which this order overtook, and sent back, to depreciate in the vaults of the banks instead of the coffers of the treasury. To repeal the order by law was the effort as soon as Congress met, and direct legislation to that effect was proposed by Mr. Ewing, of Ohio, but superseded by a circumlocutory bill from Mr. Walker and Mr. Rives, which the President treated as a nullity for want of intelligibility: and of which Mr. Webster gave this account: with the "bold man " who despised flinching, and loved decision, even in a foe. Thus: "At the commencement of the last session, as you know, gentlemen, a resolution was brought forward in the Senate for annulling and abrogating this order, by Mr. Ewing, a gentleman of much intelligence, of sound principles, of vigorous and energetic character, whose loss from the service of the country, I regard as a public misfortune. The whig members all supported this resolution, and all the members, I believe, with the exception of some five or six, were very anxious, in some way, to get rid of the treasury order. But Mr. Ewing's resolution was too direct. It was deemed a pointed and ungracious attack on executive policy. Therefore, it must be softened, modified, qualified, made to sound less harsh to the ears of men in power, and to assume a plausible, polished, inoffensive character. It was accordingly put into the plastic hands of the friends of the executive, to be moulded and fashioned, so that it might have the effect of ridding the country of the obnoxious order, and yet not appear to question executive infallibility. All this did not answer. The late President is not a man to be satisfied with soft words; and he saw in the measure, even as it passed the two houses, a substantial repeal of the order. He is a man of boldness and decision; and he respects boldness and decision in others. If you are his friend, he expects no flinching; and if you are his adversary, he respects you none the less, for carrying your opposition to the full limits of honorable warfare." "If he himself had had power, he would have voted for Mr. Ewing's proposition to repeal the order, in terms which Mr. Butler and the late President could not have misunderstood; but power was so strong, and members of Congress had now become so delicate about giving offence to it, that it would not do, for the world, to repeal the obnoxious circular, plainly and forthwith; but the ingenuity of the friends of the administration must dodge around it, and over it-and now Mr. Butler had the unkindness to tell them that their views neither he, lawyer as he is, nor the President, could possibly understand (a laugh), and that, as it could not be understood, the President had pocketed it-and left it upon the archives of state, no doubt to be studied there. Mr. W. would call attention to the remarkable fact, that though the Senate acted upon this currency bill in season, yet it was put off, and put off-so that, by no action upon it before the ten days allowed the President by the constitution, the power over it was completely in his will, even though the whole nation and every member of Congress wished for its repeal. Mr. W., however, believed that such was the pressure of public opinion upon the new President, that it must soon be repealed." This amphibology of the bill, and delay in passing it, and this dodging around and over, was occasioned by what Mr. Webster calls the delicacy of some members who had the difficult part to play, of going with the enemies of the administration without going against the administration. A chapter in the first volume of this View gives the history of this work; and the last sentence in the passage quoted from Mr. Webster's speech gives the key to the views in which the speech originated, and to the proceedings by which it was accompanied and followed. "It is believed that such is the pressure of public opinion upon the new Pres-States and its confederate politicians. Mr. Van ident that it must soon be repealed.” In another part of his speech, Mr. Webster shows that the repealing bill was put by the whigs into the hands of certain friends of the administration, to be by them seasoned into a palatable dish; and that they gained no favor Mr. Webster must have been greatly dissatisfied with his democratic allies, when he could thus, in a public speech, before such an audience, and within one short month after they had been co-operating with him, hold them up as equally unmeritable in the eyes of both parties. History deems it essential to present this New York speech of Mr. Webster as part of a great movement, without a knowledge of which the view would be imperfect. It was the first formal public step which was to inaugurate the new distress, and organize the proceedings for shutting up the banks, and with them, the federal treasury, with a view to coerce the government into submission to the Bank of the United Buren was a man of great suavity and gentleness of deportment, and, to those who associated the idea of violence with firmness, might be supposed deficient in that quality. An experiment upon his nerves was resolved on—a pressure of public opinion, in the language of Mr Webster, under which his gentle temperamentuate those principles which were bequeathed us was expected to yield. CHAPTER IV. PROGRESS OF THE DISTRESS, AND PRELIM- THE speech of Mr. Webster-his appeal for action-was soon followed by its appointed consequence-an immense meeting in the city of New York. The speech did not produce the meeting, any more than the meeting produced the speech. Both were in the programme, and performed as prescribed, in their respective places-the speech first, the meeting afterwards; and the latter justified by the former. It was an immense assemblage, composed of the elite of what was foremost in the city for property, talent, respectability; and took for its business the consideration of the times: the distress of the times, and the nature of the remedy. The imposing form of a meeting, solemn as well as numerous and respectable, was gone through: speeches made, resolutions adopted: order and emphasis given to the proceedings. A president, ten vice-presidents, two secretaries, seven orators (Mr. Webster not among them: he had performed his part, and made his exit), officiated in the ceremonies; and thousands of citizens constituted the accumulated mass. The spirit and proceedings of the meeting were concentrated in a series of resolves, each stronger than the other, and each more welcome than the former; and all progressive, from facts and principles declared, to duties and performances recommended. The first resolve declared the existence of the distress, and made the picture gloomy enough. It was in these words: by our fathers, and which we are bound to make every honorable effort to maintain." After the fact of the distress, thus established by a resolve, came the cause; and this was the condensation of Mr. Webster's speech, collecting into a point what had been oratorically diffused over a wide surface. What was itself a condensation cannot be further abridged, and must be given in its own words: "That the wide-spread disaster which has overtaken the commercial interests of the coun try, and which threatens to produce general bankruptcy, may be in a great measure ascribed to the interference of the general government with the commercial and business operations of the country; its intermeddling with the currency; its destruction of the national bank; its attempt to substitute a metallic for a credit currency; and, finally, to the issuing by the President of the United States of the treasury order, known as the "specie circular." The next resolve foreshadowed the consequences which follow from governmental perseverance in such calamitous measures—general bankruptcy to the dealing classes, starvation to the laboring classes, public convulsions, and danger to our political institutions; with an admonition to the new President of what might happen to himself, if he persevered in the “ experiments" of a predecessor whose tyranny and oppression had made him the scourge of his country. But let the resolve speak for itself: "That while we would do nothing which might for a moment compromit our respect for the laws, we feel it incumbent upon us to remind the executive of the nation, that the govhas become the oppressor of the people, instead ernment of the country, as of late administered, of affording them protection-that his perseverance in the experiment of his predecessor (after the public voice, in every way in which that voice could be expressed, has clearly denounced it as ruinous to the best interests of the country) has already caused the ruin of thousands of merchants, thrown tens of thousands of mechanics and laborers out of employment, depreciated the value of our great staple millions of dollars, destroyed the internal exchanges, and prostrated the energies and blighted the prospects of the industrious and enterprising portion of our people; and must, if persevered in, not only produce starvation among the laboring classes, but inevitably lead to disturbances which may endanger the stability of our institutions themselves." "Whereas, the great commercial interests of our city have nearly reached a point of general ruin our merchants driven from a state of prosperity to that of unprecedented difficulty and bankruptcy-the business, activity and energy, which have heretofore made us the polar star of the new world, is daily sinking, and taking from us the fruits of years of industry-reducing the aged among us, who but yesterday were sufficiently in affluence, to a state of comparative want; and blighting the prospects, and blasting the hopes of the young throughout our once prosperous land: we deem it our duty to express to the country our situation and desires, while yet there is time to reThis word "experiment" had become a statrace error, and secure those rights and perpet-ple phrase in all the distress oratory and litera ture of the day, sometimes heightened by the the committee of fifty, after their return from prefix of "quack," and was applied to all the Washington, were directed to call another genefforts of the administration to return the federal meeting of the citizens of New York, and eral government to the hard money currency, to report to them the results of their mission. which was the currency of the constitution and A concluding resolution invited the co-operathe currency of all countries; and which efforts tion of the other great cities in these proceedwere now treated as novelties and dangerous | ings, and seemed to look to an imposing demoninnovations. Universal was the use of the stration of physical force, and strong determinaphrase by one of the political parties some tion, as a means of acting on the mind, or will twenty years ago: dead silent are their tongues of the President; and thus controlling the free upon it now! Twenty years of successful action of the constitutional authorities. This working of the government under the hard resolve was specially addressed to the merchants money system has put an end to the repetition of Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore, and genof a phrase which has suffered the fate of all erally addressed to all other commercial cities, catch-words of party, and became more dis- and earnestly prayed their assistance in saving tasteful to its old employers than it ever was the whole country from ruin. to their adversaries. It has not been heard The next resolve proposed a direct movement upon the President-nothing less than a committee of fifty to wait upon him, and "remonstrate" with him upon what was called the ruinous measures of the government. "That a committee of not less than fifty be appointed to repair to Washington, and remonstrate with the Executive against the continuance of "the specie circular;" and in behalf of this meeting and in the name of the merchants of New York, and the people of the United States, urge its immediate repeal." "That merchants of Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and the commercial cities of the Union, be respectfully requested to unite with us in our remonstrance and petition, and to use their exertions, in connection with us, to induce of the people, and to recede from a measure under the evils of which we are now laboring, and which threatens to involve the