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notes from circulation, and ceasing its operations. All this would have to be done within that period; for, although, by its charter, provision was made for allowing it further time for the collection of its debts, &c. yet, after the expiration of its term, it can issue no new paper, nor answer any of the purposes of a bank of discount. He said it behooved all who were interested in public affairs, without exaggeration on the one side, or delusion on the other, to prepare themselves to meet the crisis. He then went on to show the great importance of the present question, more especially to the states connected with the waters of the Mississippi, within whose limits, thirty millions of active capital had been furnished for business by the bank. He drew a picture of the consequences likely to flow from all this facility being withdrawn within four years, and of the deep distress which must inevitably follow its withdrawal.

To

the people of the United States, he said, it was now plainly put, whether in one way, and in one way only, (for the message left no alternative) this evil was to be avoided. Mr. Webster then proceeded with some remarks upon the President's objections to the bill. The first which he adverted to, was the objection to the application of the bank for the renewal of its charter, on the ground that it was premature. So far from this objection being a just one, he said that the time of the application was the latest day at which the Bank could, with any justice to the public, or any regard to the interest of the stockholders, come forward, if the question, whether its charter was to be renewed or not, was at all doubtful. After adverting to the undoubted right of Congress to exercise a discretion as to the time at which they would act upon this subject, he said it was neither Congress nor the bank that had first agitated the question; for that the Executive had not only once, but twice and thrice, called on Congress to act upon the subject. He argued that it could not be premature, in 1832, to do that which the President had invited them to do as far back as December, 1829, &c. There was another point of view, in which, he said, this remark might have been spared; he meant in reference to those states of the Union extremely interested in this measure, and which had instructed, unanimously, their representatives, not only to vote for the renewal of the charter of the bank, but to vote for it now, at this VOL. III.

21

present session. But, he added, why disguise the fact? This was a question on which it was very interesting to all the people to know what were the opinions of the public servants. The time had come, when the people had a right to know, how their servants, from the highest to the lowest, intended to act upon this matter. It was, therefore, proper that the subject should be acted upon at the present session. The result proved it. No one could doubt, after reading this message, that the question had been agitated not a moment too early. The election of a Chief Magistrate was about to take place; a doubt had existed as to what was the opinion of the present Chief Magistrate upon this subject: was it not fit, proper, and expedient, that that doubt should be resolved? In this view, the message, he said, so far from proving the application of the bank at this session to have been premature, carried on its face the proof of its being indispensable. The very fact of the constitutional objections of the President to the bank, and that, under his auspices, no such bank could ever be re-chartered or created, demonstrated the necessity of action upon it at the present session. He touched, also, upon another suggestion of the message in relation to the prematurity of the application; which was, that it would be the fault of the bank if its affairs were not wound up within the period of its charter. This, he said, would be impossible, unless the bank were governed by angels instead of men. If the interest paid by the people of the western states was as heavy a drain upon them as represented by the message, how much heavier a drain, he argued, would that be, which, within four years, would draw from them, not only this interest, but the principal upon which the interest was paid? He enlarged upon the circumstances of the western country, which made money more valuable there than in the Atlantic states, and on the distress which would be produced by withdrawing from them seven and a half millions of dollars a year, for which they were now paying but six per cent. interest to the Bank of the United States, upon the substitute for which capital they would have to pay a much higher rate of interest, &c.

Mr. Webster then proceeded to review the objections of a constitutional nature contained in the message; the different parts of which, he intimated, were evidently from different hands.

4

He entered into an argment on the several points made in the message, to show that they were either unfounded, unsound, or untenable. In this constitutional disquisition, some things were respectable, and some were new. Those which were respectable, he said, were not new; and those that were new, he left it to be inferred that he considered not very respectable. He examined and refuted the argument drawn from precedent, which he maintained was decidedly on the side of the bank, instead of being against it. He protested against the doctrines of the message, on the subject of the independence claimed for different branches of the Government, pronouncing, without reservation, that, if you take away the power of the Supreme Court, to decide whether a law of Congress, brought before them, is according to the constitution or not, you subvert the government; you take away the last guard-the last rampart of defence of your political and civil rights; the legislative discretion stands unrestrained and unrestricted.

