Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress Page: 4,249
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4249
OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
4250
Mat 26, 1834.]
V/a>hmgion and Mfiens {Ohio) Memorials.
[H. o R.
other places of safe-keeping, wheiher done by the Presi-
dent himself, or by the Secretary of the Treasury? Is it
that this corporation lias been wantonly stripped, as is
alleged, of one of her chartered immunities, by the ruth-
less hand of Executive usurpation? that the public faith
has been trampled upon by a power that acknowledges
no law but the dictates of its own rash, unbridled will?
I would not venture to affirm that very many in this body,
and elsewhere, do not honestly entertain that opinion. But
of this 1 am as perfectly confident as I can be of any thing',
that, within less than twelve months from this day, nine-
tenths of the people of the United States will iaugh to
scorn an idea in my view so utterly preposterous. Sir, the
ominous speculations of a certain class of political sooth-
sayers are destined to a most woful disappointment. The
gloom, and distress, and panic, must pass away, as the in-
cantations of the enchanter cease, and the country will
rise from the pressure, "if not with increased wealth, the
wiser and better, and with renewed energy to withstand
future trials. The independence of the people of the
United States is not to be broken down; their spirits are
not to be subdued by the formidable discipline, the disas-
trous energies, of an overshadowing colossal moneyed
power. It cannot be that the events of the last five
months, and especially the scenes enacted here, will es-
cape the jealous vigilance of the people. They cannot
fail to perceive that the just retaliation brought upon this
bank by its own gross misconduct has been met by a resist -
tance calculated to rouse the serious alarms of every man
who would repel the encroachments of a corporate des-
potism that threatens to overthrow every principle of the
constitution; and, in the language of one who would seem
to be touched with almost prophetic inspiration, "to con-
vey our liberties to a sepulchre of gold."
MEMORIALS FROM WASHINGTON AND ATHENS
COUNTIES, (OHIO.)
The petitions from the inhabitants of Washington and
Athens counties, Ohio, heretofore presented, being next in
order—
Mr. VINTON, for the purpose of enabling him to give
his views on the distressed state to which the country of
the memorialists was reduced in consequence of the re-
cent measures of the Executive, moved the following:
Hesoked, That the memorials from the counties of Wash-
ington and Athens, in the State of Ohio, be referred to
the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union,
to which has been referred the bill to regulate the de-
posites of the money of the United States in certain local
banks, with instructions to strike from said bill all after the
enacting clause, and insert, in lieu thereof, A bill directing
the deposites of the money of the United States to be
hereafter made in the Bank of the United States, and for
the renewal of the charter of said bank, with such
modifications thereof as said committee shall deem expe-
dient.
Mr. VINTON, having addressed the House at length,
finally withdrew the resolution; and the memorials which
he had presented were then referred to a Committee of the
Whole on the state of the Union, and, with the names
thereto, ordered to be printed.
Mr. VINTON'S remarks were as follows:
Mr. Speaker: I did not move at the iast petition day to
lay over the consideration of the memorials I then pre-
sented, for the purpose of making a set speech on the top-
ics they bring io the notice of Congress, as the motion
might seem to indicate to have been my intention; but I
did so from an unwillingness, weary and exhausted as the
House then was, to trespass on the patience of the mem-
bers, by calling fur their reading at the late hour of the
day, when, by the rules of the House, it became my turn
to offer petitions and memorials. Nor is it my intention
now to go into any argument upon the grave subjects
presented by the memorialists; but the memorialists them-
selves are entitled to some notice from me, and I cannot,
in justice to my own feelings, pass them over wholly in
silence. These memorials come from the counties of
Athens and Washington, in the State of Ohio, They are
each signed by about eleven hundred freemen. From the
county of Athens, I am informed that, on account of the
advanced period of the session of Congress, their memo
rial was transmitted while it was yet in circulation in a
portion of the county. At the last presidential election,
that county gave 1,344 votes, of which the Clay candidates
claimed a majority of ninety votes only over the Jackson
electoral ticket. The vote in the county of Washington
was somewhat greater, with about the same division of
parties.
These facts are stated for the purpose of showing the
unanimity of sentiment in those counties in respect to the
policy and legality of the recent attempt of the Executive,
by means of his action upon the public revenue, to con
trol the currency and exchanges of the country, and,
through them, the credit, the business, the markets, and
the price of labor and property in all parts of the Union.
This is an exertion of power, and these are interests which
the memorialists do not think have been, and cannot be
safely, committed to the will of any one man, since it
would make that man their master, and not their servant.
I will not detain you by an enumeration of the embar-
rassments and difficulties under which the memorialists
state they are now laboring, since, with the exception of
some local peculiarities, the result of their geographical
position, and the course of their trade, they are substan-
tially thbse which have disordered the industry of all parts
of the Union. The memorial from the county of Athens,
which is drawn up with a peculiar felicity of manner: in-
troduces their statement of their grievances by saying,
"they are sensible that, in ordinary times, patriotism is
best manifested by the discharge by every individual of
| his own appropriate duties, leaving, in the exercise of a
liberal confidence, the management of the public and gen-
eral interests wholly in the hands of those to whom they
have been constitutionally delegated." 1 avail myself of
this opportunity to bear testimony to the truth of this dec-
laration in respect to the people of the county of Athens,
and to the rest of the district that sent me here.
In all the conflicts of interest and policy, so agitating to
the country, which have been fought here for the last
eleven years, during which I have had t'ne honor of a seat
on this floor, they have never sent up a memorial to this
House, or instructed me as to their wishes, on any subject
involving the general interests of the country. They
have acted upon the principle which they avow; and it is
with grateful pride of feeling that I am able to declare
that they, "in the exercise of a liberal confidence,"
have, during all that time, left me to act for them, as a
freeman, according to the dictates of my own unbiased
judgment. They have not remained silent from indifFei'-
ence to the great questions which, during that period,
have so deeply agitated the whole community, nor from
ignorance of what has been transacting here. They area
reading, thinking-, hard-working pecpie; and in respect to
the counties of Washington and Athens, whose memori-
als I now present to you, I can truly say, without dispar-
agement to any other district of country, that there is not,
beyond the Alleghany mountains, a people more eminent
for sobriety of habits, social order, and general intelli-
gence. I left them a happy, prosperous, and contented
people. Their past silence bears them witness that they
have not come up here now to give countenance to an
idle clamor, or to enjoy the empty gratification of being
presented to the notice of this House. When, therefore,
they lay their complaints, for the first time, before this
House, and instruct me, as one of those counties has done,
as to their wishes; when they in substance say that sudden
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress, book, 1834; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30759/m1/39/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.