the gentleman from North Carolina as to the "Mr. WISE said that he agreed entirely with doctrine of specific appropriations; and if he supposed that this bill violated that salutary principle he should be willing to amend it. But it did not; it declared a specific object, for which the money was given. He did not see the necessity of going into all the items which made up the sum. That Congress had no power to ordain that a portion of the navy should be always retained upon the coast as a home squadron, was to him a new doctrine. The bill did not say that these vessels should never be sent any where else." that it would be a school for the instruction of making the appropriations in the bill speof the young midshipmen; and that it would cific." give employment to many junior officers then idle in the cities. With respect to the first of these reasons it was believed by some that the merchant service was the best school in which a naval officer was ever trained; and with respect to the idle officers, that the true remedy was not to create so many. The sum appropriated by the bill was in gross-so much for all the different objects named in the bill, without saying how much for each. This was objected to by Mr. McKay of North Carolina, as being contrary to democratic practice, which required specific appropriations; also as being a mere disguise for an increase of the navy; and further that it was not competent for Congress to limit the employment of a navy. He said: "Mr. MCKAY insisted on the ground he had taken, and went into a very handsome eulogy public money, as giving to the people the only on the principle of specific appropriations of the security they had for the proper and the economical use of their money; but this, by the present shape of the bill, they would entirely be deprived of. The bill might be modified with the utmost ease, but he should move no amend ments." Mr. Thomas Butler King, the reporter of the bill, entered largely into its support, and made some comparative statements to show that much money had been expended heretofore on the navy with very inadequate results in getting guns afloat, going as high as eight millions of dollars in a year and floating but five hundred and fifty guns; and claimed an improvement now, as, for seven millions and a third they would float one thousand and seventy guns. Mr. King then said: "He had heard much about the abuse and "That the bill before the committee proposed to appropriate a gross sum to effect the object in view, which he deemed a departure from the wholesome rule heretofore observed in making appropriations. It was known to all that since the political revolution of 1800, which placed the democratic party in power, the doctrine had generally prevailed, that all our appropriations should be specific. Now he would suggest to the chairman whether it would not be better to pursue that course in the present instance. Here Mr. McKay enumerated the different items of expenditure to be provided for in the bill, and named the specific sum for each. This was the form, he said, in which all our naval appropriation bills had heretofore passed. He saw no reason for a departure from this wholesome practice in this instance-a practice which was the best and most effectual means of securing misapplication of moneys appropriated for the the accountability of our disbursing officers. navy, and he believed it all to be true. To There was another suggestion he would throw illustrate the truth of the charge, he would reout for the consideration of the chairman, and fer to the table already quoted, showing on one he thought it possessed some weight. This bill hand the appropriations made, and on the other purported to be for the establishment of a home the results thereby obtained. In 1800 there squadron, but he looked upon it as nothing more had been an appropriation of $2,704,148, and nor less than for the increase of the navy with an appropriation of $7,011,055, we had we had then 876 guns afloat; while in 1836, Again, could Congress be asked to direct the manner in which this squadron, after it was fitbut 462 guns afloat. In 1841, with an approted out, should be employed? It was true that priation of a little over three millions, we had by the constitution, Congress alone was author-836 guns afloat; and in 1838, with an approized to build and fit out a navy, but the President was the commander-in-chief, and had alone the power to direct how and where it should be employed. The title of this bill, therefore, should be a bill to increase the navy,' for it would not be imperative on the President to employ this squadron on our coasts. Mr. M. said he did not rise to enter into a long discussion, but merely to suggest to the consideration of the chairman of the committee, the propriety priation of over eight millions, we had but 554 guns afloat. These facts were sufficient to show how enormous must have been the abuses somewhere." Mr. King also gave a statement of the French and British navies, and showed their great strength, in order to encourage our own building of a great navy to be able to cope with them on the ocean. He "Alluded to the change which had manifested itself in the naval policy of Great Britain, in regard to a substitution of steam power for ordinary ships of war. He stated the enumeration of the British fleet, in 1840, to be as follows: ships of the line, 105; vessels of a lower grade, in all, 403; and war steamers, 87. The number of steamers had since then been stated at 300. The French navy, in 1840, consisted of 23 ships of the line, 180 lesser vessels, and 36 steamers; besides which, there had been, at that time, eight more steamers on the stocks. These vessels could be propelled by steam across the Atlantic in twelve or fourteen days. What would be the condition of the lives and property of our people, if