Opis: To the People of Virginia (Classic Reprint) - Author Unknown

Excerpt from To the People of Virginia

The reason urged for this sudden change of measures, is the suspension of specie payments by the banks, and yet one of the most obvious effects of the bill must be to postpone and retard the resumption.

The suspension of specie payments not only involved the Government, but the people, in difficulties and embarrassments; yet the administration, instead of using its legitimate powers and immense resources to relieve the people as well as the Government, has cut itself loose from the people, seized by its strong arm the gold and silver for itself and its office-holders, leaving the people to fare as best they may. But the advocates of the measure say, the people are not compelled to take any thing but gold and silver. They are compelled to do it, by that which is stronger than law - by stern necessity. Let the mechanics, or merchants, or farmers determine to take nothing but gold or silver, and the mechanic may shut up his shop, the merchant his store, and the farmer will see his grain rotting in his barn. We repeat it, then, the people must take bank notes or nothing - the gold and silver will be for the Government and its office-holders, who, as did Col. Benton, will sell their gold and silver for a premium, which we the people must pay. We are not surprised to find the office holders advocating this Sub-Treasury - it increases their salaries by the premium of the specie, and the enhanced value of money; and, strange to tell, Mr. Van Buren who has urged and at last carried this measure, and who in one of his messages declared "that the people expect too much from the Government," claims our support upon the ground that he is the people's friend. May we not in truth apply the old adage, "save us from our friends, we will take care of our enemies." This gold and silver, when thus collected, is to be in the custody of officers appointed by the President and removable at his pleasure - officers too often appointed for their party zeal and subserviency, and not for their honesty and fitness for the office. Witness the Swartwouts and Prices, the sixty-three delinquent receivers pf public lands out of sixty-seven. We will detain you no longer in dwelling upon this Sub-Treasury, which will increase Executive power and patronage - render the public money less secure - diminish the circulating medium, and consequently reduce the price of labor and all our agricultural products - retard the resumption of specie payments by the banks - diminish instead of increasing the quantity of specie in circulation, by making it an article of merchandize - and give us two currencies, the better for the office holders and the worse for the people.

In connection with this Sub-Treasury, we call your attention to the Bankrupt Bill, recommended by Mr. Van Buren in his message to the Special Session of Congress in September, 1837, to be applied exclusively to banks and bankers. In this message Mr. Van Buren says, "In the mean time, it is our duty to provide all the remedies against a depreciated paper-money 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 authorised by the Constitution." This is a subject which has received too little attention from a people who ought to be ever wakeful and jealous. If the recommendation of the President had been carried info effect, and the law passed, it would have placed into the hands of those who administer the General Government, an engine of most tremendous power. Fellow-citizens, many of you are not familiar with the operations of a bankrupt law, and we will state succinctl

Szczegóły: To the People of Virginia (Classic Reprint) - Author Unknown

Nazwa: To the People of Virginia (Classic Reprint)
Autor: Author Unknown
Wydawnictwo: FB &c Ltd
Kod paskowy: 9781331104391
Języki: angielski
Ilość stron: 20
Format: 15.2x22.9cm
Oprawa: Miękka

Recenzje: To the People of Virginia (Classic Reprint) - Author Unknown