Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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( Coiiclu.dfA from the first pctgc-) Ve done bv calling m their debts- I said ?h*t it would not alleviate but increase the disease. I knew the ground I stood on iu saviug so, and thar such was the uninter rupted current of English authorities. I am no! now wholly unsupported in this opinion. Is it not the interest of the banks, specially and obviously their interest, to resume ? No one will deny that it is. Here, then, stands the case. You found these corpora tions created by law, in a state of sound cred it and profitable business; you have destroy ed both ; and we are to be told you must not adopt measures of the most salutary and ben eficial character, Wecause an incidental effect will be to reinstate the banks in the condition in which you found them. Sir, such a course would" be insufficiently illustrated by the conduct of the captain and crew of a vessel, who in defiance of the warnings and entreaties of their passengers, should run noon shoals and quicksands, and, in the mo ment of peril, should take to their long-boat, disregarding the despairing shrieks of the passengers, when there was room enough in the boat for atl. ft is said that to refuse to receive the bills of banks is the best'means of preventing ex cessive issues. I believe exactly the reverse, that yon cannot hold out to them so power ful an inducement to prudence and to cau tion as to say to them, so long as you coctin ue to pay specie, the powerful aid of the coun tenance'of the government shall be extended to you. We will give you the authority and influence of our opinion of your solvency by receiving your bills, but the moment you ^refuse to pay, we will withdraw that confi dence and dishonor you by a refusal to receive vour paper, and shaka your credit to its deep est foundations. It is literally putting them upon their good behaviour by addressing their interest. ? .It is also urged, that to receive their bills is to place the Government in the power ot the banks? to have thsm in our debt, and dependent upon our confidence, is to place us in their power. The old idea was, that the debtor was slave to the ci editor, but now it is that the creditor is slave of the debtor. Verily, this is an era of new lights. What are the great objects of this great change which we are asked to venture on ? 1st. To pay the government officers and employees in gold and silver, and 2d: By creating a constant demand upon the banks for specie, to prevent excessive issues. To the first I reply that there is no officer in the pub lic service, who expected, at the time he entered into office, to receive any thing else than convertible bank notes, and that he has no right, nor do I believe that auv of them have the disposition, to ask any thing else. If bank paper, conveK^ble at .will into specie, is to be the currency of the people and of the states, 1 can see no reason for giving to federal officers any thing better. Tlieir salaries are *lrea !y large enough to j seduce from their allegiance to the states, all ; with whom a love of money is stronger than the love of country. I can see no reason for j * paying vour clerks in the departments two ! thousand dollars, in gold and silver, when the j ?governors or supreme judges, in but few states I in the union, receive that amount in bank ! notes. Now, sir, if this is the true policy ; j if it is wrong to pay federal officers in bank j notes, it is equally so to pay our state officers , in them. If the- demand of federal dues will j create a demand for specie that will be saluta- , tv, so will the same demand be created by . collecting State dues in specie. Why has j no gentleman yet proposed to collect state taxes in gold aud silver ? W hy is it, that whilst they object to receiving fed-ral dues in the bills- of specie paying banks, they are in favor of receiving state dues in the bills of banks that do not pay specie ? I wiH tell you, sir, it is, because in the one case, the tax is collected under the tariff secretly. The peo ple pay it in the increased price of the articles they bay without knowing it. In the other, , the tax is collected direct ly and openly . The boldest of the advocates of this hard money policy will not do this. If they will, sir, go directly to the people and demand specie for taxes, and refuse bank notes, if I ain not mis taken, they will pull down a house about their ears, and we shall hear no more for a century, at least, of collecting taxes i a specie ; and why not do it ? If it is right, the people will sustain you. Make the issue if you dare, and show at once the confidence you profess in your theories, and in the judgment and patriotism of the people. That people whom you aie eternally slavering with your praises ?'as a man pats a wild horse that he may ride him," Bank rags, irredeemable bank rags, for the people, and for state officers. Noth ing but gold and silver for federal officers, and this is states rights. But you are to control the banks and pre- ! vent excessive issues by refusing their bills. Has this government any legitimate power to control or to check those corporations ? Gen tlemen flout with scorn, the idea of a bank rupt law. The states say they have the pow er to create these corporations. The general government has no power to destroy them. They mean no direct, no honest, no fair power. Bat if it can get the power by cheat ing the constitution, it is perfectly fair to do sot If they can pervert a power given for another purpose, it is right, fair, and perfect ly constitutional to do so. h ven in this fraud ulent and stealthy way, can you do it ? 