Hitherto, whenever the policy of the country has been changed or attempted to be changed, it has been through the instrumentality of the National Legislature; and if in such cases our citizens were prompt to assemble and express their opinions relative to the measures of that body, to whom, by the constitution, has been confided the making of laws, and thereby of ascertaining and settling the policy of the country, in all its various connexions, how much more important is it that they should be vigilant to notice that movement in another department of the Government, which, undertaken without the concurrence of Congress, and upon his own mere responsibility, has emphatically been styled by its head an “EXPERIMENT?" If ever an occasion called for the direct and immediate interference of the constituent in an act of the representative, your memorialists believe the present to be one peculiarly of that nature. Under this solemn conviction, they proceed to lay their views before your honorable bodies. That there is a pressure, a great and general pressure, throughout this Union, affecting all classes of the community who obtain their living by honest industry, unconnected with offices the salaries of which are permanent, has been made apparent to us by the numerous memorials transmitted to Congress, and which have been published to the world by your authority. That it affects this section of the country, the present stagnation of business, in all the occupations of commerce, amply testifies. The rapid depreciation in the staples of Norfolk county, consisting in a great measure of lumber; the want of profitable employment by our industrious mechanics, and the extreme difficulty of our merchants meeting their engagements, in consequence of the utter impossibility of collecting their outstanding claims, are abundantly evidenced by the personal knowledge of many of those who now address you. That it is felt throughout the whole of Eastern Virginia, is demonstrated by the deterioration in the value of all the productions of her soil, and the almost universal complaint of her citizens. Whilst this state of things cannot be denied by any, the cause is perfectly obvious to your memorialists. It is to be traced to the withdrawal of the deposites from the Bank of the United States, as clearly as the general withering of vegetation in autumn to the declination of the earth from the sun. Some may attribute this change in nature to the lengthening of the night; others to the shortening of the day; and others to the abduction of solar heat; but the philosopher who traces things to their origin, will not hesitate to pronounce that all these are but effects arising from the same common cause. And so the commercial financier, familiar with the principles of currency and the operations of trade, whilst some may impute the distress pervading the country to the curtailment by the banks, others to the want of confidence between man and man, and others to the panic created by the debates in your honorable bodies, will have no difficulty in deciding that all these are but effects growing out of the unwise act of the Executive, in withdrawing the public revenue from the Bank of the United States; for if that had not taken place, none of these things would have happened; he can lay his finger upon that single act, and satisfactorily account for the existing embarrassment. In contemplating the works of Providence, and in witnessing the changes of the seasons, the husbandman finds consolation in the knowledge that these things are for his good, and that the temporary loss he sustains during winter is abundantly remunerated in the harvest. He enjoys also the pleasing reflection, that whilst this rotation produces no permanent injury to him, it causes spring and summer to others. But in the removal of general prosperity from our land, and in the production of entire ruin to many, by the act of the Executive, your memorialists can discover no redress by which the privation can be effectually compensated; nor any alleviation in being informed that our distress will redound to the advantage of foreign countries. In such matters we must restrict the principles of general philanthropy, and concentrate them within the circle of patriotism. The distress now extended throughout the country, we think, with ordinary forecast, might have been anticipated. At the time the attack of the Executive was made upon the Bank of the United States, in withdrawing the public revenue from that institution, where it had been deposited since its organization, the mercantile community were in no inconsiderable degree pressed for funds to meet the new order of things created by the recent tariff act. That had changed, in a great measure, the credit system at the custom-house, and required the duties to be paid in cash. The effect of this, in its first operations, was to demand, in many instances, of the importer, double payment; for many of them, whilst paying the new duties, were likewise discharging, about the same time, their bonds, then at maturity, for old importations. This, of itself, would have created an urgent demand for money, and called for an extension, rather than a diminution of accommodations by the banks; and considering that this act, passed by a large majority of Congress, and sanctioned by the President, was intended to pacify the conflicting parties in our country, in relation to the tariff, the merchants had a right to expect every facility upon the part of the Government to carry it into effect, and no doubt, to some extent, so regulated their transactions. Instead, however, of this expectation being realized, the Executive, to their utter astonishment, against, as it is understood, the advice of a majority of his cabinet, after a warning