RESUMPTION BY THE PENNSYLVANIA UNITED STATES BANK; AND OTHERS
WHICH FOLLOWED HER LEAD.
The resumption by the New York banks had its effect. Their example
was potent, either to suspend or resume. All the banks in the Union
had followed their example in stopping specie payments: more than
half of them followed them in recommencing payments. Those which
did not recommence became obnoxious to public censure, and to the
suspicion of either dishonesty or insolvency. At the head of this
delinquent class stood the Bank of the United States, justly held
accountable by the public voice for the delinquency of all the rest.
Her position became untenable. She was compelled to descend from it;
and, making a merit of necessity, she affected to put herself at the
head of a general resumption; and in pursuance of that idea invited,
in the month of July, through a meeting of the Philadelphia banks, a
general meeting in that city on the 25th of that month, to consult
and fix a time for resumption. A few banks sent delegates; others
sent letters, agreeing to whatever might be done. In all there were
one hundred and forty delegates, or letters, from banks in nine
States; and these delegates and letters forming themselves into
a general convention of banks, passed a resolution for a general
resumption on the 13th of August ensuing. And thus ended this
struggle to act upon the government through the distresses of the
country, and coerce it into a repeal of the specie circular--into
a recharter of the United States Bank--the restoration of the
deposits--and the adoption of the notes of this bank for a national
currency. The game had been overplayed. The public saw through it,
and derived a lesson from it which put bank and state permanently
apart, and led to the exclusive use of gold and silver by the
federal government; and the exclusive keeping of its own moneys
by its own treasurers. All right-minded people rejoiced at the
issue of the struggle; but there were some that well knew that the
resumption on the part of the Bank of the United States was hollow
and deceptive--that she had no foundations, and would stop again,
and for ever I said this to Mr. Van Buren at the time, and he gave
the opinion I expressed a better acceptance than he had accorded to
the previous one in February, 1837. Parting from him at the end of
the session, 1838-'39, I said to him, this bank would stop before we
meet again; that is to say, before I should return to Congress. It
did so, and for ever. At meeting him the ensuing November, he was
the first to remark upon the truth of these predictions.