by so much diminishes the rate of interest; and by so much, therefore, benefits all the active and trading classes of society, at the expense of the American capitalist. Yet the President's invention, for such it deserves to be called,-that which is to secure us against the possibility of being oppressed by a monied aristocracy is, to shut the door and bar it safely against all introduction of foreign capital!

Mr. President, what is it, that has made England a sort of general banker for the civilized world? Why is it, that capital, from all quarters of the globe, accumulates at the centre of her empire, and is thence again distributed? Doubtless, sir, it is because she invites it, and solicits it. She sees the advantage

of this; and no British minister ever yet did a thing so rash, so inconsiderate, so startling, as to exhibit a groundless feeling of dissatisfaction at the introduction or employment of foreign capital.

Sir, of all the classes of society, the larger stockholders of the Bank are among those least likely to suffer from its discontinuance. There are, indeed, on the list of stockholders, many charitable institutions, many widows and orphans, holding small amounts. To these and other proprietors of a like character, the breaking up of the Bank will, no doubt, be seriously inconvenient. But the capitalist, he who has invested money in the Bank, merely for the sake of the security, and the interest, has nothing to fear. The refusal to renew the charter will, it is true, "diminish the value of the stock; but then, the same refusal will create a scarcity for money; and this, will reduce the price of all other stocks; so that the stockholders in the Bank, receiving, on its dissolution, their portion respectively of its capital, will have opportunities of new and cheap investment.

The truth is, sir, the great loss, the sore embarrassment, the severe distress, arising from this VETO, will fall on the public, and especially on the more active and industrious portion of the public. It will inevitably create a scarcity of money; in the Western States it will most materially depress the value of property; it will greatly enhance, every where, the price of domestic exchange; it threatens, every where, fluctuations of the currency; and it drives all our well settled and safe operations of revenue and finance out of their accustomed channels. And all this is to be suffered, on the pretended ground of a con

stitutional scruple, which no respect for the opinions of others, no deference to legislative precedent, no decent regard to judicial decision, no homage to public opinion, expressed and maintained for forty years, have power to overcome. An idle apprehension of danger is set up against the experience of almost half a century; loose and flimsy theories are asserted, against facts of general notoriety; and arguments are urged against continuing the charter, so superficial and frivolous, and yet so evidently addressed to those of the community who have never had occasion to be conversant with subjects of this sort, that an intelligent reader, who wishes to avoid imputing obliquity of motive, is obliged to content himself with ascribing to the origin of the Message-whatever and wherever that origin may have been no very distinguished share of the endowments of intellect.

Mr. President, as early as December, 1829, the President called the attention of Congress to the subject of the Bank, in the most earnest manner. Look to his annual message of that date. You will find that he then felt constrained, by an irresistible sense of duty to the various interests concerned, not to delay, beyond that moment, his urgent invitation to Congress to take up the subject. He brought forward the same topic. again, in all his subsequent annual messages; yet, when Congress did act upon it, and on the fourth of July, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO, did send him a bill, he returned it with his objections, and among these objections he not only complained that the Executive was not consulted on the propriety of present action, but affirmed also, in so many words, that present action was deemed premature by the Executive Department.

Let me ask, Mr. President, if it be possible that the same President, the same Chief Magistrate, the same mind, could have composed these two Messages? Certainly they much. more resemble the production of two minds, holding on this point precisely opposite opinions. The Message of December, 1829, asserts that the time had then come for Congress to consider the Bank subject; the Message of 1832 declares, that, even then, the action of Congress on the same subject was premature; and both these Messages were sent to Congress by the President of the United States. Sir, I leave these two messages to be compared, and considered, by the people.

Mr. President, I will here take notice of but one other suggestion of the President, relative to the time and manner of passing the late bill. A decent respect for the Legislature of the country has hitherto been observed by all who have had occasion to hold official intercourse with it, and especially by all other branches of the Government. The purity of the motives of Congress, in regard to any measure, has never been assailed, from any respectable quarter. But in the Veto Message there is one expression, which, as it seems to me, no American can read without some feeling. There is an expression, evidently not casual or accidental, but inserted with design, and composed with care, which does carry a direct imputation of the possibility of the effect of private interest, and private influence, on the deliberations of the two Houses of Congress. I quote the passage, and shall leave it without a single remark: "Whatever interest or influence, whether public or private, has given birth to this act, it cannot be found either in the wishes or necessities of the Executive Department, by which present action is deemed premature."

Among the great interests of the country, Mr. President, there is one, which appears to me not to have attracted, from the people of this Commonwealth, a degree of attention, altogether equal to its magnitude.

