The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session Page: 60
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CONGRESSIONAL GLOBfe.
.say that these are not the views of the whigs of his
section of country.
Mr. HARDIN; Nor of the whigs in the gentle-
man's section.
Mr. HENLEY. How does the gentleman know?
-Mr. HARDIN. I know as well with reference
to the views of the whigs in the gentleman's section
as the gentleman.
Mr. HENLEY. Well, if the gentleman would
tell half what he does know of the whig party,
[laughter,] the country satisfied that the charges
which had been brought against that party were
true.
Mr. H. adverted to the frequent charges of cor-
ruption made by the whigs upon the democratic
party, and said it looked very much as if they them-
selves considered these charges necessary in order to
scrccn them from the guilt of their course in the
election of 1840 and subsequent thereto. In 1840,
they had made the people believe that if they were
elected, they would bring about a change; but how
liad their promises been redeemed?
In reference to the charge that the democracy of
the country had deceived the people in the late
canvass, Mr. H. could only say that at least as far
as Indiana was concerned, (and he believed it to
be the case in the other States,) there had never
been a contest in which both parties had presented
more distinctly the issues upon which they stood.
They (the democratic party) had boldly, distinctly,
proclaimed their doctrines everywhere; and the
whigs (unlike their course in 1340) had been willing
to meet them. ' In relation to the bank, they had
taken 'decided ground against the system ip any
form, whether as a national or State institution;
they were in favor of some depository of the pub-
lic money, and the independent treasury was known
to be the one. In relation to the tariff, it was true
that was not so much a party question as many
other questions which had agitated the public minu,
as appeared from the fact that, in the Congress which
passed the tariff of 1842, a large portion of the
whig party had not voted for it, while many dem-
ocrats did vote for it to prevent the wheels of govern-
ment from being stopped. It was a question
which affected the country locally more than
any of the other of the prominent questions of
the day; and it was a question which would be set-
tled by the democratic party satisfactorily to the
nation, and upon a basis where it would remain, it
was his opinion, for twenty years—a basis upon
which the democracy of Alabama, of Pennsylvania,
and of South Carolina, (although it was ti ue that
the democracy of his friend from South Carolina
who made a speech the other day, [Mr. Holmes,]
was so straight-up that it leaned a little over,) would
all be able to meet and harmonize. It was a ques-
tion on which they must have compromise, and on
which there would be a disposition to compromise;
the declatation of his friend from Alabama, [Mr.
Payne,] throwing hack the charge of the whigs that
the democracy of some portions of the South were
in favor of free-trade, convinccd him of that. The
gentlemen need not lay the flattering unction to
their souls that divisions would arise among the
democratic party on the tariff question. He was
decidedly opposed to the tariff of 1842 in three-
quarters of its details; it was odious in its features.
The tariff of1842 was not popular generally; it might
be in some of its details, but it was oppressive in
the duties it imposed upon many articles—upon cot-
ton goods and silks; of course he had no reference to
iron. [Great laughter.]
In relation to the prospects of the democratic par-
ty, it had been said that the people had been delu-
ded in this contest. Let no man deceive himself
thus: he had never seen such an anxiety to investi-
gate, to fully understand, all questions brought up
for decision, as m the recent campaign; and, more-
over, he had never seen such a determination in de-
feat any party as there had been to defeat. Mr. Clay
and the whig party—which determination had grown
up spontaneously m the bosoms of the people, and
not from the politicians. "What had the people de-
cided?" Why, they had decided one tiling to dem-
onstration: that was, that James K. Polk should be
the Piesident of the United States, and that Heniy
Clay never should be. [A laugh.] And they had
decided another thing, namely: that they had no
confidence m the whig party, and that they would
try the democratic party; and if the democratic par-
ty but proved faithful to the trusts committed to
tnem, they would receive the approbation of the
people; and they should know that, in order to sus-
tain themselves, they must work—they must per-
form their duty here,—and part of that duty was to
remain in this hall long enough to do a proper
amount of business each day, and not, after they
had been in session an hour and a half, adjourn, and
put on their hats and cloaks, and walk off, with
great dignity, and with a very measured step; or, if
they remained, they should not consume the time of
the nation in calls of the yeas and nays on motions
to adjourn, or to suspend the rules, to press forward
one bill at the expense of others. Here was a new
state of things* they had elected a young man for
the presidency; it had" been done by th& "young de-
mocracy" of the country; it had been done by in-
dustry: and if they maintained their position, they
had got to continue that industry and care.