whole country in ruin." the Executive of the nation to listen to the voice The language and import of all these resolves and proceedings were sufficiently strong, and indicated a feeling but little short of violence towards the government; but, according to the newspapers of the city, they were subdued and moderate-tame and spiritless, in comparison to the feeling which animated the great meeting. A leading paper thus characterized that feeling: "The meeting was a remarkable one for the vast numbers assembled-the entire decorum of the proceedings-and especially for the deep, This formidable committee, limited to a min- though subdued and restrained, excitement imum of fifty, open to a maximum of any which evidently pervaded the mighty mass. amount, besides this "remonstrance" against It was a spectacle that could not be looked the specie circular, were also instructed to pe- upon without emotion,-that of many thousand tition the President to forbear the collection of ruin, owing to the measures, as they verily bemen trembling, as it were, on the brink of merchants' bonds by suit; and also to call an lieve, of their own government, which should extra session of Congress. The first of these be their friend, instead of their oppressor-and measures was to stop the collection of the ac- yet meeting with deliberation and calmness, liscruing revenues: the second, to obtain from tening to a narrative of their wrongs, and the causes thereof, adopting such resolutions as Congress that submission to the bank power were deemed judicious; and then quietly sepawhich could not be obtained from the Presi- rating, to abide the result of their firm but redent. Formidable as were the arrangements spectful remonstrances. But it is proper and for acting on the President, provision was dis-fit to say that this moderation must not be miscreetly made for a possible failure, and for the prosecution of other measures. With this view, VOL. II.-2 taken for pusillanimity, nor be trifled with, as though it could not by any aggravation of wrong be moved from its propriety. No man accustomed, from the expression of the countenance, to translate the emotions of the heart, could have looked upon the faces and the bearing of the multitude assembled last evening, and not have felt that there were fires smouldering there, which a single spark might cause to burst into flame." Smouldering fires which a single spark might light into a flame! Possibly that spark might have been the opposing voice of some citizen, who thought the meeting mistaken, both in the fact of the ruin of the country and the attribution of that ruin to the specie circular. No such voice was lifted-no such spark applied, and the proposition to march 10,000 men to Washington to demand a redress of grievances was not sanctioned. The committee of fifty was deemed sufficient, as they certainly were, for every purpose of peaceful communication. They were eminently respectable citizens, any two, or any one of which, or even a mail transmission of their petition, would have commanded for it a most respectful attention. The grand committee arrived at Washingtonasked an audience of the President-received it; but with the precaution (to avoid mistakes) that written communications should alone be used. The committee therefore presented their demands in writing, and a paragraph from it will show the degree to which the feeling of the city had allowed itself to be worked up. "We do not tell a fictitious tale of woe; we have no selfish or partisan views to sustain, when we assure you that the noble city which we represent, lies prostrate in despair, its credit blighted, its industry paralyzed, and without a hope beaming through the darkness of the future, unless the government of our country can be induced to relinquish the measures to which we attribute our distress. We fully appreciate the respect which is due to our chief magistrate, and disclaim every intention inconsistent with that feeling; but we speak in behalf of a community which trembles upon the brink of ruin, which deems itself an adequate judge of all questions connected with the trade and currency of the country, and believes that the policy adopted by the recent administration, and sustained by the present, is founded in error, and threatens the destruction of every department of industry. Under a deep impression of the propriety of confining our declarations within moderate limits, we affirm that the value of our real estate has, within the last six months, depreciated more than forty millions: that within the last two months, there have been more than two hundred and fifty failures of houses engaged in extensive business: that within the same period, a decline of twenty millions of dollars has occurred in our local stocks, including those railroad and canal incorporations, which, though chartered in other States, depend chiefly upon New York for their sale: that the immense amount of merchandise in our warehouses has within the same period fallen in value at least thirty per cent.; that within a few weeks, not less than twenty thousand individuals, depending on their daily labor for their daily bread, have been discharged by their employers, because the means of retaining them were exhausted-and that a complete blight has fallen upon a community heretofore so active, enterprising and prosperous. The lation than the pestilence which depopulated error of our rulers has produced a wider desoour streets, or the conflagration, which laid them in ashes. We believe that it is unjust to attribute these evils to any excessive development of mercantile enterprise, and that they really flow from that unwise system which aimed at the substitution of a metallic for a paper currency-the system which gave the first shock to the fabric of our commercial prosperity by removing the public deposits from the United States bank, which weakened every part of the edifice by the destruction of that useful and efficient institution, and now threatens to crumble it into a mass of ruins under the operations of the specie circular, which withdrew the gold and silver of the country from the channels in which it could be profitably employed. We