^ seven hundred and six dollars. ) [See Ho. Doc. 296, 3d sess., 
 27th Cong., page 238.] 
 
 19. Apportionment of the Value of the Public Lands to the States and Territories, 
 
 estimated according to the present Federal Representation. 
 
 If we apportion the above sum of $1,303,414,706, the estimated value of the public lands, 
 to the States and Territories, according to their right of representation in Congress, allowing 
 one representative to the District of Columbia, the respective amounts which each State 
 and Territory would be entitled to, will be as follows : 
 
 Maine will be entitled to $42,045,635 
 
 New Hampshire 28,030,423 
 
 Massachusetts 56,060,847 
 
 Rhode Island 18,686,949 
 
 Connecticut 28,030,423 
 
 Vermont 28,030,423 
 
 New York 168,182,542 
 
 New Jersey 32,702,161 
 
 Pennsylvania 121,465,169 
 
 Delaware 14,015,211 
 
 Maryland 37,373,898 
 
 Virginia 79,419,534 
 
 North Carolina 51,389,110 
 
 South Carolina 42,045,635 
 
 Georgia 46,717,372 
 
 Kentucky $56,060,847 
 
 Tennessee 60,732,584 
 
 Ohio 107,449,957 
 
 Louisiana 28,030,423 
 
 Indiana .". . 56,060,847 
 
 Mississippi 28,030,423 
 
 Illinois 42,045,635 
 
 Alabama 42,045,635 
 
 Missouri 32,702,161 
 
 Arkansas 14,015,211 
 
 Michigan 23,358,686 
 
 Florida Territory 4,671,737 
 
 Wisconsin 4,671,737 
 
 Iowa 4,671,737 
 
 District of Columbia 4,67 1,734 
 
 The cents and smaller fractions are dropped in this copy, which would make the footing a 
 trifle less than the aggregate from which the apportionment is made. 
 
 20. Average Annual Proceeds of the Land Sales. 
 
 The average annual and net proceeds of the sales of the public lands, from 1830 to 1840, 
 inclusive, eleven years, were $6,964,459, those of the whole period being $76,609,059 ; as 
 appears from the Treasury accounts. In the former part of this period, the increase of 
 the sales was gradual, and may be considered healthful. About the middle of it, they rose 
 to an unprecedented and unnatural amount, the proceeds of 1835 being $14,757,600, and 
 those of 1836, $24,641,979, from which time they gradually fell off, till, in 1840, they had 
 sunk to $3,292,220, having started, in 1830, at $2,329,356. The disastrous history of the 
 twelve years Destructive Dynasty, which first inflated and then destroyed general credit, will 
 account for this. As the land sales from 1828 to 1831 were considered moderate, showing 
 an average annual increase of 23 per cent., as appears by Mr. Clay s report to the Senate in 
 1832, that is, more than doubling every five years, it may perhaps be assumed that the average 
 annual proceeds, from 1830 to 1840, as above stated, are not very much, if at all, in excess 
 c a natural and prosperous state of things, at the present period of our history, under a good 
 
 120 
 
9 
 
 administration of the Government. Doubling the income every five years on $2,329,356, 
 which were the net proceeds of 1830, those of 1840 would have been $9,317,424. As the 
 annual sales are now gradually increasing again, it can hardly be many years, if the country 
 Should recover its fair condition of prosperity, before the proceeds from sales of the public 
 lands will rise to ten millions a year. Be it more or less, five, or seven, or ten millions, it can 
 not fail to be a very handsome and convenient sum, annually increasing, to be distributed 
 among the States, according to their Federal representation. Assuming either of these, or 
 any other given amount of annual proceeds, with a table showing the representation in 
 Congress, to which each state is entitled, Senators included, it will be easy for any person to 
 work out the respective annual distributions among the States, if the General Government 
 Shall finally award to them their just claims. When the proceeds shall be eight millions a 
 year, the distribution for such year will be as follows : 
 
 Maine $257,706 [ Kentucky $344,086 
 
 New Hampshire 172,040 Tennessee 372,759 
 
 Massachusetts . .. 344,086 
 
 Rhode Island 1 18,279 
 
 Connecticut 172,040 
 
 Vermont 172,040 
 
 New York 1,032,258 
 
 New Jersey 200,716 
 
 Pennsylvania 741,936 
 
 Delaware. 86,021 
 
 Maryland 229,356 
 
 Virginia.. , 487,455 
 
 North Carolina 315,412 
 
 South Carolina 257,706 
 
 Georgia 286,738 
 
 Ohio 659,498 
 
 Louisiana 172,040 
 
 Indiana 344,086 
 
 Mississippi 172,040 
 
 Illinois 257,706 
 
 Alabama 257,706 
 
 Missouri 200,716 
 
 Arkansas 86,021 
 
 Michigan 143,369 
 
 Florida 28,673 
 
 Wisconsin 28,673 
 
 Iowa 28,673 
 
 District of Columbia 28,673 
 
 When the annual proceeds shall rise to sixteen millions they have been over twenty- 
 four millions double the above apportionments respectively, and they will be the quotas of 
 distribution. 
 
 "21. Debts of the States. 
 
