EXTRA SESSION: MESSAGE, AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
The first session of the twenty-fifth Congress, convened upon the
proclamation of the President, to meet an extraordinary occasion,
met on the first Monday in September, and consisted of the following
members:
SENATE.
NEW HAMPSHIRE--Henry Hubbard and Franklin Pierce.
MAINE--John Ruggles and Ruel Williams.
VERMONT--Samuel Prentiss and Benjamin Swift.
MASSACHUSETTS--Daniel Webster and John Davis.
RHODE ISLAND--Nehemiah R. Knight and Asher Robbins.
_Connecticut_--John M. Niles and Perry Smith.
_New York_--Silas Wright and Nathaniel P. Tallmadge.
_New Jersey_--Garret D. Wall and Samuel L. Southard.
_Delaware_--Richard H. Bayard and Thomas Clayton.
_Pennsylvania_--James Buchanan and Samuel McKean.
_Maryland_--Joseph Kent and John S. Spence.
_Virginia_--William C. Rives and William H. Roane.
NORTH CAROLINA--Bedford Brown and Robert Strange.
SOUTH CAROLINA--John C. Calhoun and Wm. Campbell Preston.
GEORGIA--John P. King and Alfred Cuthbert.
ALABAMA--Wm. Rufus King and Clement C. Clay.
MISSISSIPPI--John Black and Robert J. Walker.
LOUISIANA--Robert C. Nicholas and Alexander Mouton.
TENNESSEE--Hugh L. White and Felix Grundy.
KENTUCKY--Henry Clay and John Crittenden.
ARKANSAS--Ambrose H. Sevier and William S. Fulton.
MISSOURI--Thomas H. Benton and Lewis F. Linn.
ILLINOIS--Richard M. Young and John M. Robinson.
INDIANA--Oliver H. Smith and John Tipton.
OHIO--William Allen and Thomas Morris.
MICHIGAN--Lucius Lyon and John Norvell.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
MAINE--George Evans, John Fairfield, Timothy J. Carter, F. O. J.
Smith, Thomas Davee, Jonathan Cilley, Joseph C. Noyes, Hugh J.
Anderson.
NEW HAMPSHIRE--Samuel Cushman, James Farrington, Charles G.
Atherton, Joseph Weeks, Jared W. Williams.
MASSACHUSETTS--Richard Fletcher, Stephen C. Phillips, Caleb Cushing,
Wm. Parmenter, Levi Lincoln, George Grinnell, jr., George N. Briggs,
Wm. B. Calhoun, Nathaniel B. Borden, John Q. Adams, John Reed,
Abbott Lawrence, Wm. S. Hastings.
RHODE ISLAND--Robert B. Cranston, Joseph L. Tillinghast.
CONNECTICUT--Isaac Toucey, Samuel Ingham, Elisha Haley, Thomas T.
Whittlesey, Launcelot Phelps, Orrin Holt.
VERMONT--Hiland Hall, William Slade, Heman Allen, Isaac Fletcher,
Horace Everett.
NEW YORK--Thomas B. Jackson, Abraham Vanderveer, C. C. Cambreleng,
Ely Moore, Edward Curtis, Ogden Hoffman, Gouverneur Kemble, Obadiah
Titus, Nathaniel Jones, John C. Broadhead, Zadoc Pratt, Robert
McClelland, Henry Vail, Albert Gallup, John I. DeGraff, David
Russell, John Palmer, James B. Spencer, John Edwards, Arphaxad
Loomis, Henry A. Foster, Abraham P. Grant, Isaac H. Bronson, John H.
Prentiss, Amasa J. Parker, John C. Clark, Andrew D. W. Bruyn, Hiram
Gray, William Taylor, Bennett Bicknell, William H. Noble, Samuel
Birdsall, Mark H. Sibley, John T. Andrews, Timothy Childs, William
Patterson, Luther C. Peck, Richard P. Marvin, Millard Fillmore,
Charles F. Mitchell.
NEW JERSEY--John B. Aycrigg, John P. B. Maxwell, William Halstead,
Jos. F. Randolph, Charles G. Stratton, Thomas Jones Yorke.
PENNSYLVANIA--Lemuel Paynter, John Sergeant, George W. Toland,
Charles Naylor, Edward Davies, David Potts, Edward Darlington, Jacob
Fry, jr., Matthias Morris, David D. Wagener, Edward B. Hubley, Henry
A. Muhlenberg, Luther Reilly, Henry Logan, Daniel Sheffer, Chas.
McClure, Wm. W. Potter, David Petriken, Robert H. Hammond, Samuel
W. Morris, Charles Ogle, John Klingensmith, Andrew Buchanan, T. M.
T. McKennan, Richard Biddle, William Beatty, Thomas Henry, Arnold
Plumer.
