LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT JACKSON.
At the opening of the second Session of the twenty-fourth Congress,
President Jackson delivered his last Annual Message, and under
circumstances to be grateful to his heart. The powerful opposition
in Congress had been broken down, and he saw full majorities
of ardent and tried friends in each House. We were in peace and
friendship with all the world, and all exciting questions quieted
at home. Industry in all its branches was prosperous. The revenue
was abundant--too much so. The people were happy. His message, of
course, was first a recapitulation of this auspicious state of
things, at home and abroad; and then a reference to the questions
of domestic interest and policy which required attention, and
might call for action. At the head of these measures stood the
deposit act of the last session--the act which under the insidious
and fabulous title of a deposit of a surplus of revenue with the
States--made an actual distribution of that surplus; and was
intended by its contrivers to do so. His notice of this measure went
to two points--his own regrets for having signed the act, and his
misgivings in relation to its future observation. He said:
"The consequences apprehended, when the deposit act of the last
session received a reluctant approval, have been measurably
realized. Though an act merely for the deposit of the surplus
moneys of the United States in the State Treasuries, for safe
keeping, until they may be wanted for the service of the general
government, it has been extensively spoken of as an act to give
the money to the several States, and they have been advised
to use it as a gift, without regard to the means of refunding
it when called for. Such a suggestion has doubtless been made
without a due consideration of the obligation of the deposit
act, and without a proper attention to the various principles
and interests which are affected by it. It is manifest that
the law itself cannot sanction such a suggestion, and that, as
it now stands, the States have no more authority to receive
and use these deposits without intending to return them,
than any deposit bank, or any individual temporarily charged
with the safe-keeping or application of the public money,
would now have for converting the same to their private use,
without the consent and against the will of the government.
But, independently of the violation of public faith and moral
obligation which are involved in this suggestion, when examined
in reference to the terms of the present deposit act, it is
believed that the considerations which should govern the future
legislation of Congress on this subject, will be equally
conclusive against the adoption of any measure recognizing the
principles on which the suggestion has been made."
This misgiving was well founded. Before the session was over there
was actually a motion to release the States from their obligation
to restore the money--to lay which motion on the table there were
seventy-three resisting votes--an astonishing number in itself,
and the more so as given by the same members, sitting in the same
seats, who had voted for the act as a deposit a few months before.
Such a vote was ominous of the fate of the money; and that fate was
not long delayed. Akin to this measure, and in fact the parent of
which it was the bastard progeny, was distribution itself, under
its own proper name; and which it was evident was soon to be openly
attempted, encouraged as its advocates were by the success gained in
the deposit act. The President, with his characteristic frankness
and firmness, impugned that policy in advance; and deprecated its
effects under every aspect of public and private justice, and of
every consideration of a wise or just policy. He said:
"To collect revenue merely for distribution to the States,
would seem to be highly impolitic, if not as dangerous as
the proposition to retain it in the Treasury. The shortest
reflection must satisfy every one that to require the people
to pay taxes to the government merely that they may be paid
back again, is sporting with the substantial interests of the
country, and no system which produces such a result can be
expected to receive the public countenance. Nothing could be
gained by it, even if each individual who contributed a portion
of the tax could receive back promptly the same portion. But it
is apparent that no system of the kind can ever be enforced,
which will not absorb a considerable portion of the money, to be
distributed in salaries and commissions to the agents employed
in the process, and in the various losses and depreciations
which arise from other causes; and the practical effect of such
an attempt must ever be to burden the people with taxes, not
for purposes beneficial to them, but to swell the profits of
deposit banks, and support a band of useless public officers. A
distribution to the people is impracticable and unjust in other
respects. It would be taking one man's property and giving it
to another. Such would be the unavoidable result of a rule of
equality (and none other is spoken of, or would be likely to
be adopted), inasmuch as there is no mode by which the amount
of the individual contributions of our citizens to the public
revenue can be ascertained. We know that they contribute
_unequally_, and a rule therefore that would distribute to them
_equally_, would be liable to all the objections which apply
to the principle of an equal division of property. To make the
general government the instrument of carrying this odious
principle into effect, would be at once to destroy the means of
its usefulness, and change the character designed for it by the
framers of the constitution."
There was another consideration connected with this policy of
distribution which the President did not name, and could not, in the
decorum and reserve of an official communication to Congress: it was
the intended effect of these distributions--to debauch the people
with their own money, and to gain presidential votes by lavishing
upon them the spoils of their country. To the honor of the people
this intended effect never occurred; no one of those contriving
these distributions ever reaching the high object of their ambition.