 In a report of the Secretary of the Treasury to Congress, 1842, compiled from official 
 returns he had been instructed to invite, we have the following statement : 
 
 Maine (indebted) $ 1 ,734,86 1 
 
 Massachusetts 5,424,137 
 
 Pennsylvania . .- 36,336,044 
 
 New York 21,797,267 
 
 Maryland 15,214,761 
 
 Virginia 6,994,307 
 
 South Carolina 5,691,234 
 
 Georgia . 1,309,750 
 
 Alabama 15,400,060 
 
 Louisiana 23,985,000 
 
 Mississippi 7,000,000 
 
 Arkansas 2,676,000 
 
 Florida $4,000,000 
 
 Tennessee 3,189,166 
 
 Kentucky 3,085,500 
 
 Michigan 5,611,000 
 
 Ohio 10,924,123 
 
 Indiana 12,751,000 
 
 Illinois 13,527,292 
 
 Missouri 842,261 
 
 District of Columbia 1,316,030 
 
 To these may be added, 
 North Carolina 1,050,000 
 
 The sum of these debts is a small fraction less than two hundred millions. In the lapse of 
 two years some of them have been increased, some diminished, and others more correctly 
 ascertained ; but the sum total is supposed not to vary much from $200,000,000. Most of 
 them having been contracted for internal improvements, there is of course, to some extent, a 
 quid pro quo in the hands of these States. The public works of the State of New York, for 
 example, are much more than a balance for her indebtedness, and abundantly capable of 
 liquidating the debt. Those of Pennsylvania will pay a part of the interest, and several of 
 the States are able, not only to provide for the interest, but to manage the principal, though 
 in most cases burdensome, while others do not, and a few can not pay even the interest. 
 The spectacle, as a whole, presents a great and difficult political problem, in the question, 
 How are these debts to be got rid of? The country can never be restored to a prosperous 
 Edition till this problem is solved. 
 
 22. Who plunged the indebted States into these Difficulties ? 
 
 We aver that it was done, and all done, by the action of the General Government. 1. By 
 withholding from them the proceeds of the public lands since they became due, on the con 
 ditions of the trust. In House Document 296, 3d session, 27th Congress, pages 475 and 
 476, it is shown, from the books of the General Land Office, that the amount of proceeds 
 
 121 
 
10 
 
 due tc the States, Sept. 30, 1840, on account of the public lands, in the faithful execution 
 of the trust, was $142,018,766. This alone, distributed according to Federal representation, 
 would have rescued the indebted States from all their embarrassments. 2. By instability 
 of national policy, legislation, and government. It can not be denied that General Jackson 
 was in favor of internal improvements, and that he proposed and recommended to supply ths 
 States with funds out of the national Treasury for that object. See the passage we have 
 already cited from his Message of 1830, and other like things in his official documents. 
 Observe his order to loan the Deposites. The announced policy of the Government at that 
 time, as well as its acts, stimulated credit and enterprise in the States and everywhere. The 
 projects of the States for internal improvement, were first suggested and prompted, and were 
 fully authorized, by the General Government, and that Government proposed to supply the 
 funds. Contemporaneously, Senator Wright said in his place, that " he was not afraid to 
 recommend such an investment of the national funds, as the States iixndd issue as many bonds 
 as the Government might choose to buy." Verily, was not all this prompting, and a sufficient 
 warrant ? The States, instead of acting rashly, only conformed to the leadings of the General 
 Government. But, as we all know, by sad experience, the General Government did not 
 persevere in this policy, but, after having seduced the States into these projects and great 
 expenditures, and tempted the whole country to extravagant enterprise, it turned short about, 
 upset the States, upset the nation, upset everything ! Who, then, we ask, is responsible for 
 this wide-spread ruin, these frightful and long-protracted calamities of a great nation ? 
 
 In coincidence with these suggestions, observe the history of the State debts. In 1830, 
 when President Jackson so fully propounded his scheme of internal improvement by setting 
 the States to work, and supplying them with funds out of the national Treasury, the whole 
 amount of the State debts was only $6,976,689 ; while the increase from 1830 to 1840, under 
 the stimulus of these encouragements, amounted to $178,409,084! of which $87,366,010 
 took place in the defaulting States. [House Doc. 296, 3d sess., 27th Cong., page 47.] 
 
 23. What, therefore, is due to the States. 
 
 We will not pretend to say what else ought to be done in such a case, but we think the 
 States, and the people of the States, will expect and require that the original covenant 
 between the States and the United States, respecting the public lands, should now be "faith 
 fully and bona fide" executed. So zealous, so intent, so emphatic, were the parties of one 
 part, in respect to the importance and sacredness of this compact, that they were not conteat 
 with the qualifying word "faithfully" to express its obligations, but they put in the still 
 stronger words, " bona fide" in good faith. If it were possible for any one to doubt the 
 character of this instrument as a TRUST, by the terms in which it is constructed, we have 
 the opinion of the Chief Justice of the United States", John Marshall, before cited, acting in 
 his high judicial capacity, himself bearing testimony to its very special importance as such. 
 Since, then, the case is so ; since the States, in the adoption of the Constitution, resigned 
 forever their power over revenue by imposts ; since they acquired their title to the publie 
 domain by their own blood and treasure, while acting as independent sovereignties, under 
 the Articles of Confederation ; since, for purposes of harmony and general good, and in all 
 good faith, they put this great estate in the hands of a common TRUSTEE, composed of repre 
 sentatives from themselves, acting under their authority ; since the conditions of that trust, 
 in giving its avails another direction than to the hands of the original parties, have long 
 since been fulfilled, imposing the duty of rendering the proceeds of the property to its rightful 
 owners ; since the Government of the United States, by its own action, invited the States into 
 expensive projects of internal improvement, more beneficial to the Union than to the States 
 themselves, promising the States, or giving them good reason to expect, the aid of the public 
 funds, it can not be deemed unreasonable, that the States should require and demand what is 
 their own, to help themselves out of the difficulties in which the General Government has 
 involved them by a violation of its faith. No favor is asked. It is simple JUSTICE. 
 
 . 
 24. The Prospect of a Surplus National Revenue. 
 
 The Tariff of 1842 is doing wonders for us, and under the present rate of its operation in 
 the increased production of revenue, we shall soon have another surplus in the national 
 Treasury. The annual revenue is more than doubled by this measure. The protection 
 given to our labor, industry, and productions, has relieved the country suddenly, and restored 
 it to a condition of comparative prosperity, though it will take years, under this same bene 
 ficent ACT, to get back to the place from which we were cast down by the Destructive 
 Dynasty. 
 