DELAWARE--John J. Milligan.
MARYLAND--John Dennis, James A. Pearce, J. T. H. Worthington,
Benjamin C. Howard, Isaac McKim, William Cost Johnson, Francis
Thomas, Daniel Jenifer.
VIRGINIA--Henry A. Wise, Francis Mallory, John Robertson, Charles
F. Mercer, John Taliaferro, R. T. M. Hunter, James Garland, Francis
E. Rives, Walter Coles, George C. Dromgoole, James W. Bouldin, John
M. Patton, James M. Mason, Isaac S. Pennybacker, Andrew Beirne,
Archibald Stuart, John W. Jones, Robert Craig, Geo. W. Hopkins,
Joseph Johnson, Wm. S. Morgan.
NORTH CAROLINA--Jesse A. Bynum, Edward D. Stanley, Charles Shepard,
Micajah T. Hawkins, James McKay, Edmund Deberry, Abraham Rencher,
William Montgomery, Augustine H. Shepherd, James Graham, Henry
Connor, Lewis Williams, Samuel T. Sawyer.
SOUTH CAROLINA--H. S. Legare, Waddy Thompson, Francis W. Pickens,
W. K. Clowney, F. H. Elmore, John K. Griffin, R. B. Smith, John
Campbell, John P. Richardson.
GEORGIA--Thomas Glascock, S. F. Cleveland, Seaton Grantland, Charles
E. Haynes, Hopkins Holsey, Jabez Jackson, Geo. W. Owens, Geo. W. B.
Townes, W. C. Dawson.
TENNESSEE--Wm. B. Carter, A. A. McClelland, Joseph Williams, (one
vacancy,) H. L. Turney, Wm. B. Campbell, John Bell, Abraham P.
Maury, James K. Polk, Ebenezer J. Shields, Richard Cheatham, John W.
Crockett, Christopher H. Williams.
KENTUCKY--John L. Murray, Edward Rumsey, Sherrod Williams, Joseph
R. Underwood, James Harlan, John Calhoun, John Pope, Wm. J. Graves,
John White, Richard Hawes, Richard H. Menifee, John Chambers, Wm. W.
Southgate.
OHIO--Alexander Duncan, Taylor Webster, Patrick G. Goode, Thomas
Corwin, Thomas L. Hamer, Calvary Morris, Wm. K. Bond, J. Ridgeway,
John Chaney, Samson Mason, J. Alexander, jr., Alexander Harper, D.
P. Leadbetter, Wm. H. Hunter, John W. Allen, Elisha Whittlesey, A.
W. Loomis, Matthias Shepler, Daniel Kilgore.
ALABAMA--Francis S. Lyon, Dixon H. Lewis, Joab Lawler, Reuben
Chapman, J. L. Martin.
INDIANA--Ratliff Boon, John Ewing, William Graham, George H. Dunn,
James Rariden, William Herrod, Albert S. White.
ILLINOIS--A. W. Snyder, Zadoc Casey, Wm. L. May.
LOUISIANA--Henry Johnson, Eleazer W. Ripley, Rice Garland.
MISSISSIPPI--John F. H. Claiborne, S. H. Gholson.
ARKANSAS--Archibald Yell.
MISSOURI--Albert G. Harrison, John Miller.
MICHIGAN--Isaac E. Crary.
FLORIDA--Charles Downing.
WISCONSIN--George W. Jones.
In these ample lists, both of the Senate and of the House, will
be discovered a succession of eminent names--many which had then
achieved eminence, others to achieve it:--and, besides those which
captivate regard by splendid ability, a still larger number of those
less brilliant, equally respectable, and often more useful members,
whose business talent performs the work of the body, and who in
England are well called, the working members. Of these numerous
members, as well the brilliant as the useful, it would be invidious
to particularize part without enumerating the whole; and that would
require a reproduction of the greater part of the list of each
House. Four only can be named, and they entitled to that distinction
from the station attained, or to be attained by them:--Mr. John
Quincy Adams, who had been president; _Messrs._ James K. Polk,
Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce, who became presidents. In my
long service I have not seen a more able Congress; and it is only
necessary to read over the names, and to possess some knowledge of
our public men, to be struck with the number of names which would
come under the description of useful or brilliant members.
The election of speaker was the first business of the House; and Mr.
James K. Polk and Mr. John Bell, both of Tennessee, being put in
nomination, Mr. Polk received 116 votes; and was elected--Mr. Bell
receiving 103. Mr. Walter S. Franklin was elected clerk.