Instead of distribution--instead of raising money from the people to
be returned to the people, with all the deductions which the double
operation of collecting and dividing would incur, and with the
losses which unfaithful agents might inflict--instead of that idle
and wasteful process, which would have been childish if it had not
been vicious, he recommended a reduction of taxes on the comforts
and necessaries of life, and the levy of no more money than was
necessary for the economical administration of the government; and
said:
"In reducing the revenue to the wants of the government,
your particular attention is invited to those articles which
constitute the necessaries of life. The duty on salt was laid
as a war tax, and was no doubt continued to assist in providing
for the payment of the war debt. There is no article the
release of which from taxation would be felt so generally and
so beneficially. To this may be added all kinds of fuel and
provisions. Justice and benevolence unite in favor of releasing
the poor of our cities from burdens which are not necessary to
the support of our government, and tend only to increase the
wants of the destitute."
The issuance of the "Treasury Circular" naturally claimed a place
in the President's message; and received it. The President gave his
reason for the measure in the necessity of saving the public domain
from being exchanged for bank paper money, which was not wanted, and
might be of little value or use when wanted; and expressed himself
thus:
"The effects of an extension of bank credits, and over-issues
of bank paper, have been strikingly illustrated in the sales of
the public lands. From the returns made by the various registers
and receivers in the early part of last summer it was perceived
that the receipts arising from the sales of the public lands,
were increasing to an unprecedented amount. In effect, however,
these receipts amounted to nothing more than credits in bank.
The banks lent out their notes to speculators; they were paid
to the receivers, and immediately returned to the banks, to be
lent out again and again; being mere instruments to transfer
to speculators the most valuable public land, and pay the
government by a credit on the books of the banks. Those credits
on the books of some of the western banks, usually called
deposits, were already greatly beyond their immediate means of
payment, and were rapidly increasing. Indeed each speculation
furnished means for another; for no sooner had one individual or
company paid in the notes, than they were immediately lent to
another for a like purpose; and the banks were extending their
business and their issues so largely, as to alarm considerate
men, and render it doubtful whether these bank credits, if
permitted to accumulate, would ultimately be of the least value
to the government. The spirit of expansion and speculation
was not confined to the deposit banks, but pervaded the whole
multitude of banks throughout the Union, and was giving rise
to new institutions to aggravate the evil. The safety of the
public funds, and the interest of the people generally, required
that these operations should be checked; and it became the
duty of every branch of the general and State governments to
adopt all legitimate and proper means to produce that salutary
effect. Under this view of my duty, I directed the issuing of
the order which will be laid before you by the Secretary of the
Treasury, requiring payment for the public lands sold to be
made in specie, with an exception until the 15th of the present
month, in favor of actual settlers. This measure has produced
many salutary consequences. It checked the career of the Western
banks, and gave them additional strength in anticipation of the
pressure which has since pervaded our Eastern as well as the
European commercial cities. By preventing the extension of the
credit system, it measurably cut off the means of speculation,
and retarded its progress in monopolizing the most valuable of
the public lands. It has tended to save the new States from
a non-resident proprietorship, one of the greatest obstacles
to the advancement of a new country, and the prosperity of an
old one. It has tended to keep open the public lands for the
entry of emigrants at government prices, instead of their being
compelled to purchase of speculators at double or treble prices.
And it is conveying into the interior large sums in silver
and gold, there to enter permanently into the currency of the
country, and place it on a firmer foundation. It is confidently
believed that the country will find in the motives which induced
that order, and the happy consequences which will have ensued,
much to commend and nothing to condemn."
The people were satisfied with the Treasury Circular; they saw its
honesty and good effects; but the politicians were not satisfied
with it. They thought they saw in it a new exercise of illegal
power in the President--a new tampering with the currency--a new
destruction of the public prosperity; and commenced an attack upon
it the moment Congress met, very much in the style of the attack
upon the order for the removal of the deposits; and with fresh
hopes from the resentment of the "thousand banks," whose notes had
been excluded, and from the discontent of many members of Congress
whose schemes of speculation had been balked. And notwithstanding
the democratic majorities in the two Houses, the attack upon the
"Circular" had a great success, many members being interested in
the excluded banks, and partners in schemes for monopolizing the
lands. A bill intended to repeal the Circular was actually passed
through both Houses; but not in direct terms. That would have been
too flagrant. It was a bad thing, and could not be fairly done, and
therefore gave rise to indirection and ambiguity of provisions, and
complication of phrases, and a multiplication of amphibologies,
which brought the bill to a very ridiculous conclusion when it got
to the hands of General Jackson. But of this hereafter.