 Suppose, then, that we go on under the present Tariff, it would not be strange, with a 
 realization of present prospects, if, in five years, we should be able to spare from the na 
 tional Treasury to the States, from imposts alone, twice as much as was voted in 1836. The 
 amount of that, as determined by the Act, though it was not all realized, was $37,468,850. 
 
 122 
 
11 
 
 Double of this would be $74,937,718. We take this sum, merely because it is more conve 
 nient to make out an apportionment, by doubling one already made to our hand for the half 
 of it. To avail ourselves of this, however, we are forced to assume, as a rule of distribution, 
 the Electoral Colleges of the period from 1830 to 1840. The distribution, by this rule, would 
 be as follows : 
 
 Maine $2,548,902 
 
 New Hampshire 1,784,230 
 
 Massachusetts 3,568,462 
 
 Rhode Island 1,019,560 
 
 Vermont 1,784,230 
 
 Connecticut 2,039,120 
 
 South Carolina $2,803,792 
 
 Georgia 2,803,792 
 
 Alabama 1,784,230 
 
 Mississippi 1,019,560 
 
 Louisiana 1,274,450 
 
 Missouri 1,019,560 
 
 New York 10,705,388 Kentucky. 3,823,352 
 
 New Jersey 2,039,120 Tennessee 3,823,352 
 
 Pennsylvania 7,646,706 
 
 Delaware 764,670 
 
 Maryland 2,548,902 
 
 Ohio 5,352,694 
 
 Indiana 2,294,010 
 
 Illinois 1,274,450 
 
 Virginia. 5,862,474 | Arkansas 764,670 
 
 North Carolina 3,823,352 j Michigan . . . . 764,670 
 
 Adopting the present Federal representation as the rule of distribution, this apportionment 
 would vary somewhat. The quotas of Pennsylvania, and of some other States, would be 
 increased, some would be diminished, and the relative proportions in a slight degree changed. 
 It will be obvious, that the Territories should come in for a share. The object of this 
 exhibit is merely to give a notion of something like what may be reasonably expected, from 
 time to time, as occasion may require, provided we can once obtain a good government, 
 maintain a suitable Tariff, and fully restore the prosperity of the country. This is no 
 dream, but founded on the history of the past. Under a Tariff adequate to a fair protection 
 of the interests of the country fair as doing relative as well as positive justice we could not 
 fail soon to have a large annual surplus from the impost revenue and land fund, sufficient to 
 answer all the purposes of the present public debt, if it be proper to call the State debts 
 public. The reasons why these debts are proper to be considered in our national policy, 
 are, first, because they affect our national interests, and can not be separated from them ; 
 next, because the General Government is bound by compact, as Trustee, to administer the 
 estate of the public lands for the " sole use and benefit of the States, faithfully and bona 
 fide," since the lands are "relieved," as General Jackson says, "from the original pledge;" 
 thirdly, because many of the States require the relief which such an administration of the 
 lands would give them ; fourthly, because all the States would be benefited ; and, fifthly, 
 because the United States would be equally benefited. The States, even the most indebted, 
 have no occasion to ask what is not due to them. 
 
 It is quite immaterial, however, whether the distribution be made on Mr. Jefferson s and 
 General Jackson s principle of expediency, for national objects, or as a debt due the States 
 on account of public lands. We have seen there is a balance yet behind of one hundred and 
 forty-two millions, which, together with those annually accruing, will abundantly answer all 
 the necessities of the States. 
 
 25. The great National Objects to be promoted by Distribution. 
 Jefferson and Jackson, in the documents already referred to, have reasoned this matter out 
 so well, that little is left for others to do. It is true they did not base their argument so 
 much on the right of the States to the proceeds of the public domain, as on the expediency of 
 the measure they proposed for great national objects; and professing to have scruples, and 
 to respect the scruples of others, on the Constitutional question of Internal improvements, 
 on such a large scale, by the General Government, they proposed to travel round this diffi 
 culty, and accomplish the same great and important end Jefferson, by amending the Con 
 stitution, and Jackeon by setting the States to work, and endowing them with the surplus 
 funds of the national Treasury for that object. Now, it happens, that much of this work is 
 already done by the indebted States, which has been the occasion of their debts. Acknowl 
 edge their claim to the proceeds of the public lands, in the past and in the future, and let 
 them be distributed, and these debts will be provided for, while the non-indebted States will 
 doubtless use their respective quotas, for the most part, in promoting the same great national 
 objects. They have only to follow out the hints given jn General Jackson s Message of 
 1830. The work is there projected. And they would most naturally do it ; for as General 
 Jackson says : It may be safely assumed, that the public works which are best for the States, 
 will be best for the Union. 
 
 26. The probable Effect of Distribution on Public Credit. 
 
 The whole world is watching to see, whether the General Government will relieve the 
 fctates, and nothing is required but to give the States their OWN. As things now are, as they 
 
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12 
 
 ireTe fixed by the twelve years* Destructive Dynasty, and finally sealed by the present Chief 
 Magistrate, in his Veto on the first Tariff bill of 1841, notwithstanding that he strongly 
 recommended Distribution in his message, the indebted States are prostrate, and some of 
 them can neA r er rise again, without help from some quarter. It is known y. that such is their 
 helpless condition. Nobody expects they will ever be able to pay, without the proceeds of 
 the public lands. But secure to them this RIGHT, of which they have so long been wrong 
 fully deprived, and the VERY NEXT HOUR their credit would spring up from the grave, in which 
 it has been rotting, and the world, which has assumed to rebuke and reproach them, as is 
 always the fate of insolvent debtors, would take them again to the arms of its confidence and 
 affection. 
 
