AND THE 4057 BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. INCLUDING A HISTORY OF PAPER MONEY IN THE ANDREW JACKSON AND THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. IT is not of General Jackson as a soldier that I propose to write. The pen of the writer, the tongue of the orator, and the chisel of the sculptor, have all sufficiently celebrated his claims to undying fame in that character. Nor is it my purpose to attempt a biographical sketch of him. I shall confine myself to a view of his civil administration as President of the United States, and to that part of it which concerns his contest with the Bank of the United States. That was no contest between men, or rival factions. It was a struggle between two contending systems; an effort, upon the one hand, to maintain the constitution and to preserve to the people gold and silver, the money of that instrument; upon the other hand, it was an effort to overthrow the constitution, pro hac vice, and to substitute for its money a system of paper currency. The cause of controversy was one fit to engage the attention of statesmen, and the actors in the strife were worthy of the cause. The forces upon either side were marshalled and led. by giants; upon the one side by Webster, Clay, and Calhoun; upon the other by such men as Thomas H. Benton, Silas Wright, and Andrew Jackson himself, primus inter pares. It was a contest destined to be forever memorable in the annals of this government, and one which will occupy no mean place in the history of the civilized world. I shall endeavor to write the history of that contest from its beginning to its final conclusion; and in the course of the narrative I shall attempt to point out certain lessons that it inculcates, which the situation of public affairs at this day may well cause the American public to ponder upon. Why, since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, an occasion should ever have arisen in which there could be a serious contest between coin and paper money, is, of itself, a matter calling for explanation. If anything in respect to that instrument may be regarded as certain, it may be taken to be true that one of the most cherished purposes of its framers and of the people who adopted it was, that there should never again be paper money in the United States. They were all persons who had seen its evils in their worst forms. They had seen the country flooded with paper money, when one hundred dollars would often not buy a bushel of meal. They knew its curses by experience and practice, and they determined that their descend ants should never suffer what they had had to endure. Under the articles of confederation the government had power to "emit bills on the credit of the United States." The first draft of the constitution, in enumerating the powers of the United States, provided that it should have power "to borrow money and emit bills, on the credit of the United States." When this clause came up for consideration, Mr. Gouverneur Morris moved to strike out the words: "and emit bills," and was séconded by Mr. Pierce Butler. Mr. Ellsworth, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States, "thought this a favorable moment to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischiefs of the various experiments which had been made were now fresh in the public mind, and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America. By withholding the power from the new government, more friends of influence. would be gained to it than by almost anything else." Mr. Wilson said: "It will have a most salutary influence upon the credit of the United States to remove the possibility of paper money. This expedient can never succeed while its mischiefs are remembered, and as long as it can be resorted to it will be a bar to other resources." Mr. Butler remarked that paper was a legal tender in no country in Europe. He was urgent for disarming the government of such a power. Mr. Read thought the words, if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the beast in Revelations. |