The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Thirteenth Congress, First and Second Sessions Page: 1,525
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1525
HISTORY OF CONGRESS.
IS26
February, 1814.
The Loan Bill.
H. of It.
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the House are willing to have the stock of our
funds placed in the hands of British capitalists?
And are they who were so sensitive to foreign
influence—so tremulously fearful- of the power of
British gold, when a reincorporation of the Uni-
ted States Bank was applied for, now so changed ?
Are they who were then so much alarmed at the
possession by British capitalists of four or five
millions of bank stock, now ready to throw into
the hands of the same capitalists five times that
amount of your national loans'?
But let me ask gentlemen what reason they
have to suppose that British capital will be in-
vested in our funds? The first inducement to such
an investment would be a full conviction of the
faith of our Government, and that idea presup-
poses the integrity of the Union. And is not the
latter supposition in direct hostility to the opin-
ions which the gentlemen on the other side of
the House daily make and pronounce for the
British nation? Do not gentlemen daily tell us,
the British consider this Government "formed of
a divided people"—that11 we are ready for" a dis-
solution ?" And from such premises can gentle-
men draw the inference, that our loan is to be
taken by British capitalists?
The enormity of the interest to be paid for this
loan forms in ray mind another important ob-
jection to the bill. The last loan was negotiated
at a fraction less than eight per cent., while the
interest at the banks, and the legal interest of
most of the States, is six; private credit, and the
credit of individual States, obtain any amount at
the same per cent.; and yet, sir, this Administra-
tion, under the managemeut of its present rulers,
pays eight. Sir, if the Administration would exert
itself to establish the credit of the nation upon a
basis as firm as private credit; if it would show
the moneyed men a redeeming fund, instead of
driving back from your Treasury fifteen millions
of annual commercial revenue; if it cherished
the just interests of the people, and soothed and
allayed instead of exasperating their passions; if
it gave to calculating men a rational expectation
that the halcyon days of commercial revenue
would again be restored to this country; if, in
short, the " restrictive energies," the " anti-com-
mercial policy" of your Administration had not
exhausted the streams of public revenue, and, in-
deed, dried up its very source, we might either
have had in the Treasury a supply for our wants,
or commanded it upon terms advantageous and
creditable.
The gentleman from Virginia, to whom I just
alluded, tells us that in loaning money to the
Government there is " no patriotism concerned
the exaction beyond legal interest is " usury."
Now, sir, I cannot distinguish between the evil
consequences of throwing the pecuniary concerns
of Government into the hands of " usurers" and
those of a private individual. To the affairs of
the latter we know it would be ruin. If these
gentry once get the noose about your neck, they
are as relentless as death; give them eight per
cent., they will ask you nine; yield them this,
they will rise to ten; and so, drawing you within
their grasp, the gripe of the usurer becomes the
gripe of death. If the Administration must raise
this enormous sum, why not apply to the people
at once and collect it? Is it fearful the people
will see and realize the ruinous tendency of its
measures? Does it lack courage to show to each
individual the proportion for which his estate is
mortgaged ? Does it suppose, by shuffling off the
" hour of reckoning," its political life is " yet to
be spared another day V Does it suppose the peo-
ple had rather pay twelve per cent., Government
interest, (doubling the debt upon them in eight
years,) than ea6h now to pay his proportion, bor-
rowing himself at six, if necessary ? I believe, sir,
the interest and feeling of my constituents, corres-
ponding with my own, hostile to a national debt,
which thus feeds and fattens the speculators and.
usurers of your country. l>
Again, sir, I am opposed to the influence which
will be given to the money lenders, whom the
honorable gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Jack-
son) designates as lacking patriotism. A mon-
eyed influence in a Republican Government
should ever be rigidly and firmly resisted. Every
member of every branch of our Government
should be kept free from temptation; free from
suspicion of such an influence, and clear from the
contagious atmosphere generated in its use. Ia
aristocratical and monarchical Governments, per-
haps, the reverse of this general proposition is
correct; and hence, perhaps, the maxim in such
Governments "a national debt is a national bless-
ing." But in this country I trust such a maxim
will never insinuate itself into the progress of
our affairs, so as to reach and blunt the feelings
of the people. Who can deny, however, that with
forty millions of public stock, recently issued to
the avarice and cupidity of the nation, and with
an almost equal amount contemplated now to .be
issued, that our fears should be excited?
I shall regret to see, but the period may not be
far off, when speculators, stock-jobbers, and usur-
ers, will swarm about your Capitol, thrusting
themselves into the very sanctuary of your Legis-
lature; infesting your lobbies and galleries; kindly
devising and advising the laws for your enact-
ment. So deeply interested for the public good,
their precious time will be wholly devoted to aid-
ing you in financial arrangements. The period
may be at hand, sir, when you will see them
moving about your palace, and the departments
of your Cabinet, disinterestedly helping your Sec-
retaries to select suitable persons for the offices of
your Government. Let this moneyed influence
get the advantage of your means, and your Gov-
ernment will be to it "as clay in the hands of the
potter;" it will mould and fashion it to its own
liking. Yes, sir, let these usurers get foothold,
and they will prey upon your vitals; you will
see them hovering about your Treasury like crows
about a carcass, croaking for the last morsel.
My opposition to the bill, Mr. Chairman, for
cause extrinsic, arises from the avowed applica-
tion of the proceeds of the loan to the carrying
on the war of conquest in which we are engaged;
a war, the retrospect of which humbles the just
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Gales and Seaton. The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Thirteenth Congress, First and Second Sessions, book, 1854; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30354/m1/45/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.