 We know that the p/esent proceeds of the public lands will not be a full relief, " per se," 
 to the States which are most indebted ; but it will be some help, and that will be augmenting 
 every year. Their greatest need, in the present juncture, is a foundation and warrant of 
 credit. -Settle the land question, as justice requires, ordain a distribution of the annual pro 
 ceeds among the States, according to their Federal representation, fix it so that the public, 
 the world, may rely upon it, as an arrangement not to be disturbed, and it is a sufficient 
 foundation for all the credit that is required, and many times more. Not only so, but it 
 would probably enable the indebted States to fund their obligations, so far as occasion should 
 require, for one half the interest they are now charged. The indebted States, the other 
 States, the whole Union, would spring to their feet again, go to work with the joy of hope, 
 and the world would smile on our prosperity, and confide in it. 
 
 27. There is now no Apology for not doing it. 
 
 The Tariff of 1842 is pouring into the national Treasury more money than is wanted, and 
 if it is permitted to continue, it will not be long, so far as the ordinary expenditures of the 
 Government are concerned, before we shall have a surplus in the Treasury. That will not 
 "be a bad time to begin to pay the one hundred and forty-two millions due to the States, before 
 noticed, as a balance accrued on account of the public lands. Then the indebted States 
 might pay up, sustain and perfect their public works, and the non-indebted States might cross 
 their territories with canals and railroads, as might be judged expedient. The remarks of 
 General Jackson, as cited by us, page 7, section 17, are pertinent to this point. .General 
 Jackson was there proposing to appropriate funds out of the national Treasury for this 
 object, and to constitute the States as agents to carry the plan into effect. It was very 
 well said. We are glad to embrace such reasoning, coming from such a quarter, be 
 lieving, that it is as well entitled to have weight with us, as with the somewhat warmer 
 and more unqualified friends of General Jackson. On this platform, we would most heart 
 ily co-operate with those, who claim to be State-Rights Men," and who have wasted as 
 much declamation upon this topic, as they have on "Democracy," as if born to the 
 name, at the same time that they have been doing all they could to destroy the States, as to 
 their power and independence, and to build up and fortify a regal power in the White House, 
 at the expense and with the sacrifice of true republicanism. WE go for " State-Rights," in 
 the rights of the States, and that is what we understand by it. We go for the practical, not 
 for the abstract for the real, not for the visionary. He who denies to the States the right 
 to the proceeds of the public domain, we will never allow to be a "State-Rights" man. It is 
 a contradiction in terms. The whole and inevitable tendency of the Anti-Distribution policy, 
 is, to concentrate power, to cripple the States, and to fortify the Federal arm in acts of oppres- 
 Bion and violence. This is one form of Federalism, and such are FEDERALISTS. [See Tract 
 No. VJ., on Democracy.] 
 
 28. The Effect of Distribution on the Sales. 
 
 We assume, after what has been said, that Distribution is indispensable to the complete 
 restoration of State and national prosperity. The indebted States can never rise without it ; 
 the others will feel the effect of the embarrassment or bankruptcy of their neighbors ; and 
 the States, in this position, will hang like a mill-stone on the neck of the United States. Con 
 sequently, this state of things, so long as it lasts, will be a great check to that spirit of en 
 terprise, which is required for the purchase and occupancy of the vacant lands. In addition 
 to this, and a greater obstacle still, the more desirable unoccupied lands lie in States most 
 oppressed with debt, and few people will go where they will be liable to such a heavy bur 
 den of taxation. But take away these obstacles by Distribution, and the sales will increase 
 with great rapidity, with the revival of general credit, and the credit of the States where the 
 unoccupied lands are situated. Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, must inevitably remain very 
 nearly in statu quo, while unrelieved by Distribution ; but give them this, and they would 
 spring forward in a new and rapid career at once. The same may be said of other western 
 States, and of the Territories. The consequence of this would be a rapid increase of the 
 proceeds of the sales, and of the benefits to the States to be derived therefrom. 
 
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13 
 
 29. The effect of Non-Distribution on Legislation, 
 
 So long as reliance is placed on the proceeds of the public lands as a part of the national 
 revenue, so long will the Tariff regulations be fluctuating, than which, a greater commercial 
 evil could scarcely be entailed on the country. The annual net proceeds from the sale of 
 public lands, between 1830 and 1840, ranged from three millions to twenty-four millions. The 
 operation of the Tariff of 1842, shows, that the proceeds of the lands will not be wanted by 
 the General Government, so long as this Tariff lasts, and that there will soon be a surplus 
 in the Treasury from the Tariff alone. Distribution, therefore, is now demanded, as well 
 for the STABILITY of our Tariff regulations, as for reasons before given. 
 
 30. The Attempt to Repeal the Distribution Act 0/1841. 
 
 It is true, that Mr. Tyler s Veto of the first Tariff bill of 1841, rendered that Act inopera 
 tive for the present. Nevertheless, it remained a law, and only required the repeal of the 
 restrictive clause, to give it immediate, permanent, and full effect, for five years, except in 
 case of war ; and the effect of this exception would tend very much to prevent war. But 
 the wanton attack, made by the House of Representatives of the present (28th) Congress, on 
 the Distribution law of 1841, and t*e fury with which they carried the repeal bill through 
 that body the very day it was reported, by a strong party vote, under the previous question, 
 evinces the deadly hostility of that party to such a measure, and their determination, that it 
 shall never stand or be a law. Though no observing man doubted their sentiments before, 
 yet this decided action shows the country what may be expected from that party on Distri 
 bution, as well as on the Tariff, both of which they are resolved to crush. 
 
 .31*. The Purchased Lands. 
 
 It is true, that all the territories falling under the purchases of Louisiana and the Flori- 
 das, have been acquired as the property of the United States in their federal capacity. The 
 principles of Mr. Jefferson and General Jackson, however, as recognised in these pages, are 
 sufficiently broad and comprehensive, if they should be approved, to answer all the purposes 
 of the States, in the existence of surplus funds in the national Treasury, which is sure to re 
 sult from a good Government, except as it may be interrupted by the expenses of war. It 
 will only be necessary to apply that power of the Constitution, Article IV., Sec. 3, which Mr. 
 Van Buren, in his letter to Sherrod Williams, calls " an express provision," " ample author 
 ity" and which reads as follows : " Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make ail 
 needful rules and regulations respecting the territory, or other property, belonging to the 
 United States," &c. 
 