encountered by a force of this description, without a gun to defend themselves?" Lines of railroad, with their steam-cars, had not, at that time, taken such extension and multiplication as to be taken into the account for national defence. Now troops can come from the geographical centre of Missouri in about sixty hours (summoned by the electric telegraph in a few minutes), and arrive at almost any point on the Atlantic coast; and from all the intermediate States in a proportionately less time. The railroad, and the electric telegraph, have opened a new era in defensive war, and especially for the United States, superseding old ideas, and depriving invasion of all alarm. But the bill was passed-almost unanimously-only eight votes against it in the House; namely: Linn Boyd of Kentucky; Walter Coles of Virginia; John G. Floyd of New York; William O. Goode of Virginia; Cave Johnson, Abraham McClelland, and Hopkins L. Turney of Tennessee; and John Thompson Mason of Maryland. It passed the Senate without yeas and nays. A part of the report in favor of the home squadron was also a recommendation to extend assistance out of the public treasury to the establishment of private lines of ocean steamers, adapted to war purposes; and in conformity to it Mr. King moved this resolution : "Resolved, That the Secretary of the Navy is hereby directed to inquire into the expediency of aiding individuals or companies in our establishment of lines of armed steamers between some of our principal Northern and Southern ports, and to foreign ports; to advertise for proposals for the establishment of such lines as he may deem most important and practicable; and to report to this House at the next session of Congress." VOL. II.-18 This resolution was adopted, and laid the foundation for those annual enormous appropriations for private lines of ocean steamers which have subjected many members of Congress to such odious imputations, and which has taken, and is taking, so many millions of the public money to enable individuals to break down competition, and enrich themselves at the public expense. It was a measure worthy to go with the home squadron, and the worst of the two-cach a useless waste of money; and each illustrating the difficulty, and almost total impossibility, of getting rid of bad measures when once passed, and an interest created for them. CHAPTER LXXIV. RECHARTER OF THE DISTRICT BANKS: MR. BENTON'S SPEECH: EXTRACTS. MR. BENTON then proposed the following amendment: every of said banks be, and they are hereby, "And be it further enacted, That each and expressly prohibited from issuing or paying out, under any pretence whatever, any bill, note, or other paper, designed or intended to be used and circulated as money, of a less denomination than five dollars, or of any denomination between five and ten dollars, after one year from the passage of this bill; or between ten and twenty dollars, after two years from the same time; and for any violation of the provisions of this section, or for issuing or paying out the notes of any bank in a state of suspension, its own inclusive, the offending bank shall incur all the penalties and forfeitures to be provided and directed by the first section of this act for the case of supension or refusal to pay in specie; to be enforced in like manner as is directed by that section." Mr. BENTON. The design of the amendment is to suppress two great evils in our banking system: the evil of small notes, and that of banks combining to sustain each other in a state of suspension. Small notes are a curse in themselves to honest, respectable banks, and lead to their embarrassment, whether issued by themselves or others. They go into hands of laboring people, and become greatly diffused, and give rise to panics; and when a panic is raised it cannot be stopped among the holders of these They small notes. Their multitudinous holders can- notes? Why, in the first place, banks of high character are against them: it is only the predatory class that are for them: and, unfortunately, they are a numerous progeny. It is in vain they say they issue them for public accommodation. The public would be much better accommodated with silver dollars, gold dollars—with half, whole, double, and quarter eagles-whereof they would have enough if these predatory notes were suppressed. No! they are issued for profit-for dishonest profit not go into the counting-room to examine assets, and ascertain an ultimate ability. rush to the counter, and demand pay. They assemble in crowds, and spread alarm. When started, the alarm becomes contagious-makes a run upon all banks; and overturns the good as well as the bad. Small notes are a curse to all good banks. They are the cause of suspensions. When the Bank of England commenced operations, she issued no notes of a less denomination than one hundred pounds sterling; and when the notes were paid into the Bank, they were cancelled and destroyed. But in the course of one hundred and three years, she worked down from one hundred pound notes to one pound notes. And when did they commence reducing the amount of their notes? During the administration of Sir Robert Walpole. When the notes got down to one pound, specie was driven from circulation, and went to France and Holland, and a suspension of six and twenty years followed. They are a curse to all good banks in another way they banish gold and silver from the country: and when that is banished the foundation which supports the bank is removed: and the bank itself must come tumbling down. While there is gold and silver in the countryin common circulation-banks will be but little called upon for it: and if pressed can get assistance from their customers. But when it is banished the country, they alone are called upon, and get no help if hard run. All good banks should be against small notes on