You

are brought within the predicament which Mr. Jefferson so much deprecated; you have got rid of unrestrained legislation abroad, to have it fastened upon you at home, &c. In regard to the bank question, the whole action of the Government, of the Executive, under every President till now, of every Congress, and of the Supreme Court, had recognized the constitutionality of the charter of this, as well as of the old bank, &c.

Mr. Webster then dwelt at some length, on other positions of the message, which he considered untenable; such, for instance, as that one Congress cannot bind its successors, and that every thing contained in any bill passed by Congress, that was not absolutely necessary, as some features of the bank charter was said not to be, was unconstitutional. The absurdity of this last notion, he illustrated by a reference to the code of criminal law established by Congress under the general power to establish post-offices and post-roads; under which, capital punishments were authorized, which might have been dispensed with, by substituting other punishments for them, and which, therefore, not being necessary, would be, under the doctrines of the message, unconstitutional. There was no power, indeed, in the bank charter, he argued, which might not be substituted by some other of equivalent effect, and which was not, therefore, according to

the sense of the message, unconstitutional.

Mr. Webster next examined the objections, so often repeated, to the present bank, on the ground of its being a monopoly, and showed that it could not, in any sense of the term, be properly so called. He then went into an argument to show the fallacy of the other objection which had been made, to foreigners being stockholders in the bank; which, he said, instead of putting us in their power, so far as it goes, puts them in ours. The ten millions which they hold in the stock of the bank, so far as it had any effect, (small, indeed, it must be) was a hostage in our hands, favorable to our peace and prosperity. He then very seriously deprecated the effect of this denunciation, from such high authority, of the holding by foreigners of stock in American funds. He adverted to the canal stocks of several of the states-of Ohio, of Pennsylvania, of New-York, the prices of which were every day quoted on the London Exchange, and which might be seriously affected, to the injury of the interests of these states, by this sweeping denunciation, if not counteracted. He ridiculed the idea of such investments of their funds in our stocks by foreigners, being "dangerous to liberty," which he regarded as mere declamation, &c.

After adverting to some other parts of the message, he dwelt, with great force and some severity, upon that part of the message which states, as an objection to the bank on the part of the execu tive, that neither upon the propriety of present action, nor upon the provisions of this act, was the Executive consulted. If Congress had not consulted the Executive, he said, the Executive had consulted them; for the President had called their attention, three years ago, in most emphatic terms, to the subject of the renewal of the charter of the bank, and afterwards recommended to them to establish a bank, of which the prominent features were, that it was to have neither property, debt, loans, nor

credit!

After touching on some other points, Mr. Webster said the time had come, when we tread on the very edge of a precipice of disaster, general distrust, want of sound and safe currency; when the day was advancing which this bank had put, once put an end to, and which he had hoped never to see again. It was time that the people should awake to their danger, to a

sense of which he thought this last warning would not fail to arouse them.

Mr. White, of Tennessee, replied to Mr. Webster, and vindicated the course of the President. The debate was continued occasionally, by Messrs. Clay, Holmes, and others, until Friday the 13th, when the question was put, "whether the bill should become a law, the President's objections to the contrary notwithstanding?" and was decided in the negative, as follows:(two thirds being necessary to carry a measure against the executive veto.)

YEAS-Messrs. Buckner, Chambers, Clay, Clayton, Dallas, Foot, Frelinghuysen, Hendricks, Holmes, Johnston, Poindexter, Prentiss, Robbins, Robinson, Ruggles, Seymour, Silsbee, Sprague, Tipton, Tomlinson, Webster, Wilkins-22.

NAYS-Messrs. Benton, Bibb, Brown, Dudley, Ellis, Forsyth, Grundy, Hayne, Hill, Kane, King, Mangum, Marcy, Miller, Moore, Tazewell, Troup, Tyler, White-19.

Internal Improvements. A bill passed making appropriations for the prosecution of internal improvements. The following are the most important items.

For the Delaware Breakwater, "the sea wall at Deer island,

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$270,000 60,000

"the pier and mole at Oswego, N. Y. 19,000

17,000

16,000 22,000

"improving Big Sodus Bay, N. Y.

"Genesee River, N. Y.