 32. Alleged or Supposed Conflicting Interests of New States with Old States. 
 
 It is fortunate that the time is nearly, if not quite gone by, when some effect could be 
 produced by telling the new States, " Claim the public lands in your own limits, and you can. 
 get them." This, certainly, could not easily be shown to be a very fumest recommendation. 
 Since, however, this seductive bait was thrown out in the " counter report" to the Senate, 
 on the public lands, in 1832, and industriously propagated in other forms, it has been discov 
 ered by the new States, that a joint interest with all the other States, in a public domain of 
 more than a BILLION of acres, is a richer inheritance than all they can find of public lands 
 in their own bounds. Possibly, there may be two or three States that would like to have all 
 those parts of the public domain which lie in their respective jurisdictions ; but we doubt, 
 whether any would be very fierce for it, when, by seizing upon or accepting it, they sacrifice 
 all right and claim in the public lands exterior to themselves. They know, that the General 
 Government has been generous to them, in its grants and bonuses for a variety of objects 
 and considerations, and they have ceased to be influenced by another suggestion thrown out 
 in the "counter report" of 1832, viz : that all the money paid for public lands is drawn from 
 the States in which the purchased territory lies. It is seen, that the money, so applied, comes 
 from other quarters, does not belong to the new States, and was never there, till carried by 
 immigrants, and a part of it is disbursed on the spot by the expenses of the land offices. 
 There is an acquisition in all such cases to the wealth of the new States, by the introduction 
 of additional power to produce it ; but nothing belonging there is taken away. Immigrants 
 also, for the most part, have money left, after paying for their lands. The older States may 
 be injured by the loss of their inhabitants and labor power, and to some extent are so. The 
 money, of course, is drawn from those States which the immigrants came from, and is scat 
 tered over the Union. In 1832, it was stated, in a report to the Senate, that the greatest 
 emigration was from the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The fear of collision., 
 therefore, between the new States and the old, on this account, has chiefly subsided, as ev 
 ery new State almost instantly becomes an old one, as to its interest in the public domain. 
 
 Mr. Clay, in his speech on the public lands, 1832, after having alluded to the concessions 
 of the new States as to the rights of all the States over the public domain, by the action of the 
 former in various modes, says : " The existence of the new States is a falsehood, or the right 
 
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14 
 
 of all the States to the public domain is an undeniable truth. They" (the new States) " have 
 no more right to the public lands within their particular jurisdiction, than other States have 
 to the mint, the forts and arsenals, or public ships within theirs, or than the people of the 
 District of Columbia have to this magnificent Capitol, in whose splendid halls we now de 
 liberate." 
 
 Air. Clay concludes this speech as follows : " Among the ties which bind us together, the 
 public domain merits high consideration. And if we appropriate, for a limited time, the pro 
 ceeds of that great resource, among the several States, for the important objects which have 
 been enumerated, a new and powerful bond of affection and of interest will be added. The 
 States will feel and recognise the operation of the General Government, not merely in power 
 and burdens, but in benefactions and blessings. And the General Government in its turn, 
 will feel, from the expenditure of the money which it dispenses to the States, the benefits of 
 moral and intellectual improvement of the people, of greater facility in social and commercial 
 intercourse, and of the purification of the population of our country, themselves the best pa 
 rental sources of national character, national union, and national greatness. Whatever may 
 be the fate of the particular proposition now under consideration, I sincerely hope that the 
 attention of the nation may be attracted to this most interesting subject ; that it may justly 
 appreciate the value of this immense national property; and that, preserving the regulation 
 of it by the will of the whole, for the advantage of the whole, it may be transmitted, as a 
 sacred and inestimable succession, to posterity, for its benefit and blessing for ages to come. 7 
 
 33. Federal Power as opposed to State Eights. 
 
 It will be seen, that, never, in the history of this country, has so flagrant a violation of the 
 rights of the States been planned and systematically carried on, as in the attempt of the Fed 
 eral Government, for a long course of years, to rob the States of their interest in the public 
 lands. Every possible artifice to conceal the truth, or to obscure, mystify, and cloud what 
 could not be concealed, and every muscle of the Federal arm, has been employed to defraud 
 the original parties that created this republic, of the rich inheritance which they purchased 
 with their blood and treasure : as if it were not enough for the States to give up the right 
 of raising revenue by imposts, but advantage is taken of a sacred trust, to deprive them of 
 their last and only heritage for sustaining their political powers. Prompted by the Federal 
 authorities, they have done the work of those authorities, and then, when they have need of 
 the wherewithal to pay for it, they only ask the proceeds of their own estate, and it is re 
 fused ! As if it were not enough to rob, the insatiate appetite calls for the blood of its vic 
 tims ! The unnatural parent strangles her own children ! Does not every one know, that 
 the States can not subsist, unless they are relieved ? And what power stands in the way of 
 their relief, but the Federal Government ? And by what means is it done, but by wrong ? 
 Have we not reason to fear a power, that is so fraudulently, so oppressively, so tyrannically 
 exercised whose tender mercies are cruelty ? Crying " Stale Rights," they rob the States 
 of their dearest rights ! Preaching Democracy," they wield the most hateful power of 
 kings ! It was by the munificence of the States, that the Federal Government was enabled 
 to stand, and the prodigal gifts, bestowed in the form of a trust, are employed to crush the 
 givers ! 
 