The message was delivered upon receiving notice of the organization
of the two Houses; and, with temperance and firmness, it met all
the exigencies of the occasion. That specie order which had been
the subject of so much denunciation,--the imputed cause of the
suspension, and the revocation of which was demanded with so much
pertinacity and such imposing demonstration,--far from being given
up was commended for the good effects it had produced; and the
determination expressed not to interfere with its operation. In
relation to that decried measure the message said:
"Of my own duties under the existing laws, when the banks
suspended specie payments, I could not doubt. Directions were
immediately given to prevent the reception into the Treasury
of any thing but gold and silver, or its equivalent; and every
practicable arrangement was made to preserve the public faith,
by similar or equivalent payments to the public creditors.
The revenue from lands had been for some time substantially
so collected, under the order issued by the directions of my
predecessor. The effects of that order had been so salutary,
and its forecast in regard to the increasing insecurity of bank
paper had become so apparent, that, even before the catastrophe,
I had resolved not to interfere with its operation. Congress
is now to decide whether the revenue shall continue to be so
collected, or not."
This was explicit, and showed that all attempts to operate upon the
President at that point, and to coerce the revocation of a measure
which he deemed salutary, had totally failed. The next great object
of the party which had contrived the suspension and organized the
distress, was to extort the re-establishment of the Bank of the
United States; and here again was an equal failure to operate upon
the firmness of the President. He reiterated his former objections
to such an institution--not merely to the particular one which had
been tried--but to any one in any form, and declared his former
convictions to be strengthened by recent events. Thus:
"We have seen for nearly half a century, that those who advocate
a national bank, by whatever motive they may be influenced,
constitute a portion of our community too numerous to allow us
to hope for an early abandonment of their favorite plan. On the
other hand, they must indeed form an erroneous estimate of the
intelligence and temper of the American people, who suppose that
they have continued, on slight or insufficient grounds, their
persevering opposition to such an institution; or that they can
be induced by pecuniary pressure, or by any other combination
of circumstances, to surrender principles they have so long
and so inflexibly maintained. My own views of the subject are
unchanged. They have been repeatedly and unreservedly announced
to my fellow-citizens, who, with full knowledge of them,
conferred upon me the two highest offices of the government.
On the last of these occasions, I felt it due to the people
to apprise them distinctly, that, in the event of my election,
I would not be able to co-operate in the re-establishment of a
national bank. To these sentiments, I have now only to add the
expression of an increased conviction, that the re-establishment
of such a bank, in any form, whilst it would not accomplish the
beneficial purpose promised by its advocates, would impair the
rightful supremacy of the popular will; injure the character and
diminish the influence of our political system; and bring once
more into existence a concentrated moneyed power, hostile to
the spirit, and threatening the permanency, of our republican
institutions."
Having noticed these two great points of pressure upon him, and
thrown them off with equal strength and decorum, he went forward
to a new point--the connection of the federal government with any
bank of issue in any form, either as a depository of its moneys,
or in the use of its notes;--and recommended a total and perpetual
dissolution of the connection. This was a new point of policy, long
meditated by some, but now first brought forward for legislative
action, and cogently recommended to Congress for its adoption.
The message, referring to the recent failure of the banks, took
advantage of it to say:
"Unforeseen in the organization of the government, and forced
on the Treasury by early necessities, the practice of employing
banks, was, in truth, from the beginning, more a measure of
emergency than of sound policy. When we started into existence
as a nation, in addition to the burdens of the new government,
we assumed all the large, but honorable load, of debt which was
the price of our liberty; but we hesitated to weigh down the
infant industry of the country by resorting to adequate taxation
for the necessary revenue. The facilities of banks, in return
for the privileges they acquired, were promptly offered, and
perhaps too readily received, by an embarrassed treasury. During
the long continuance of a national debt, and the intervening
difficulties of a foreign war, the connection was continued
from motives of convenience; but these causes have long since
passed away. We have no emergencies that make banks necessary
to aid the wants of the Treasury; we have no load of national
debt to provide for, and we have on actual deposit a large
surplus. No public interest, therefore, now requires the renewal
of a connection that circumstances have dissolved. The complete
organization of our government, the abundance of our resources,
the general harmony which prevails between the different States,
and with foreign powers, all enable us now to select the system
most consistent with the constitution, and most conducive to
the public welfare."
This wise recommendation laid the foundation for the Independent
Treasury--a measure opposed with unwonted violence at the time,
but vindicated as well by experience as recommended by wisdom; and
now universally concurred in--constituting an era in our financial
history, and reflecting distinctive credit on Mr. Van Buren's
administration. But he did not stop at proposing a dissolution of
governmental connection with these institutions; he went further,
and proposed to make them safer for the community, and more amenable
to the laws of the land. These institutions exercised the privilege
of stopping payment, qualified by the gentle name of suspension,
when they judged a condition of the country existed making it
expedient to do so. Three of these general suspensions had taken
place in the last quarter of a century, presenting an evil entirely
too large for the remedy of individual suits against the delinquent
banks; and requiring the strong arm of a general and authoritative
proceeding. This could only be found in subjecting them to the
process of bankruptcy; and this the message boldly recommended.