their own account. These small notes are a curse to the public. They are the great source of counterfeiting. Look at any price current, and behold the catalogue of the counterfeits. They are almost all on the small denominations-under twenty dollars. And this counterfeiting, besides being a crime in itself, leads to crimes-to a general demoralization in passing them. Holders cannot afford to lose them: they cannot trace out the person from whom they got them. They gave value for them; and pass them to somebody-generally the most meritorious and least able to bear the loss-the day-laborer. Finally, they stop in somebody's hands-generally in the hands of a working man or woman. Why are banks so fond of issuing these small for the shameful and criminal purpose of getting something for nothing. It is for the wear and tear of these little pilfering messengers! for their loss in the hands of somebody! which loss is the banker's gain! the gain of a day's or a week's work from a poor man, or woman, for nothing. Shame on such a spirit, and criminal punishment on it besides. But although the gains are small individually, and in the petty larceny spirit, yet the aggregate is great; and enters into the regular calculation of profit in these paper money machines; and counts in the end. There is always a large per centum of these notes outstanding-never to come back. When, at the end of twenty-five years, Parliament repealed the privilege granted to the Bank of England to issue notes under five pounds, a large amount were outstanding; and though the repeal took place more than twenty years ago, yet every quarterly return of the Bank now shows that millions of these notes are still outstanding, which are lost or destroyed, and never will be presented. The Bank of England does not now issue any note under five pounds sterling: nor any other bank in England. The large banks repulsed the privilege for themselves, and got it denied to all the small class. To carry the iniquity of these pillaging little notes to the highest point, and to make them open swindlers, is to issue them at one place, redeemable at another. That is to double the cheat-to multiply the chance of losing the little plunderer by sending him abroad, and to get a chance of “shaving" him in if he does not go. The statistics of crime in Great Britain show, that of all the counterfeiting of bank bills and paper securities in that kingdom, more is counterfeited on notes under five pounds than over, and it is the same in this country. On whom does the loss of these counterfeit notes fall? On the poor and the ignorant-the laborer and the mechanic. Hence these banks inflict a double injury on the poorer classes; and of all the evils of the banking system, the most revolting is its imposing unequal burdens on that portion of the people the least able to bear them. body, on a platform so high that every American can see it-the question of a sound or depreciated currency. He was glad to see the advocates of banks, State and national, show their hand on this question. To hear these paper-money advocates cele Mr. B. then instanced a case in point of an Insurance Company in St. Louis, which, in vio-brate their idols-for they really seem to wor lation of law, assumed banking privileges, and circulated to a large extent the notes of a suspended bank. Up to Saturday night these notes were paid out from its counter, and the working man and mechanics of St. Louis were paid their week's wages in them. Well, when Monday morning came, the Insurance Company refused to receive one of them, and they fell at once to îfty cents on the dollar. Thus the laborer and the mechanic had three days of their labor annihilated, or had worked three days for the exclusive benefit of those who had swindled them; and all this by a bank having power to receive or refuse what paper they please, and when they please. And the Senate are now called upon to confer the same privilege upon the banks of this district. Mr. B. said it was against the immutable principles of justice-in opposition to God's most holy canon, to make a thing of value to-day, which will be of none to-morrow. You might as well permit the dry goods merchant to call his yard measure three yards, or the grocer to call his quart three quarts, as to permit the banker to call his dollar three dollars. There is no difference in principle, though more subtle in the manner of doing it. Money is the standard of value, as the yard, and the gallon, and the pound weight, were the standards of meas ure. ship bank notes-and the smaller and meaner the better-one would be tempted to think that bank notes were the ancient and universal currency of the world, and that gold and silver were a modern invention-an innovation-an experiment-the device of some quack, who deserved no better answer than to be called humbug. To hear them discoursing of "sound banks," and "sound circulating medium," OLG would suppose that they considered gold and silver unsound, and subject to disease, rottenness, and death. But, why do they apply this phrase "sound" to banks and their currency? It is a phrase never applied to any thing which is not subject to unsoundness-to disease-to rottenness-to death. The very phrase brings up the idea of something subject to unsoundness; and that is true of banks of circulation and their currency: but it is not true of gold and silver: and the phrase is never applied to them. No one speaks of the gold or silver currency as being sound, and for the reason that no one ever heard of it as rotten. Young merchants, and some old ones, think there is no living without banks—no transacting business without a paper money currency. Have these persons ever heard of Holland, where there are merchants dealing in tens of millions, and all of it in gold and silver? Have they ever heard of Liverpool and Manchester, where