 34. The Unity of the Union. 
 
 One would think, that they who deal in abstractions, had discovered at last, how every 
 State of this Union can be utterly ruined, and the United States be in a prosperous condi 
 tion that just in proportion as the States are in debt, in trouble, and perishing, the United 
 States are enriched, happy, and farther removed from danger ! How is it possible otherwise 
 to account for their persistance in an apparent determination to crush the States, by an obsti 
 nate refusal to consider their helpless condition, and do an act of simple justice ? But the 
 fact is, and must necessarily be so, that the non-indebted States sympathize, politically and 
 commercially, with the distressed condition of the indebted States, and this effect is unavoid 
 able, by the nature of their alliance and companionship. If one suffers, all suffer. They 
 are all at sea in the same boat, and if half go down, they must all go, unless, peradventure, 
 the stronger shall throw the weaker overboard, and even then it would be difficult to cut the 
 ties which bind them together. And what is this thing called the United States, that it should 
 lift up its head on high, take on itself such airs of independence, mock at the misery with 
 which it is surrounded, and think itself not at all concerned in it ? Has it never considered, 
 that it is only a head, resting on the shoulders of a body ? that it partakes of the same vi 
 tality, is nourished by the same aliments, breathes the same air, in the use of common or 
 gans, and is nothing, and can do nothing, without the body ? that its pride, glory, and 
 power, are sustained, and its purse supplied, by the hands and arms, the muscles and sinews, 
 on which it looks down ? that in the pains of the body, itself must suffer, and if the body 
 dies, itself will die ? That abstraction of mind, which revels in dreams and visions, may do 
 very well for a philosopher in his closet, who chooses to have nothing to do with the world, 
 and whc could blame nobody else, and possibly might hurt nobody else, if, in some fatal ex- 
 
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15 
 
 periment, he should blow himself up theie. But, to sever a head from a trunk, without harm, 
 is a nicer operation than surgical skill has yet attained to. But, this thing, caDed the United 
 Slates, seems to think it possible for the head to live independent of the body ! 
 
 35. A blind and heartless National Policy. 
 
 Nothing could be more stolid, than that Federal policy, which, sets up the theory, and act* 
 on it, that the Federal Government has nothing to do, but to take care of itself. It is alike 
 unpatriotic and treasonable to a high, most responsible, and vastly comprehensive trust. 
 They who separate the interests of the Union from those of the States, undertake to perform 
 a miracle ; and those in power, who say, let the people take care of themselves, and the Gov 
 ernment will take care of itself, are Sub-treasury men, and fit only for a despotism. They 
 have no heart, and no sympathy for the common lot of mankind. Most of all are they unfit 
 for a democratic state of society, and most unfriendly to it. 
 
 36. The Principle of Sub- Treasury. 
 
 That is what holds on so tightly to the public lands as Federal property. It seeks, in all 
 manner of forms, to strengthen Federal power, at the expense of the States, and to the in 
 jury of all minor interests. The earliest and most remarkable instance of Swi-treasury in 
 history, and the most graphic picture of the system, is found in the 47th chapter of Genesis, 
 from the 15th to the 26th verses, under which the treasury of Pharaoh first swallowed up all 
 the money of the people ; next, their cattle were taken ; then, their lands ; and last of all, 
 they sold themselves into perpetual bondage, to render to Pharaoh, in perpetuity, (me fifth of 
 tlic products of their labor; and they remained in slavery for ever afterward. When Spain 
 exhausted the mines of South America, and in the end drew forth more than a thousand mil 
 lions of bullion into the royal coffers, it was all done by swfc-treasurers, while the people were 
 taxed, worn out, and kept under. i<5-treasurers are always in favor of direct taxation, and 
 that is the only way to maintain the system. Rome was free till the system of s?*6-treasury 
 was introduced. So was it in Greece. So has it been in every country that has lost its 
 freedom. The peculiarity of a sw-treasury system is, to separate the Government from the 
 people, to raise it above them, to make it independent, and to make the people dependent 
 slaves. There is no sympathy between the parties, but a necessary and perpetual hostility 
 of interests. The doctrine of true democracy is, that what is good enough for the people, is 
 good enough for their governors ; that the currency which will do for one party, must answer 
 for the other; that direct taxation should be a last, and only a necessary resort; and that 
 government has no rights except such as are derived from the people, and is set up to serve 
 the people, not to be served by them. 
 
 37. The Obligations of Patriotism. 
 
 We dislike to give a reason for doing an act of justice that is foreign to its claims. But 
 here is the remarkable spectacle of a number of the States of this Union, with a mill-stone 
 about their necks, tied on in the way and by an agency as we have described, hanging over 
 an abyss, and if they fall in, are sure to carry with them all the other States and the United 
 Stales. They can not be ruined alone, but will have companionship in their fall. When the 
 States which were possessed of the public lands by charter rights, saw it was necessary to 
 divide the interest with the other States, who were fighting side by side with them for frfe- 
 dom and for this great estate, and when they saw it was necessary to bind the sacrifice on 
 the altar of the patriotism of that day, they did so, and left it in charge of the Agents of the 
 Confederation, pledged to redeem the debts of the war, and then to be used for the common 
 good of the parties, who carried the nation through the struggle by their joint efforts and 
 sacrifices, and of such other members of the family as might come in afterward. It was a 
 great, generous, noble, patriotic sacrifice worthy of the men and of the time. After the 
 war, as soon as the debts of the States and the nation could be conveniently ascertained, they 
 were found to be about eighty millions of dollars, on about three millions of people, with an 
 annual revenue from all quarters of less than two millions and a half! In this position of the 
 Confederacy, the public lands, which had been so generously given up for this object, and 
 only for this, were the pledge and anchor of public credit. Put for this, there is reason to 
 believe that the Republic, so loosely bound together, though victorious, would have been 
 dissolved into worthless fragments. At the close of the second war with Great Britain, we 
 shouldered a public debt of one hundred and sixty-eight millions, and paid it all off in sevez- 
 teen years. But now, with no national debt worthy to speak of, with eighteen million? of 
 people, with capabilities and resources unlimited, with from thirty to forty millions of revenue 
 by imposts, with a land revenue, soon to rise perhaps to ten millions, and with an annual 
 expense of Government not exceeding twenty millions, we dare not look in the face a debt of 
 some two hundred millions, which happens to be saddled chiefly on about half of the States! 
 Approach it we must, or it will come to us. There is no escape, nor should patriotism desire 
 ft. For the most part, we have had the quid pro quo, and are every day reaping the benefit 
 