The intrusive efforts made by politicians and missionaries, first,
to prevent treaties from being formed with the Indians to remove
from the Southern States, and then to prevent the removal after the
treaties were made, led to serious refusals on the part of some
of these tribes to emigrate; and it became necessary to dispatch
officers of high rank and reputation, with regular troops, to keep
down outrages and induce peaceable removal. Major General Jesup
was sent to the Creek nation, where he had a splendid success in a
speedy and bloodless accomplishment of his object. Major General
Scott was sent to the Cherokees, where a pertinacious resistance
was long encountered, but eventually and peaceably overcome. The
Seminole hostilities in Florida were just breaking out; and the
President, in his message, thus notices all these events:
"The military movements rendered necessary by the aggressions
of the hostile portions of the Seminole and Creek tribes of
Indians, and by other circumstances, have required the active
employment of nearly our whole regular force, including the
marine corps, and of large bodies of militia and volunteers.
With all these events, so far as they were known at the seat
of government before the termination of your last session,
you are already acquainted; and it is therefore only needful
in this place to lay before you a brief summary of what has
since occurred. The war with the Seminoles during the summer
was, on our part, chiefly confined to the protection of our
frontier settlements from the incursions of the enemy; and, as
a necessary and important means for the accomplishment of that
end, to the maintenance of the posts previously established.
In the course of this duty several actions took place, in
which the bravery and discipline of both officers and men were
conspicuously displayed, and which I have deemed it proper to
notice in respect to the former, by the granting of brevet rank
for gallant services in the field. But as the force of the
Indians was not so far weakened by these partial successes as to
lead them to submit, and as their savage inroads were frequently
repeated, early measures were taken for placing at the disposal
of Governor Call, who, as commander-in-chief of the territorial
militia, had been temporarily invested with the command, an
ample force, for the purpose of resuming offensive operations
in the most efficient manner, so soon as the season should
permit. Major General Jesup was also directed, on the conclusion
of his duties in the Creek country, to repair to Florida, and
assume the command. Happily for the interests of humanity, the
hostilities with the Creeks were brought to a close soon after
your adjournment, without that effusion of blood, which at one
time was apprehended as inevitable. The unconditional submission
of the hostile party was followed by their speedy removal to the
country assigned them west of the Mississippi. The inquiry as to
the alleged frauds in the purchase of the reservations of these
Indians, and the causes of their hostilities, requested by the
resolution of the House of Representatives of the 1st of July
last to be made by the President, is now going on, through the
agency of commissioners appointed for that purpose. Their report
may be expected during your present session. The difficulties
apprehended in the Cherokee country have been prevented, and the
peace and safety of that region and its vicinity effectually
secured, by the timely measures taken by the war department, and
still continued."
The Bank of the United States was destined to receive another, and
a parting notice from General Jackson, and greatly to its further
discredit, brought upon it by its own lawless and dishonest course.
Its charter had expired, and it had delayed to refund the stock
paid for by the United States, or to pay the back dividend; and had
transferred itself with all its effects, and all its subscribers
except the United States, to a new corporation, under the same
name, created by a _proviso_ to a road bill in the General Assembly
of Pennsylvania, obtained by bribery, as subsequent legislative
investigation proved. This transfer, or transmigration, was a new
and most amazing procedure. The metempsychosis of a bank was a
novelty which confounded and astounded the senses, and set the wits
of Congress to work to find out how it could legally be done. The
President, though a good lawyer and judge of law, did not trouble
himself with legal subtleties and disquisitions. He took the broad,
moral, practical, business view of the question; and pronounced it
to be dishonest, unlawful, and irresponsible; and recommended to
Congress to look after its stock. The message said:
"The conduct and present condition of that bank, and the great
amount of capital vested in it by the United States, require
your careful attention. Its charter expired on the third day of
March last, and it has now no power but that given in the 21st
section, 'to use the corporate name, style, and capacity, for
the purpose of suits, for the final settlement and liquidation
of the affairs and accounts of the corporation, and for the sale
and disposition of their estate, real, personal, and mixed, and
not for any other purpose, or in any other manner whatsoever,
nor for a period exceeding two years after the expiration of
the said term of incorporation.' Before the expiration of
the charter, the stockholders of the bank obtained an act of
incorporation from the legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding
only the United States. Instead of proceeding to wind up their
concerns, and pay over to the United States the amount due on
account of the stock held by them, the president and directors
of the old bank appear to have transferred the books, papers,
notes, obligations, and most or all of its property, to this new
corporation, which entered upon business as a continuation of
the old concern. Amongst other acts of questionable validity,
the notes of the expired corporation are known to have been used
as its own, and again put in circulation. That the old bank had
no right to issue or reissue its notes after the expiration of
its charter, cannot be denied; and that it could not confer any
such right on its substitute, any more than exercise it itself,
is equally plain. In law and honesty, the notes of the bank
in circulation, at the expiration of its charter, should have
been called in by public advertisement, paid up as presented,
and, together with those on hand, cancelled and destroyed.