Mr. H. having concluded—
Mr. DILLINGHAM observed that he had not
risen for the purpose of speaking of the fairness or
unfairness that was used m the last canvass for the
presidency before the people; but his purpose was
to turn his attention to the main objection that had
been urged against this bill. That objection was
urged yesterday by the gentleman from Massachu-
setts [Mr. Adams] against the first section, and the
substance of it was that it proposed to give locality
and tangibility to the treasury of the United States,
which would' be an invasion of the constitution.
They had been told that for the last sixty years the
treasury of the United States, in the view of the
best expounders of the constitution, had no dwell-
ing.place", and that it was wherever the public mon-
ey was, either in the hands of corporations or indi-
viduals. This position had also been taken up by
the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Barnard,]
and the gentleman from Pennsylvania on his left,
[Mr. J. R. Ingersoll.] He confessed, however,
that he was astonished that the gentleman from
Pennsylvania farthest from him [Mr. C. J. Inger-
soll] had been so mesmerized by the doctrine, that
he avowed himself to have considerable doubts on
the subject. One gentleman contended that the
treasury of the United States might be in the hands
of whoever was authorized to receive public mo-
ney, and that whenever money was received by any
person for the public use, the Treasurer of the Uni-
ted States had the control of it. Now, he wanted
to look at this objection, and see if it was well-
founded. Was it true that the treasury of the Uni-
ted Slates was wherever the public money was
found, whether in the hands of the Treasurer of the
United States, in the hands of collectors, or of indi-
viduals? If this were true, how would it be with
public money in the hands of defaulters? Was
it true that money in the ' hards of default-
ers -was in the treasury of the United States,
and that the treasurer had the control of it?
Was the treasury of the United States so expansive
that it could cross the Atlantic ocean, and be found
ill Europe or Asia, or wherever public defaulters
might abscond to? Was it true that, if a minister of
the law pursued the defaulter so closely that he could
not leave our shores, the treasury of the United
States might be hid in the recesses or caves where he
concealed himself? or, if the defaulter should be ta-
kan, that it might be found in the felon's den, the
penitentiary, or State prison? Was it possible that
the constitution of the United States had given such
length and breadth to the national treasury, and
made it so impalpable and evanescent that it could
not be found anywhere? It was not so, and the law
of 1789 had taken a different construction of it. By
that law money was not considered to be in the
treasury until it was receipted for by the treasurer of
the United States. Now the treasurer being located
at Washington city, and no money being in the
tieesury until receipted for by the tieasurer, it fol-
lowed that the present bill was in conformity with
thp.tjaw. After some further remarks, Mr. D. ob-
served that the time left would not allow him to fol-
low the argument of the gentleman from Pennsyl-
vania, and he would only observe that, as the only
objection he. had heard against the bill was not a
sound one, he would vote for it with great cheerful-
ness.
Mr. SHEPARD GARY said he did not rise for
the purpose of discussing the merits of the bill under
consideration. It was sufficiently understood by the
country, and was approved by the democracy. His
object was to explain, as he best could under the
circumstances, the real position of the two great par-
ties upon the subject of the public moneys. The
fact had become noted and distinguished, and it was
now hardly worth mentioning, that whatever meas-
ures the democratic party had condemned and bu-
ried as derogatory to the great interests of the coun-
try, were always and immediately taken up by the
federal party. In such cases they were always "im-
mediate annexationists." [Laughter.] It was so in
this case particularly; although those representatives
of the whig party who were in Congress in '36, had
covered their opposition to the bill under the pretence
"that it conflicted with the constitution;" and it had
been left to the younger members-of that party to
denounce it in all its provisions,-and declare their
preference to the present "pet-bank system" for the
safe-keeping of the public money. The honorable
gentleman from New York [Mr. W. Hunt,]
has announced* to us that it was his determination
(and Mr. G. presumed he spoke for the universal
whig party) to stand firm upon whig principles!