assert that the experiment has had a fair-a liberal trial, and that disappointment and mischief are visible in all its results-that the promise of a regulated currency and equalized exchanges has been broken, the currency totally disordered, and internal exchanges almost entirely discontinued. We, therefore, make our earnest appeal to the Executive, and ask whether it is not time to interpose the paternal authority of the government, and abandon the policy which is beggaring the people." He The address was read to the President. heard it with entire composure-made no sort of remark upon it—treated the gentlemen with exquisite politeness-and promised them a written answer the next day. This was the third of May: on the fourth the answer was delivered. It was an answer worthy of a President—a calm, quiet, decent, peremptory refusal to comply with a single one of their demands! with a brief reason, avoiding all controversy, and foreclosing all further application, by a clean refusal in each case. The committee had nothing to do but to return, and report: and they did so. There had been a mistake committed in the estimate of the man. Mr. Van Buren vin- for us to consider what more is to be done in dicated equally the rights of the chief magistrate, and his own personal decorum; and left the committee without any thing to complain of, although unsuccessful in all their objects. He also had another opportunity of vindicating his personal and official decorum in another visit which he received about the same time. Mr. Biddle called to see the President-apparently a call of respect on the chief magistrate-about the same time, but evidently with the design to be consulted, and to appear as the great restorer of the currency. Mr. Van Buren received the visit according to its apparent intent, with entire civility, and without a word on public affairs. Believing Mr. Biddle to be at the bottom of the suspension, he could not treat him with the confidence and respect which a consultation would imply. He (Mr. Biddle) felt the slight, and caused this notice to be put in the papers: this awful crisis of our affairs. Our first duty under losses and distresses which we have endured, is to cherish with religious care the blessings which we yet enjoy, and which can be protected only by a strict observance of the laws upon which society depends for security that the pages of history record, and the opinand happiness. We do not disguise our opinion ions of mankind justify, numerous instances of popular insurrection, the provocation to which was less severe than the evils of which we complain. But in these cases, the outraged and oppressed had no other means of redress. Our case is different. If we can succeed in an effort to bring public opinion into sympathy with the views which we entertain, the Executive will abandon the policy which oppresses, instead of protecting the people. Do not despair because the time at which the ballot box can exercise its healing influence appears so remote-the sagacity of the practical politician will perceive the change in public sentiment before you are duce this change must be vigorous and untiraware of its approach. But the effort to proing." the move was to act upon the people—to rouse and combine them against an administration which was destroying their industry, and to remove from power (at the elections) those who were destroying the industry of the country. "Being on other business at Washington, Mr. Biddle took occasion to call on the President The meeting adopted corresponding resoluof the United States, to pay his respects to him tions. Despairing of acting on the President, in that character, and especially, to afford the President an opportunity, if he chose to embrace it, to speak of the present state of things, and to confer, if he saw fit, with the head of the largest banking institution in the country-and that the institution in which such general application has been made for relief. During the interview, however, the President remained profoundly silent upon the great and interesting topics of the day; and as Mr. Biddle did not think it his business to introduce them, not a word in relation to them was said." Thus: "Resolved, That the interests of the capitalists, merchants, manufacturers, mechanics and industrious classes, are dependent upon each other, and any measures of the government which prostrate the active business men of the community, will also deprive honest industry of its reward; and we call upon all our fellow-citizens to unite with us in removing from power those prosperity of our country." who persist in a system that is destroying the Returning to New York, the committee convoked another general meeting of the citizens, as required to do at the time of their appointment; and made their report to it, recommending further forbearance, and further reliance on the ballot box, although (as they said) history Another resolve summed up the list of grievrecorded many popular insurrections where the ances of which they complained, and enumeratprovocation was less. A passage from this reported the causes of the pervading ruin which had will show its spirit, and to what excess a commu- been brought upon the country. Thus: nity may be excited about nothing, by the mutual inflammation of each other's passions and complaints, combined with a power to act upon the business and interests of the people. isting distress are the defeat of Mr. Clay's land "Resolved, That the chief causes of the exbill, the removal of the public deposits, the refusal to re-charter the Bank of the United States, and the issuing of the specie circular. "From this correspondence it is obvious, fel- The land bill was passed by the people's reprelow-citizens, that we must abandon all hope sentatives, and vetoed by the President-the bill that either the justice of our claims or the se- rechartering the bank was passed by the peo⚫verity of our sufferings will induce the Execu-ple's representatives, and vetoed by the Presitive to abandon or relax the policy which has dent. The people's representatives declared by produced such desolating effects-and it remains a solemn resolution, that the public deposits |