It was the first recommendation of the kind, and deserves to be
commemorated for its novelty and boldness, and its undoubted
efficiency, if adopted. This is the recommendation:
"In the mean time, it is our duty to provide all the remedies
against a depreciated paper currency which the constitution
enables us to afford. The Treasury Department, on several former
occasions, has suggested the propriety and importance of a
uniform law concerning bankruptcies of corporations, and other
bankers. Through the instrumentality of such a law, a salutary
check may doubtless be imposed on the issues of paper money,
and an effectual remedy given to the citizen, in a way at once
equal in all parts of the Union, and fully authorized by the
constitution."
A bankrupt law for banks! That was the remedy. Besides its efficacy
in preventing future suspensions, it would be a remedy for the
actual one. The day fixed for the act to take effect would be the
day for resuming payments, or going into liquidation. It would be
the day of honesty or death to these corporations; and between these
two alternatives even the most refractory bank would choose the
former, if able to do so.
The banks of the District of Columbia, and their currency, being
under the jurisdiction of Congress, admitted a direct remedy in
its own legislation, both for the fact of their suspension and the
evil of the small notes which they issued. The forfeiture of the
charter, where the resumption did not take place in a limited time,
and penalties on the issue of the small notes, were the appropriate
remedies;--and, as such were recommended to Congress.
There the President not only met and confronted the evils of the
actual suspension as they stood, but went further, and provided
against the recurrence of such evils thereafter, in four cardinal
recommendations: 1, never to have another national bank; 2, never
to receive bank notes again in payment of federal dues; 3, never
to use the banks again for depositories of the public moneys; 4,
to apply the process of bankruptcy to all future defaulting banks.
These were strong recommendations, all founded in a sense of justice
to the public, and called for by the supremacy of the government,
if it meant to maintain its supremacy; but recommendations running
deep into the pride and interests of a powerful class, and well
calculated to inflame still higher the formidable combination
already arrayed against the President, and to extend it to all that
should support him.
The immediate cause for convoking the extraordinary session--the
approaching deficit in the revenue--was frankly stated, and the
remedy as frankly proposed. Six millions of dollars was the
estimated amount; and to provide it neither loans nor taxes were
proposed, but the retention of the fourth instalment of the deposit
to be made with the States, and a temporary issue of treasury notes
to supply the deficiency until the incoming revenue should replenish
the treasury. The following was that recommendation:
"It is not proposed to procure the required amount by loans or
increased taxation. There are now in the treasury nine millions
three hundred and sixty-seven thousand two hundred and fourteen
dollars, directed by the Act of the 23d of June, 1836, to be
deposited with the States in October next. This sum, if so
deposited, will be subject, under the law, to be recalled, if
needed, to defray existing appropriations; and, as it is now
evident that the whole, or the principal part of it, will
be wanted for that purpose, it appears most proper that the
deposits should be withheld. Until the amount can be collected
from the banks, treasury notes may be temporarily issued, to be
gradually redeemed as it is received."
Six millions of treasury notes only were required, and from this
small amount required, it is easy to see how readily an adequate
amount could have been secured from the deposit banks, if the
administration had foreseen a month or two beforehand that the
suspension was to take place. An issue of treasury notes, being an
imitation of the exchequer bill issues of the British government,
which had been the facile and noiseless way of swamping that
government in bottomless debt, was repugnant to the policy of
this writer, and opposed by him: but of this hereafter. The third
instalment of the deposit, as it was called, had been received by
the States--received in depreciated paper, and the fourth demanded
in the same. A deposit demanded! and claimed as a debt!--that is
to say: the word "_deposit_" used in the act admitted to be both
by Congress and the States a fraud and a trick, and distribution
the thing intended and done. Seldom has it happened that so gross a
fraud, and one, too, intended to cheat the constitution, has been so
promptly acknowledged by the high parties perpetrating it. But of
this also hereafter.
The decorum and reserve of a State paper would not allow the
President to expatiate upon the enormity of the suspension which
had been contrived, nor to discriminate between the honest and
solvent banks which had been taken by surprise and swept off in a
current which they could not resist, and the insolvent or criminal
class, which contrived the catastrophe and exulted in its success.
He could only hint at the discrimination, and, while recommending
the bankrupt process for one class, to express his belief that with
all the honest and solvent institutions the suspension would be
temporary, and that they would seize the earliest moment which the
conduct of others would permit, to vindicate their integrity and
ability by returning to specie payments.