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16 
 
 of it. This quid pro quo, take it as a whole, and properly used, is itself well nigh, if not 
 quite, sufficient to pay the debt. So far as it consists in public improvements, the national 
 benefit is incalculable, and the chief one. [See General Jackson s Message of 1830.] In a 
 time of war, it might, and very probably would happen, that their worth for national uses, 
 ia the movements of armies, artillery, ammunition, and baggage, and in maintaining an easy 
 and rapid communication between our public marine on the Atlantic and on the lakes and 
 rivers, would exceed the entire cost of them all. But no matter for that. Their national 
 value in a time of peace is immense. Nor is even this worthy of consideration, if we look at 
 the justice of the claim. The public lands saved the nation once, and carried a far heavie*, 
 many times heavier debt, in proportion to our population and means, than that which they 
 are now invoked to be pledged for ; and it happens that they are the property of the present 
 debtors ; whereas, in the former case, the owners now the debtors requiring relief, but still 
 owners freely gave them up, for a season,to pay the debts of others, and pledged them to the 
 last farthing. The object was finally accomplished ; but the Trustee, having taken a liking 
 to the charge, chooses to hold on to it, and to use the avails by fraud, while the lawful pro 
 prietors are sinking under bankruptcy ! Oh, patriotism ! whither art thou fled ? 
 
 38. The Discouraging and Ruinous Effect of Commercial Dishonor in a Staie or 
 
 Nation. 
 
 " Private credit is wealth ; public honor is security. The feather that adorns the royal 
 bird, secures him in his flight. Pluck him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth." 
 
 The plumes which the world had allowed to stand in our cap, and which the world had 
 admired, have been plucked and trampled under foot. While other nations can borrow money 
 at 3 per cent., a public agent of our Government returned from Europe a year ago, having 
 been everywhere refused a loan at 6 per cent. No nation that has claimed and been 
 permitted to stand up on a footing of equality with -the family of nations, in honor, credit, 
 influence, and power, can stand a repulse of this description. It is a blow that strikes all 
 and everything that belongs to us. " It fixes us to the earth." Abroad, our citizens are 
 forced to blush at what they see and hear. Once courted and cherished in foreign parts, 
 they are now shunned, and the finger of scorn is pointed at them. At nome we are ashamed, 
 and filled with self-reproach. And what is the cause ? IT is BECAUSE or THESE STATE 
 BEBTS. State bonds have been protested, and some have been REPUDIATED, by State 
 authorities ! 
 
 Besides the mortification, the dishonor operates more to our commercial disadvantage as 
 a nation, in a single year, than the whole amount of the debt. As it is with an individual 
 who has lost his credit, so is it with a nation. Neither can trade, but with great sacrifice, 
 directly and indirectly. In Senate Document, No. 340, 2d session, 27th Congress, it is 
 shown, that our domestic trade amounts to $2,000,000,000 (two billions) a year, and our 
 foreign trade, including exports and imports, rarely falls below $200,000.000. It is stated, 
 in House Document No. 296, 3d session, 27th Congress, that at that time, we were 
 losing, in prices and by a bad currency, an average of 20 per cent, on the whole of our trade. 
 Abate this lossfifty per cent., or one half, and can it be doubted that, in our peculiar position 
 of bad credit, and in the embarrassments arising therefrom at home and abroad, the loss on 
 % whole of our trade ($2,200,000,000) would average 10 per cent. ? If such be the fact, 
 the entire loss amounts to two hundred and twenty millions annually, being twenty millions in 
 excess of the whole amount of the State debts ! In addition to this, we are paying 50 per 
 eent. more interest on our debt, than would be demanded of us, if our credit were good, 
 which is equal to a funded debt of a hundred millions at a fair per cent. There is yet another 
 consideration in the decline of the value of all kinds of property, through which the country 
 has passed, and which can hardly be estimated for the vastness of the amount. [See Tract 
 No. II, page 16.] Such are the commercial disadvantages resulting from the dishonored 
 credit of a nation. 
 
 39. Mr. Clay s and Mr. Van Burerfs position in regard to Distribution. 
 As certain as Mr. Clay is in favor of Distribution, so certain is it, that Mr. Van Buren 
 would veto any measure of the kind, however strong and decided might be the wishes of the 
 people, or the vote of Congress in its favor. The people of this country, therefore, who feel 
 the importance of this great national measure, will be aware of the importance of their vote 
 at the approaching Presidential Election. Nor is it less certain that the Tariff would be 
 sacrificed by Mr. Van Buren and his party, if they should ever have it in their power. These 
 two great and vital measures, on w,hich hangs the weal or wo of this country, according as 
 they shall be maintained or "destroyed, are the great stake of the coming contest. Others of 
 vast, and many of less impoVtah > ce,.are also at stake ; but none so momentous as these. The 
 question before the nation, is SHALL THE LONG -PROTRACTED DESTRUCTIVE DYNASTY BE 
 
 RESTORED, OR SHALL THE REPUBLIC BE SAVED? 
 
 128 
 
EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
 
 THE FOLLOWING are a few EXTRACTS from the numerous notices that have been given of 
 the JUNIUS TRACTS by the public press : 
 
 From the New York Tribune. 
 
 THE TEST. " We are sure, that the Whigs of the Union will rejoice with us to learn, that 
 JUNIUS, the able author of " The Crisis of the Country" and other powerful and convincing 
 essays, widely circulated during the late Presidential contest, has, at the request of the Whig 
 Members of the last Congress, resumed his labors in the same field, and will prepare a 
 series of political pamphlets on the several chief topics in controversy between the rival 
 parties, to be afforded at the lowest possible price for gratuitous circulation. The first 
 is entitled THE TEST, or Parties tried by their acts. There is no other writer in the land who 
 could have crowded so much matter into 16 pages. " 
 
 THE CURRENCY." This is an able and most forcible summary of the whole Currency 
 controversy of the last twelve years, exhibiting the positions of the two parties, hitherto, 
 now, and hereafter. As an argument for a National Currency, of Specie and Paper every 
 where convertible into Specie, it has not been surpassed. It is admirable, especially for its 
 power of condensation, and the vigorous simplicity with which the Whig views are presented." 
 