I mean the Public Lands. If we run our eye over the map of the country, and view the regions, almost boundless, which now constitute the public domain, and over which an active population is rapidly spreading itself, and if we recollect the amount of annual revenue derived from this source, we shall hardly fail to be convinced that few branches of national interest are of more extensive and lasting importance. So large a territory, belonging to the public, forms a subject of national concern of a very delicate nature, especially in popular governments. We know, in the history of other countries, with what views designing men have granted the public lands.

Either in the forms of gifts and largesses, or in that of reduction of prices, to amounts merely nominal, or as compensation for services, real or imagined, the public domain, in other countries, and other times, has not only been diverted from its just use and destination, but has been the occasion also of introducing into the State, and into the public councils, no small portion, both of distraction and corruption. Happily, our own system of administering this great interest has hitherto

been both safe and successful. Nothing under the government has been better devised than our land system; and nothing, thus far, more beneficially conducted. But the time seems to have arrived, in the progress of our growth and prosperity, when it has become necessary to reflect, not on any new mode of sale, for that can hardly be improved, but on some disposition of the proceeds, such as shall be just and equal to the whole country, and shall insure also a constant and vigilant attention to this important subject from the people of all the States. It is not to be denied or disguised, that sentiments have recently sprung up, in some places, of a very extraordinary character, respecting the ownership, the just proprietary interest, in these lands. The lands are well known to have been obtained by the United States, either by grants from individual States, or by treaties with foreign powers. In both cases, and in all cases, the grants and cessions were to the United States, for the interest of the whole Union; and the grants from individual States, contain express limitations and conditions, binding up the whole property to the common use of all the States forever. Yet of late years, an idea has been suggested, indeed seriously advanced, that these lands, of right, belong to the States respectively, in which they happen to lie. This doctrine, sir, which, I perceive, strikes this assembly as being somewhat extravagant, is founded on an argument derived, as is supposed, from the nature of State sovereignty. It has been openly espoused, by candidates for office, in some of the new States, and, indeed, has been announced in the Senate. To the credit of the country, it should be stated, that up to the present moment these notions have not spread widely, and they will be dispersed, undoubtedly, by the power of general opinion, so soon as that opinion shall be awakened and expressed. But there is another tendency more likely, perhaps, to run to injurious excess; and that is, a constant effort to reduce the price of land to sums almost nominal, on the ground of facilitating settlement. The sound policy of the government has been, uniformly, to keep the prices of the public lands low; so low, that every actual settler might easily obtain a farm; but yet, not so low, as to tempt individual capitalists to buy up large quantities, to hold for speculation. The object has been to meet, at all times, the whole actual demand, at a cheap rate; and this object has been obtained. And it is obviously of the greatest importance to keep the

prices of the public lands from all influences, except the single one of the desire of supplying the whole actual demand, at a cheap rate. The present minimum price is one dollar and a quarter per acre; and millions of acres,much of it of an excellent quality, are now in the market at this rate. Yet, every year, there are propositions to reduce the price; and propositions to graduate the price; that is to say, to provide that all lands, having been offered for sale, for a certain length of time, at the established rate, if not then sold, shall be offered at a less rate; and again reduced, if not sold, to one still less. I have myself thought, that in some of the older districts, some mode might usefully be adopted of disposing of the remainder of the unsold lands, and closing the offices; but a universal system of graduation, lowering prices at short intervals, and by large degrees, could have no other effect than a general depression of price in regard to the whole mass, and would evidently be great mismanagement of the public property. The meeting, sir, will think it singular enough, that a reduction of prices of the public lands should have been demanded, on the ground that other impositions for revenue, such as the duty on tea and coffee, have been removed; thus considering and treating the sums received for lands sold, as a tax, a burden, an imposition, and a great drain on the means and the industry of the new States. A man goes from New-England, to one of the Western States, buys a hundred acres of the best land in the world for one hundred and twenty-five dollars, pays his money, and receives an indisputable title; and immediately, some one stands up in Congress to call this operation the laying of a tax, the imposition of a burden, and the whole of these purchases and payments, taken together, are represented as an intolerable drain on the money and the industry of the new States. I know not, sir, which deserves to pass for the original, and which for the copy; but this reasoning is not unlike that, which maintains that the trading community of the West will be exhausted and ruined, by the privilege of borrowing money of the Bank of the United States, at six per cent. interest; this interest, being, as is said in the Veto Message, a burden upon their industry, and a drain of their currency, which no country can bear, without inconvenience, and dis

tress.

It was in a forced connexion with the reduction of duties of impost, that the subject of the public lands was referred to the