of only about ten days, caused the deposites of the Government to be drawn from the Bank. This necessarily led, as a measure of prudence on the part of that institution, to meet punctually all the demands that might be made upon it, to a curtailment of its discounts. These, for the most part, were paid in by the debtors in notes of the State banks, which, remaining in large quantities in the vaults of the Bank of the United States, subject to presentation, without notice, at the counters of the payers, and specie demanded for them, struck at once a panic into those institutions, and they in their turn were compelled also to curtail. Individual capitalists and creditors, perceiving the Government requiring cash duties, and all the banks moving pari passu against their debtors, immediately pressed forward against those who were indebted to them; and the pressure thus being quadruplicate in its character, great embarrassment was inevitable. As it appears to have been the settled purpose of the Executive that the charter of the Bank should not be renewed, sound policy would seem to have required that the deposites of the Government should have remained until the last moment of its expiration; and then, as the Bank, during the two years it had to wind up, would have been drawing in the amount due to it, this might, at short periods, have been returned to the general currency of the country, by dividends of the capital among the stockholders; in which case, the pressure would scarcely have been felt. Under all the circumstances of the case, which have been presented to the public, your memorialists cannot doubt that the act of the Executive in question, considered merely as a financial measure, was, to say the least of it, imprudent in the extreme. But there is another light in which this subject must be viewed, and which, to our judgment, is equally unsatisfactory. In the formation of the present constitution of the United States, the people distributed the Government into three co-ordinate branches the legislative, executive, and judicial; and to each of these they delegated extensive powers. All the departments equally emanating from the people, and created to attain one common end, their liberty and happiness, it was expected that, though independent of each other, they would all move in general harmony. The whole theory of our Government contemplates that Congress will make laws in good faith, and that in the same spirit the Judiciary will expound, and the Executive carry them into effect. If any department of the Government, in its zeal to exhibit the independence of its character, were to impede the proper action of the others, the whole system would soon be out of order. Should Congress purposely make vicious laws, the Judiciary intentionally give erroneous judgments, and the Executive in bad faith execute the statutes of the land, it requires no prophetic eye to foresee that the only remedy would be for the people, in the omnipotence of their sovereignty, and the majesty of their fiat, to speak the entire fabric into naught, and to re-organize their fundamental institutions. In the present instance, your memorialists cannot but apprehend that the hostility of the President to some of the officers of the Bank of the United States has caused him to give a construction to his powers, and a latitude to their exercise, different from what would have been the case had a patriotic and elevated singleness of purpose, to promote the public welfare, alone influenced him. This impression is deeply seated in the bosoms of a large portion of the people of the United States, and has created an excitement originating in an Executive measure, unparalleled, it is believed, in the history of our Government. Popular commotion should rather be suppressed than encouraged; and with this sentiment we cannot but condemn the act in question; for, by the developments of the day, it appears that the measure was intended to rally the people in favor of the President against the National Legislature. It is with deep regret that we have perceived this, because, in our opinion, nothing can be more destructive of our whole system of Government than attempts of this nature. In conclusion, your memorialists beg of your honorable bodies to take speedy measures to return to the Bank of the United States the public revenue; to quiet the people; and to restore confidence to the country, and prosperity to the land. This they believe to be in your power, and for its accomplishment most ardently pray. ADDENDUM. The undersigned also intend that their signatures to this memorial shall be considered an instruction to their Representative in Congress to vote for the restoration of the deposites to the Bank of the United States, agreeably to the fifth resolution adopted by the meeting held at the court-house in Portsmouth, on the 6th of March, 1834. B. Reynolds H. O. Niemeyer Jethro A. Jenkins Wilson Williams John Day John Reed W. H. Peters D. Frasers C. Wood Robert Barclay, jr. James Hall Giles Edwards Edward M. Grant Wm. Brooks Wm. H. Spooner Wm. Shepperd Wm. Henman James R. Boyce Thomas P. Huestis Wm. Wood John Green William M. Willey Arthur Creekmur John Warren Ephraim Creekmur Thomas Warren Joseph Williams James Grimes, sen. Erby Grimes, Edward Williams, sen. N. Creekmur Peter Creekmur, sen. Solomon Hodges David Grimes Woodburry L. Kaeffer Caleb M. Herbert Benjamin B. Reynolds Wm. R. Whitehurst Elijah Etheridge E. T. Blamire Henry Williamson S. Forbes William Culpepper John H. Gaskins L. Goodson Daniel J. Turner Miles Minter Martin Leavett William G. Uzzell Solomon Cason Richard Grant George Bishop Wendell Cushing William Dagget, sen. Alexander N. Foreman Matthew Holstead Jesse Corbell Matthew Creekmur John S. Jobson Thomas Roach 1 |