That, he took the liberty to say, was a strange rest-
ing place. Firm upon whig principles! Where
were they to be found? Look for them, and you
find no stamping ground; grasp at them, and you
clinch nothing. The position of the opposition in
1836, ' and their present position upon this wry
question, most clearly demonstrated the absurdity
of the pretence that any solid, settled, enlightened
principle governed them. The veriest neophyte
among them all could not realize such an absurdity.
In 1834, they tried and condemned Andrew Jackson
before the Senate for adopting the use of what the
gentleman from New York calls "the State institu-
tions" as depositories of the public moneys; and
their orators proclaimed, from windows of a public
hotel in a neighboring city, upon a Sabbath day,
"that there were no Sundays in revolutionary
times;" that the usurpations of the hero and states-
man, now reposing quietly at the Hermitage, must
be resisted, "peaceably if they could, but forcibly if
they must." - "*
This astonishingly patriotic party—this party
which prates of principle, as though it knew what
principle was—coolly charges the democracy with
inconsistency during the late canvass, and, forsooth,
have suddenly become the great champions of the
same system of "pet banks," against which but a
dozen years past they were wont to revolutionize,
and threaten anarchy to the republic and its
institutions. Their orators proclaimed, at that
time, that the President had united "the purse and
the sword, by assuming control ov'er the public
moneys—that he had assumed or usurped power
dangerous to the liberties of the people, not to be
tolerated under any circumstances; and that an ap-
peal to arms was perfectly justifiable! But what a
change came o'er this spirit of the dream. The fail-
ure of this system, brought about by the almost
universal bankruptcy of the State banks, necessarily
embarrassing a democratic administration, at once
expelled all its odious features—made it entirely
constitutional—obliterated all of the usurpation
which had been charged at its adoption, and com-
mended it to the strong support, the intense devotion
of its former "revolutionary" opponents! [Laugh-
ter.] The democracy of the country, from the brief
and pointed experience which followed the adoption
of the State banks as depositories of the public treas-
ure—a system hastily adopted, and from the neces-
sities of the case—determined immediately against
it; and a law for the safe-keeping of the government
moneys, providing for the punishment of defaulters
and peculators upon it, was enacted. It was agood
law—the same as that now before the House, with
some exceptions. But mark (said Mr. C.) the hol-
lowness and hypocrisy of those who oppose this
great financial measure. Look at their advent to
power m 1840. They repeal the very measure
designed to safely keep the public money—a meas-
ure so honest and well adapted to our governmental
purposes, that they dare not give it a fair trial! Not
only did they repeal it, but, with an almost
certain knowledge that no substitute could be
adopted, coolly seated themselves upon a sys-
tem of finance which they had denounced, and
which the democracy had repudiated when they
discovered it founded upon error. They repeal
this great measure, and place in the hands
of the executive the "purse and the sword." They
leave the public moneys entirely under his control,
to be distributed, were he a bad man, in these same
"pet banks," against which they so frequently and
indignantly hurled their anathemas, to be loaned to
favorites, and subject to legalized suspensions. The
honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. J. R.
Ingersoll] obhqsely intimates the policy of re-
establishing a national bank. He was not astonished
at this, although the embodiment of all the federal-
ism north of the Potomac [Mr. Webster] had pro-
nounced it "an obsolete idea." That exprawsioij
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United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe, Volume 14: Twenty-Eighth Congress, Second Session, legislative document, 1845; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2366/m1/76/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.