Their re-issue is sanctioned by no law, and warranted by no
necessity. If the United States be responsible in their stock
for the payment of these notes, their re-issue by the new
corporation, for their own profit, is a fraud on the government.
If the United States is not responsible, then there is no legal
responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud on the country.
They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership, but,
contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner, and without his
consent, are again re-issued and circulated. It is the high
and peculiar duty of Congress to decide whether any further
legislation be necessary for the security of the large amount
of public property now held and in use by the new bank, and
for vindicating the rights of the government, and compelling a
speedy and honest settlement with all the creditors of the old
bank, public and private, or whether the subject shall be left
to the power now possessed by the executive and judiciary. It
remains to be seen whether the persons, who, as managers of
the old bank, undertook to control the government, retained
the public dividends, shut their doors upon a committee of the
House of Representatives, and filled the country with panic to
accomplish their own sinister objects, may now, as managers of
a new Bank, continue with impunity to flood the country with a
spurious currency, use the seven millions of government stock
for their own profit, and refuse to the United States all
information as to the present condition of their own property,
and the prospect of recovering it into their own possession.
The lessons taught by the bank of the United States cannot
well be lost upon the American people. They will take care
never again to place so tremendous a power in irresponsible
hands, and it will be fortunate if they seriously consider the
consequences which are likely to result on a smaller scale from
the facility with which corporate powers are granted by their
State government."
This novel and amazing attempt of the bank to transmigrate into
the body of another bank with all its effects, was a necessity of
its position--the necessity which draws a criminal to even insane
acts to prevent the detection, exposure, and ruin from which guilt
recoils in not less guilty contrivances. The bank was broken, and
could not wind up, and wished to postpone, or by chance avert
the dreaded discovery. It was in the position of a glass vase,
cracked from top to bottom, and ready to split open if touched, but
looking as if whole while sitting unmoved on the shelf. The great
bank was in this condition, and therefore untouchable, and saw no
resource except in a metempsychosis--a difficult process for a
soulless institution--and thereby endeavoring to continue its life
without a change of name, form, or substance. The experiment was a
catastrophe, as might have been expected beforehand; and as was soon
seen afterwards.
The injury resulting to the public service from the long delay
in making the appropriations at the last session--delayed while
occupied with distribution bills until the season for labor had well
passed away. On this point the message said:
"No time was lost, after the making of the requisite
appropriations, in resuming the great national work of
completing the unfinished fortifications on our seaboard, and
of placing them in a proper state of defence. In consequence,
however, of the very late day at which those bills were passed,
but little progress could be made during the season which has
just closed. A very large amount of the moneys granted at your
last session accordingly remains unexpended; but as the work
will be again resumed at the earliest moment in the coming
spring, the balance of the existing appropriations, and, in
several cases which will be laid before you, with the proper
estimates, further sums for the like objects, may be usefully
expended during the next year."
Here was one of the evils of dividing the public money, and of
factious opposition to the government. The session of 1834-'5 had
closed without a dollar for the military defences, leaving half
finished works unfinished, and finished works unarmed; and that in
the presence of a threatening collision with France; and at the
subsequent session of 1835-6, the appropriations were not made until
the month of July and when they could not be used or applied.
Scarcely did the railroad system begin to spread itself along the
highways of the United States than the effects of the monopoly
and extortion incident to moneyed corporations, began to manifest
itself in exorbitant demands for the transportation of the mails,
and in capricious refusals to carry them at all except on their own
terms. President Jackson was not the man to submit to an imposition,
or to capitulate to a corporation. He brought the subject before
Congress, and invited particular attention to it in a paragraph of
his message; in which he said:
"Your particular attention is invited to the subject of mail
contracts with railroad companies. The present laws providing
for the making of contracts are based upon the presumption that
competition among bidders will secure the service at a fair
price. But on most of the railroad lines there is no competition
in that kind of transportation, and advertising is therefore
useless. No contract can now be made with them, except such as
shall be negotiated before the time of offering or afterwards,
and the power of the Postmaster-general to pay them high prices
is, practically, without limitation. It would be a relief to
him, and no doubt would conduce to the public interest, to
prescribe by law some equitable basis upon which such contracts
shall rest, and restrict him by a fixed rule of allowance. Under
a liberal act of that sort, he would undoubtedly be able to
secure the services of most of the railroad companies, and the
interest of the Department would be thus advanced."