 THE TARIFF. "It is ably,- closely, pithily written, and condenses a large amount of argu 
 ment, fact, and apposite illustration, into the small compass of sixteen closely printed pages. 
 It is so plain that no man can read without comprehending it ; so forcible that none can un 
 derstand without being impressed by it. This Tract ought to be, must be generally circulated." 
 From the National Intelligencer. 
 
 "The Whigs of the Union will remember The Crisis of the Country, by Junius, so 
 tensively circulated in 1840, and will be glad to learn, that JUNIUS is in the field again tor 
 1844, with the purpose of bringing out a series of Tracts on the leading questions in contro 
 versy between the two great parties. The amount of information embodied in 16 pages 
 will surprise the reader. It comprehends volumes of facts, principally deduced from authentic 
 public documents, evincing great and pertinent research. It is generally the kind of infor 
 mation, which the people most require. The facts will all be recognised; but, in the 
 isolated forms in which the same facts have been presented to the public, their effect lias 
 been slight and evanescent. But in the manner of their grouping here, they are overwhelm 
 ing for the object intended." 
 
 From the Albany Evening Journal. 
 
 " This admirable and effective series of Tracts from < Junius, the ablest political writer 
 of the day, are all of the same size, in 16 closely printed pages, costing only $20 a thousand, 
 or two cents a piece, prepared with great labor, expressly for distribution among the people. 
 This mode of operation by Tracts, is a new system in politics, and may be made all powerful. 
 Put facts before the people, such as Junius has collected and arranged, and they will pre 
 vail. We desire that the Whigs of this State, and of the Union, may be impressed with the 
 importance of this new agency. We are told that not less than a million of The Crisis of 
 ihe Country, by Junius, were used in 1840, and their influence was prodigious. As it was 
 chiefly made up of facts, it was used as a text-bo6k by politicians and stump orators all over 
 the land, at the same time that it was in the hands of the people." 
 From the New York Courier and Enquirer. 
 
 " Junius Redivivus is out again in a way that must be most acceptable to the Whig 
 party All the Tracts of Junius are admirably calculated for popular effect by enlighten 
 ing the public mind with a simple array of facts in the most economical mode The 
 
 mass, we might say, the volumes of information given in these Tracts, so powerfully con 
 densed, and so admirably adapted, as they are for the people, for all, is almost incredible." 
 
 From the New Orleans See. 
 
 " These little pamphlets are working infinite good, to the Whig cause, and we observe 
 with pleasure, that they are becoming the standard publications among our party." 
 
REDUCTION OF PRICE. 
 
 Being advised that it will be acceptable to the Whig public, and likely 
 to afford a wider circulation of the Junius Tracts, the author has con 
 cluded to reduce the price from $2 50 cents a hundred, and $20 a thou 
 sand, as first fixed, to FIFTEEN DOLLARS A THOUSAND, which will be 
 the price at the publishing office during the Presidential campaign of 1844, 
 to all who order them in separate numbers. 
 
 The price of the Series, to the book trade, consisting of eight numbers 
 bound together, comprising 128 pages, will be $16 a hundred, which, re 
 tailed at 25 cents a copy, affords, as will be seen, more than the usual 
 profit to the trade. 
 
 New York, April 15, 1844. 
 
 CITY or WASHINGTON, MARCH 4, 1843. 
 
 We, the undersigned, impressed with a conviction of the importance and effectiveness 
 of Tracts, as a means of informing the people in matters appertaining to our national inter- 
 ests, and of the suitable qualifications of JUNIUS, author of THE CRISIS OF THE COUNTRY," 
 and of other papers emanating from his pen in 1840, the wide circulation and great useful 
 ness of which, at that time, are well known to the public, hereby express the hope, that he 
 may be able to renew his labors of the same kind for the coming contest of 1844; and we 
 earnestly recommend to our Whig friends, and to Whig Associations throughout the Union, 
 to second his efforts, if undertaken. 
 
 MlLLARD FlLLMORE, J- H. CRAVENS, 
 
 SENATORS. JoHN MAYNARD , J. T. STUART, 
 
 W. P. MANGUM/- President. W. H. WASHINGTON, A. H. H. STUART, 
 
 J J. CRITTENDEN, ROGER L. GAMBLE, A. RANDALL, 
 
 J. T. MOREHEAD, B. S. COWAN, G- W. SUMMERS, 
 
 N. P. TALLMADGE, JOHN xMooRE, C. H. WILLIAMS, 
 
 WM. S. ARCHER, R. W. THOMPSON, ALFRED BABCOCK, 
 
 SAMUEL S. PHELPS, L. W. ANDREWS, A. L. FOSTER, 
 
 J. W. MILLER, T. W. TOMLINSON, R. L. CARUTHERS, 
 
 C. M. CONRAD, GARRETT DAVIS, MILTON BROWN, 
 
 J. F. SIMMONS, GEO. B. RODNEY, J. M. RUSSELL, 
 
 J. LEEDS KERR. H. S. LANE, THOS. HENRY, 
 
 JNO. EDWARDS, J. R- UNDERWOOD, 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES. AuG . YOUNG, J. A. PEARGE, 
 
 JOHN WHITE, Speaker. Jos. TRUMBULL, EDWARD STANLEY, 
 
 THOS. BUTLER KING, J. R. INGERSOLL, J. C. CLARK. 
 
5B\n3T*r 
 
YB 37437 
 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 BDD1D23M73 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY