LETTER FROM A CABINET OFFICER TO MR. FLAM--DIRECTIONS TO THE
DEMOCRACY--THE CABINET OFFICER'S MODE OF PRODUCING AN
IMPRESSION--THE PRESIDENT'S DETERMINATION IN REGARD TO THE
INDEPENDENT TREASURY--WARNING TO DESERTERS--CANDIDATES FOR
MR. FLAM'S PLACE IN THE BANK--HARDBOTTLE ELECTED--THEODORE
FOG'S OUTBREAK--HE COOLS DOWN AND STANDS UPON
PRINCIPLE--HARDBOTTLE UNPOPULAR.
The fact was as Theodore Fog had stated it. Mr. Flam had received a
letter from a member of the Cabinet, apprising him that it was deemed
absolutely necessary to the preservation of the New-Light Democratic
Party to become extremely pointed in their assault against the State
Banks, and that the misdeeds of those institutions should be exaggerated
as much as possible, and then charged upon the Whigs.
"This attack," said the letter, "must be made with more than usual
clamor, and followed up with unremitting industry, that, by force of the
first word and incessant repetition, we may get the people to believe
that we have had nothing to do with the creation of these corporations;
but have, in fact, been inveterately hostile to them from the first, and
that our opponents have been their sole patrons and friends. Our recent
outcry on this subject has succeeded so well with the people, that we
are determined now to make the denunciation of the banks our chief
topic, by way of preparation for the Independent Treasury which we are
resolved the people shall swallow. We cannot too strongly impress upon
our friends the propriety of charging upon the Whigs that we have
repeatedly warned them against increasing the number of banks in the
States. By this device we shall put upon their shoulders all those
mischiefs of _over-banking_ and _over-trading_, which _they_ used to
talk about. We must impute to them all the evils of the paper
system--except the Treasury notes, which it would be well for us to
praise, as an admirable Democratic scheme to give the country a METALLIC
currency. It has also been deemed important," continued the writer,
"that we should prove that the government has lost more money by the
State banks than by any other agents it has ever employed. This idea was
hinted to the Secretary of the Treasury, who has, in consequence, very
recently been at work upon the subject, and has produced a report
altogether conclusive against the banks. He will continue these labors
with a view to the instruction of Congress and all our other inquiring
friends; being, in no respect, daunted by that unlucky report made by
him in 1834, which, singularly enough, proves the opposite side of the
case; for, as he remarks, the specific gravity of his State papers is so
great as to sink them too deep for the perception of the present
generation,--and that consequently his report of 1834 must be pretty
well forgotten by this time, which, indeed, I think quite likely;--it
was so long-winded, dozy, and prosy, (a note in the margin marked this
as 'confidential,') that I should not wonder if more than ten men in
Congress ever read it, and of those, perhaps not a single one retains
any distinct impression of its meaning." The letter exhorted Mr. Flam to
make these views known to the drill sergeants and corporals of the party
in Quodlibet, and to stimulate them to active exertions in the part
assigned to them. "Pound it into public mind," said the writer, "that
the Whigs are the authors of the present evils; continual pounding will
inevitably, at last, do the business. Many a time have I riveted, by
diligent hammering, a politic and necessary fabrication upon the
credulity of the people--so fast that no art of my adversary could tear
it away to make room for the truth: therefore, I say to you and our
Democratic friends--hammer without ceasing."
A letter also from the Secretary, at the same time, informed Mr. Flam,
that as the people had so contumaciously rejected the Independent
Treasury bill, by their representatives in Congress, the President was
now determined to carry it at all hazards; and consequently it was
expected that no New-Light Democrat would be so false to the glorious
principles of the Quodlibetarian theory as to interpose any opinion of
his own between the will of the President and the appropriate duty of
the people. "If such should be the case," said the Secretary, "Mr. Van
Buren can have no alternative--the individual so recreant to the eternal
principles of the New-Light Democracy must be denounced by the Globe as
an enemy to freedom, and, what is worse, a traitor to his party."
Mr. Flam reflected upon these communications with grave attention; and
having shown them to some of his intimate friends, among whom I count it
my highest honor to be ranked, he announced his purpose to resign his
post in the bank. For this step he had two good reasons: the first was
the necessity of disencumbering himself of a connection which might have
impeded his usefulness--to use his own words--in his public relations;
the second reason was, that he had borrowed so large an amount from the
bank, as to circumscribe its bounty greatly to the prejudice of sundry
of the directors who were, in consequence, beginning to complain of his
management of the institution, and were even threatening to run an
opposition against him in the election which was but a few months off.
It was whispered also that Nicodemus Handy had given him a mysterious
but friendly hint to resign, without explaining his reasons. Upon these
considerations his mind was made up; and accordingly the resignation was
laid before the Board at the time indicated by Theodore Fog.
This event produced great sensation in Quodlibet; not less from the
curiosity to know why our distinguished representative should relinquish
so lucrative a post, than from the interest felt in the measure of
selecting his successor. Fifteen of our most strenuous New-Light
Democrats were candidates; and notwithstanding the speech made at the
blacksmith's shop, Theodore Fog was the first who wrote a letter to the
Board to apprise them that, in consequence of the eager importunity of
his Democratic friends to confide the bank to his management, he found
himself compelled to forego his objections to having any concern with
the banking system, and therefore would not feel himself at liberty to
decline the Presidency in case it should be offered to him. He said he
wished it to be distinctly understood, that emolument was not his
object: but that he was actuated solely by his attachment to that
New-Light Democratic principle which taught him on all occasions to seek
preferment, as the means of widening the sphere of his usefulness, and
to increase his worldly fortune only for the sake of the good it enabled
him to dispense to the people. On no other terms was he willing to
accept the government of the bank.
Some two or three days were spent in canvassing this matter; when the
choice ultimately, upon the twenty-fifth balloting, fell upon Anthony
Hardbottle, who had not been previously thought of for the place, and
was only brought forward when all attempts to elect others had failed.
The fifteen original candidates became greatly incensed at this choice.
Theodore Fog was furious: he said Hardbottle could scarcely be called a
Democrat:--if anything, he was half Whig--nay, he believed, whole
Whig:--and to elect a Whig to a great responsible post like that--a post
connected with the national fisc, allied to the money power, so
intimately related to the important concerns of the currency!--it was
not to be tolerated. The Genius of New-Light Democracy should array
herself in steel, indue herself in panoply, buckle on her armor, shake
her lance against it, or, in other words, he deemed it incompatible with
free institutions to allow a Whig, or, at least, a man who never
attended political meetings, and who held the Whigs in respect--to
preside over such a Democratic institution as the Copperplate Bank of
Quodlibet. Theodore continued raving in this strain until he drank nine
juleps, interspersed with numberless other potations, and became so
incapable of motion as to render it necessary for Mrs. Ferret to have
him carried to bed. As he cooled, so cooled his competitors. Indeed, in
the course of a few days, Theodore Fog, in commenting upon the
pretensions of the several defeated candidates, found so many objections
to them individually and collectively, as to bring himself into an
excellent temper upon the subject, whereby he was able to make merry
with the whole election; and thus, by degrees, he fell back into the
state of mind which he had manifested at the smith's shop, and declared
that no consideration could possibly induce him, professing the
principles he did, to accept any post connected with a bank. He
expressed himself in sharp and censorious terms against what, he said,
he had constantly observed: namely, that he never knew a post in a bank
to be vacant, from the President down to the porter, including Directors
and all, in regard to which he didn't find half a dozen Loco Focos, to
say nothing of New-Light Democrats, applicants to fill the vacancy: he
thought it inconsistent with principle, now that orders had come for the
Democracy to abuse the banks, to seek or accept such places; and he did
not care who knew his sentiments upon the subject.
Mr. Hardbottle was a strict man of business, and did not, it is true,
greatly interest himself in politics. Yet, nevertheless, he was a
decided supporter of the New-Light cause, and was always esteemed a
useful member of the Borough. One thing that made against him in the
Board was, that he had never been a very active customer to the bank,
except so far only as keeping his commercial account there. He was often
urged to accept accommodations with a view to the improvement of the
Borough, but almost invariably refused, from an aversion to indulging in
these useful speculations. His brother Directors, in consequence, rather
regarded him as a man who was deficient in public spirit; and they
imagined that he might be inclined to depreciate the value of the
services they had rendered the bank by the liberal employment they had
given to its funds. Mr. Hardbottle, therefore, might be said to
have entered into the government of the bank under inauspicious
circumstances, and was likely not to be a very popular President. He
was, however, determined upon one thing, and that was to make a thorough
examination of the bank for the purpose of bringing about a resumption
of specie payments at the earliest possible moment; for some complaints
had gone abroad against the Bank of Quodlibet for not resuming when the
other banks of the country affected to be anxious for that measure.
In consequence of this determination of the new President, the bank was
kept in perpetual bustle for the whole fortnight succeeding the
election. What then occurred will be told in the next chapter.