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28,000

"Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi,

50,000

"the Arkansas river,

15,000

"the Cumberland river,

30,000

"Savannah river,

25,000

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expense of surveys under Act 1824,

30,000

"repairs of Cumberland Road (East)

"bridges on road to Mars Hill, (Me.) "Little Rock and Memphis Road,

"continuing Cumberland Road in

(Arkansas,)

Ohio,

"the same road in Indiana, "the same road in Illinois, "roads in Michigan,

150,000 21,000

20,000

100,000

100,000

70,000

40,000

Salt-manufactured and imported. The annexed facts are abridged from a speech of Mr. Reed of Massachusetts, made in the House of Representatives, June 20, on a motion to reduce the duty on salt from ten to five cents a bushel.

In July, 1776, in the continental Congress, a committee of thirteen, one from each state, was instructed to inquire, in the recess of Congress, into the easiest and cheapest method of making salt in these colonies.

Dec. 29, 1776, It was Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to the several Assemblies or Conventions, immediately to promote, by sufficient public encouragement, the making salt in their respective colonies.

June 3d, 1777, Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to de

vise ways and means for supplying the United States with salt.

June 13, 1777, Resolved, That it be recommended to the several states, to erect and encourage, in the most liberal and effectual manner, proper works for the making of salt.

The country suffered severely for the want of salt during the revolution. The national debt was greatly enhanced by the extravagant and unavoidable price paid for salt during the war, and the expense of its transportation. When the present government was formed, one of the first acts of taxation laid a duty on salt. It has, with the exception of a few years, been ever since continued. The manufactures have commenced and grown up under the solicitations and encouragement of our Government. On the sea board about $2,000,000 capital has been invested in manufacturing salt of sea water, by solar evaporation, and about 600,000 bushels of best alum salt is yearly manufactured in more than 1500 establishments, owned by as many perIn the interior, salt is still more easily manufactured from the springs. At the present time salt is manufactured in twenty-two states. We manufactured, the last season, 4,387,510 bushels. We manufactured more than we imported. These numerous manufactories on the sea-board and in the interior, distributed through the country, furnishing more than half the salt used, are competitors with each other, and competitors with the importers of foreign salt. This competition is certain to secure the country against odious monopolies, which were justly complained of in former times.

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Importations of salt at the following places in the year 1831.

Passamaquoddy,

Frenchman's Bay,

13,169

2,833 29,690

17,942
16,300

28,304

127,937

233,369

4,287

197,952
9,552
48,619
13,702

20,824

444,719
79,345
4,009
3,192
30,723

10,785
60,728

4,339

Penobscot,

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24,183

Dighton,

6,766

Plymouth,

Marblehead,

48,648
9,754

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222,098

Vienna,

4,326

Georgetown,

Alexandria,

Richmond,

Petersburg,

Norfolk,

Camden,

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879

15 655,514 5,435

5,721

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tracted credits heretofore existing-and the change in the legal value of the pound-sterling, which is now fixed at four dollars and eighty cents, instead of four dollars and forty-four cents. The law will go into operation on the 3d of March, 1833.

Day of Humiliation. A resolution was introduced into the Senate by Mr. Clay, and afterwards passed that body, requesting the President to appoint a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, in consequence of the appearance of the Cholera in this country. In the House of Representatives the resolution underwent considerable discussion, and two or three modifications. It failed, after being so changed in its substance as to make the recommendation the act of the two Houses of Congress, without calling upon the President on the subject. It was laid on the table, on motion of Mr. Adams of Massachusetts.

Patents. An act concerning Patents and Useful Inventions makes it the 227,502 duty of the Secretary of State, annually, in the month of January, to report to Congress, and to publish in two of the newspapers printed in the city of Washington, a list of all the patents for discoveries, inventions, and improvements, which shall have expired within the year immediately preceding, with the names of the patentees, alphabetically arranged. Application to Congress to prolong or renew the term of a patent, shall be made before its expiration, and shall be notified at least once a month for at least three months before its presentation, in two newspapers in which the laws of the United States shall be published in the state or territory in which the patentee shall reside. The petition shall set forth particularly the grounds of the application. It shall be verified by oath; the evidence in its support may be taken before any judge or justice of the peace; it shall be accompanied by a statement of the ascertained value of the discovery, invention, or improvement, and of the receipts and expenditures of the patentee, so as to exhibit the profit or loss arising therefrom. The act also provides that whenever a patent shall be invalid or inoperative, by reason of inadvertence, accident or mistake, and without any fraudulent or deceptive intention, the Secretary of State may cause a new patent to be granted for the residue of the unexpired period of the original patent, &c.

8,027

4,494,006

Bushels,
Gross duty at 15 cents per bushel, $674,100 90.

T. L. SMITH, Register.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Register's Office, 7th June, 1832. The Tariff. The passage of the new tariff was one of the last important acts of the session. The history of its progress and the attending circumstances and debates would form an interesting volume, and will not, of course, be expected in these brief monthly abstracts. The bill reduces the duties on various articles of importation, and yet, is said by its friends to recognize the principle of protection to all important branches. of domestic industry. Its most important features are, the abolition of minimums on woollen goods-the establishing of cash duties, instead of the pro

Adjournment. The session of Congress closed on Monday, July 16, at eight o'clock in the morning.

LITERARY NOTICES.

History of the late Polish Revolution, and the Events of the Campaign. By Joseph Hordynski, Major of the late Tenth Regiment of Lithuanian Lancers.

We believe that there is no American who did not take a deep interest in the late glorious, though unsuccessful, struggle of the Poles for freedom. Their cause was the cause of mankind; their revolt might be considered an operation of that system which our own fathers set in motion, and their chivalrous character was an irresistible claim upon our sympathies. Every one wished them success; every one desired to see the effects of Muscovite tyranny circumscribed. The book before us, if it be a true record of facts, as we doubt not it is, proves that our esteem for the Poles and our abhorrence of despotism were equally well founded.

The History of the late Polish Revolution, cannot be said to be well written, as far as mere style is concerned. There are, however, many allowances to be made for this defect. The author and his editor were obliged to communicate with each other in a language foreign to both. The original Polish manuscript was first translated by the author into French, with which he was not perfectly acquainted, and was then rendered into English by several different persons, one of whom was a foreigner. The author could not read his work in its new dress, and there were other circumstances, not attributable to the editor, which prevented him from correcting what was amiss. These facts being considered, it is not wonderful that the work contains many slips in grammar and verbal errors. These, however, do not hinder it from being in a very high degree instructive and interesting. Till now, we have had no continuous account of the Polish revolution, or any means of accounting for its failure. This book supplies the deficiency. The author was an eyewitness of, and an actor in, what he describes. He shows, indeed, a laudable partiality for his compatriots, and a strong dislike of the Russians; but we are satisfied, that what he sets down as fact, may be confidently received as such. His manner of relating events is bold, spirited and concise. There is no amplification, no waste of words in his book, and we are sure that no one will ever yawn over it.

According to Major Hordynski, the oppression which the Poles endeavored

to throw off, was dreadful beyond any thing we have ever imagined. A brutal savage, bore unlimited sway over Poland. All offices under him were filled by Russians, or such Poles as merited the abhorrence of their countrymen. Such officers of the Polish army as were displeasing to the Grand Duke, were treated with extraordinary severity, and many escaped from the tyrant by suicide. The privates, who had hitherto been governed by the sense of honor, were now directed in their motions by the knout, like the slave-born Russians. The liberty of the press was abolished, and a terrible system of espionage substituted in its stead. There were nine hundred spies in Warsaw alone. The citizens were arrested on the bare word of a vile spy, and condemned without trial or hearing. No expense or pains were spared to corrupt the nation. The fountains of moral and social life were poisoned, or choked up. No man dared to speak freely to his most intimate friend, for Russian gold had made it dangerous to have a friend. Foreigners were ployed as informers, and even women, who were accounted ladies, were bribed to report the words and deeds of their nearest and dearest friends. The worthiest sons of Poland were daily cast into dungeons on the slightest pretences, and, will it be believed?-married women were incarcerated for repelling the criminal advances of Russian Generals. The most ruinous monopolies were granted to individual favorites, and the whole land groaned under a general system of extortion. Such was the tyranny which the Poles at last rose to

resist.

em

Great as their wrongs were, the Poles showed a moderation of which there is no other example in history. They not only spared the Grand Duke's life, but suffered him to depart, though they might easily have made prisoners of him and his army. They gave quarter to the Russian troops who opposed them in arms. Two only of the Polish officers who proved faithless to their country, fell by the popular indignation. Persons and property were religiously respected. No individual was molested unnecessarily, nor was any private house or shop forcibly entered. Ladies sat at the windows by which the insurgent troops were marching without fear or danger. What makes this forbearance more remark

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