The message recommended a friendly supervision over the Indian
tribes removed to the West of the Mississippi, with the important
suggestion of preventing intestine war by military interference, as
well as improving their condition by all the usual means. On these
points, it said:
"The national policy, founded alike in interest and in humanity,
so long and so steadily pursued by this government, for the
removal of the Indian tribes originally settled on this side
of the Mississippi, to the west of that river, may be said to
have been consummated by the conclusion of the late treaty with
the Cherokees. The measures taken in the execution of that
treaty, and in relation to our Indian affairs generally, will
fully appear by referring to the accompanying papers. Without
dwelling on the numerous and important topics embraced in them,
I again invite your attention to the importance of providing
a well-digested and comprehensive system for the protection,
supervision and improvement of the various tribes now planted
in the Indian country. The suggestions submitted by the
commissioner of Indian affairs, and enforced by the secretary,
on this subject, and also in regard to the establishment of
additional military posts in the Indian country, are entitled
to your profound consideration. Both measures are necessary for
the double purpose of protecting the Indians from intestine
war, and in other respects complying with our engagements to
them, and of securing our Western frontier against incursions,
which otherwise will assuredly be made on it. The best hopes
of humanity, in regard to the aboriginal race, the welfare
of our rapidly extending settlements, and the honor of the
United States, are all deeply involved in the relations
existing between this government and the emigrating tribes. I
trust, therefore, that the various matters submitted in the
accompanying documents, in respect to those relations, will
receive your early and mature deliberation; and that it may
issue in the adoption of legislative measures adapted to the
circumstances and duties of the present crisis."
This suggestion of preventing intestine wars (as they are called)
in the bosoms of the tribes, is founded equally in humanity to
the Indians and duty to ourselves. Such wars are nothing but
massacres, assassinations and confiscations. The stronger party
oppress a hated, or feared minority or chief; and slay with
impunity (in some of the tribes), where the assumption of a form of
government, modelled after that of the white race, for which they
have no capacity, gives the justification of executions to what
is nothing but revenge and assassination. Under their own ancient
laws, of blood for blood, and for the slain to avenge the wrong,
this liability of personal responsibility restrained the killings
to cases of public justifiable necessity. Since the removal of that
responsibility, revenge, ambition, plunder, take their course: and
the consequence is a series of assassinations which have been going
on for a long time; and still continue. To aggravate many of these
massacres, and to give their victims a stronger claim upon the
protection of the United States, they are done upon those who are
friends to the United States, upon accusations of having betrayed
the interest of the tribe in some treaty for the sale of lands. The
United States claim jurisdiction over their country, and exercise it
in the punishment of some classes of criminals; and it would be good
to extend it to the length recommended by President Jackson.
The message would have been incomplete without a renewal of the
standing recommendation to take the presidential election out of the
hands of intermediate bodies, and give it directly to the people.
He earnestly urged an amendment to the constitution to that effect;
but that remedy being of slow, difficult, and doubtful attainment,
the more speedy process by the action of the people becomes the
more necessary. Congressional caucuses were put down by the people
in the election of 1824: their substitute and successor--national
conventions--ruled by a minority, and managed by intrigue and
corruption, are about as much worse than a Congress caucus as
Congress itself would be if the members appointed, or contrived the
appointment, of themselves, instead of being elected by the people.
The message appropriately concluded with thanks to the people for
the high honors to which they had lifted him, and their support
under arduous circumstances, and said:
"Having now finished the observations deemed proper on this,
the last occasion I shall have of communicating with the
two Houses of Congress at their meeting, I cannot omit an
expression of the gratitude which is due to the great body
of my fellow citizens, in whose partiality and indulgence I
have found encouragement and support in the many difficult and
trying scenes through which it has been my lot to pass during
my public career. Though deeply sensible that my exertions have
not been crowned with a success corresponding to the degree of
favor bestowed upon me, I am sure that they will be considered
as having been directed by an earnest desire to promote the
good of my country; and I am consoled by the persuasion that
whatever errors have been committed will find a corrective in
the intelligence and patriotism of those who will succeed us.
All that has occurred during my administration is calculated
to inspire me with increased confidence in the stability of
our institutions, and should I be spared to enter upon that
retirement which is so suitable to my age and infirm health, and
so much desired by me in other respects, I shall not cease to
invoke that beneficent Being to whose providence we are already
so signally indebted for the continuance of his blessings on our
beloved country."