there was no bank of circulation, not even a branch of the Bank of England; and whose immense ope When he proposed the amendment, he considered it a proper opportunity to bring before the people of the United States the great ques-rations were carried on exclusively upon gold tion, whether they should have an exclusive paper currency or not. He wished to call their attention to this war upon the currency of the constitution—a war unremitting and merciless -to establish in this country an exclusive paper currency. This war to subvert the gold and silver currency of the constitution, is waged by that party who vilify your branch mints, ridicule gold, ridicule silver, go for banks at all times and at all places; and go for a paper circulation down to notes of six and a quarter cents. He rejoiced that this question was presented in that and the commercial bill of exchange? Have they ever heard of France, where the currency amounts to four hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and it all hard money? For, although the Bank of France has notes of one hundred, and five hundred, and one thousand francs, they are not used as currency but as convenient bills of exchange, for remittance, or travelling. Have they ever heard of the armies, and merchants, and imperial courts of antiquity? Were the Roman armies paid with paper? did the merchant princes deal in paper? Was Nineveh and Babylon built on paper? Was Solomon's temple so built? And yet, according to these paper-money idolaters, we cannot pay a handful of militia without paper! cannot open a dry CHAPTER LXXV. NESS OF MR. VAN BUREN: PUBLIC PEACE EN LEOD. goods store in a shanty without paper! cannot REVOLT IN CANADA: BORDER SYMPATHY: FIRM build a house without paper! cannot build a village of log houses in the woods, or a street of shanties in a suburb, without a bank in their midst ! This is real humbuggery; and for THE revolt which took place in Canada in the which the industrial classes-the whole work- winter of 1837-'8 led to consequences which ing population, have to pay an enormous price. tried the firmness of the administration, and Does any one calculate the cost to the people of also tried the action of our duplicate form of banking in our country? how many costly edi- government in its relations with foreign powers. fices have to be built? what an army of officers The revolt commenced imposingly, with a large have to be maintained? what daily expenses show of disjointed forces, gaining advantages at have to be incurred? how many stockholders the start; but was soon checked by the regular must get profits? in a word, what a vast sum a local troops. The French population, being the bank lays out before it begins to make its half majority of the people, were chiefly its proyearly dividen of four or five per centum, leav- moters, with some emigrants from the United ing a surplus- all to come out of the productive States; and when defeated they took refuge on classes of the people? And after that comes an island in the Niagara River on the British the losses by the wear and tear of small notes side, near the Canadian coast, and were collect-by suspensions and breakings-by expansions ing men and supplies from the United States to and contractions - by making money scarce renew the contest. From the beginning an inwhen they want to buy, and plenty when tense feeling in behalf of the insurgents manithey want to sell. We talk of standing fested itself all along the United States border, armies in Europe, living on the people: we upon a line of a thousand miles-from Vermont have an army of bank officers here doing the to Michigan. As soon as blood began to flow same. We talk of European taxes; the banks on the Canadian side, this feeling broke out into tax us here as much as kings tax their subjects. acts on the American side, and into organization And this district is crying out for banks. It for the assistance of the revolting party-the has six, and wants them rechartered-Congress patriots, as they were called. Men assembled all the time spending more hard money among and enrolled, formed themselves into companies them than they can use. They had twelve and battalions, appointed officers-even genebanks and what did they have to do? Send rals-issued proclamations-forced the public to Holland, where there is not a single bank of stores and supplied themselves with arms and circulation, to borrow one million of dollars in ammunition: and were certainly assembling in gold, which they got at five per centum per an- sufficient numbers to have enabled the insurnum; and then could not pay the interest. At gents to make successful head against any Britthe end of the third year the interest could not ish forces then in the provinces. The whole be paid; and Congress had to pay it to save the border line was in a state of excitement and whole corporate effects of the city from being commotion-many determined to cross over, and sold-sold to the Dutch, because the Dutch had assist-many more willing to see the assistance no banks. And sold it would have been if Con- given: the smaller part only discountenanced gress had not put up the money for the dis- the proceeding and wished to preserve the relatress warrant was out, and was to be levied in tions which the laws of the country, and the thirty days. Then what does this city want duties of good neighborhood, required. To the with banks of circulation? She has no use for Canadian authorities these movements on the them; but I only propose to make them a little American side were the cause of the deepest safer by suppressing their small notes, and pre- solicitude; and not without reason: for the venting them from dealing in the depreciated numbers, the inflamed feeling, and the denotes of suspended, or broken banks. termined temper of these auxiliaries, presented a |