1 do not believe that it is possible so to frame your laws as to secure the collcction of government dues in specie. They will be collected, as I am informed they now are, in a certain im porting city in the outfi , in bank notes, un- , der an understanding that if specie is called for (as it never is called for) the banks will pay it. Such was the universal practice of evasion in the land offices under the opera tion of the treasury circular. But, suppose the revenue collected in specie, what will be the effect? Gentlerneo say, to restrain bank issues. To what extent ? three for one, two for one, or one for one, as never did the Bank of Amsterdam. The measure will either do no such thing or it will do too much. The whole amount of the receipts of the Govern ment on any just and economical principles, will be twenty-five millions. The daily pay ments in the city of New \ ork alone, are estimated at eight millions, or twenty-eight hundred millions in tl?e year.- Th? whole transactions of the Uiwted States may be as sumed at least at ten thousand millions : as twenty-five is to ten thousand, is your power bv this measure of reforming the currency. So, sir, suo proprio vigore , the measure of a demand of specie is powerless, and it can only be by its influence on the public inind ; by a moral, not pecuniary power, that any such effect can be produced. And are gentlemen spared to venture on the use of so tremend- | ous an engine as an excited popular biuion against banks? Can they control it when once put in motion? Can they say we will use this tremendous power to restrict the baaks to .three for one, two for one, or one for one, and at that point stop it ? It would be enacting over again the impotent attempt ! of saying to the swelling and advancing tide I "thus far shalt thou go and no farther. Yon might as well say that you would take off the wing of a fly with a steam engine and not otherwise injure it. No mortal has a right to resort to the use of an instrument which he cannot control when once put in motion. Nothing is easier than to destroy bank credit. It is as frail and delicate as female reputation, which never entirely recovers, even from groundless imputation. Can you restrict banks to the issue of dol lar for' dollar ; or is it desirable to do so ? Those who think that the Bank of Amster dam, for any time, worth regarding, had dollar for dollar of its issues, have paid as little atten tion to the history of that bank, in this particu lar, as in that of the date of its institution. It is spoken of as the beginning of the banking system. I suppose the first bank is meant. Now it is much nearer the last bank than the first. It is 230 years since the establishment of this Bank of Amsterdam, and it was just four hundred and fifty years after the Bank of Venice, and two hundred years after the Bank of Geooa. Every body knows who knows anv thing about it, that very 9|j01^ y after its institution, the directors found that the certificates of deposites were not ca e for in coin, and that the issues of ?uc~^cer" tificates were infinitely multiplied. uc^ will ever be the case. It is no more P?ct'* cable to restrain excessive issues of certifi cates of deposite, than of promises to pay specie. Suppose you could. Is it not in effect bringing the country to a metallic cur rencv ? Of what importance is it whether the coin itself circulates, or a paper certifi cate of a deposite of that coin ? Suppose 70 millions of coin in the country. What is the difference between that coin being the sole currency, and that very coin being deposited in banks, and an equal quantity, dollar for dollar, of paper certificates issued . Is it not still the 70 millions, neither more nor less of currency, and is not he a ruined man who contracted debts, when there was three times that amount of currency in the country. What I am afraid of in this thing, is, the great political and moral influence of the action of the Government upon this most delicate ot all questions. Is there a county in the Uni ted States, where any large merchant might not affect the credit of bank paper by refusing to receive it ? Would not ill the farmers do the same ? Would any;uch merchant be tole rated iodemandiog hisdebts in gold and silver. Shall we, sir, be asked to do that which no private individual dare do, and no houorable man would do ? But it is argued that we have no constitu tional right to receive any thing but gold and silver. Whv not? Because no such pow er is given/ Is any power given to issue Treasury notes? But this power is given, expiesslv given, in the power to collect taxes; and never has been doubted for the half cen tury that the Government has existed. As a question of authority I think that oi A* ash- , in^ton, one of the wisest men, and of the most unbending integrity that ever lived, and the President of the convention that formed the Constitution, of Madison, and of every states man from that day to this, is strong enough. In 1791, a few years after the adoption ot tne Constitution, such currency was not only re ceived, but a bank charter granted mainly for the reason that such a currency might be crea ted for the use of the Government. But where is the prohibition to receive taxes in any thing . In kind if necessary. Suppose in a state of war, and the Government wanting gun powder, why may it not receive the duty in kind ? Does any one deny the right to grve credit for duties on imports ? Suppose Mr. Biddle chooses to import goods for his corpo ration, 'will not the bond of that corporation be taken for the duties? If h'* bond *hy not its notes? Is it not the daily nabit to substitute new bonds with other securities for old ones ? A merchant may then substitute one bond for another? may he npt substitute a bond of a corporation? Would the bond of a merchant be rejected if he offered as se curity the Bank of the United States . If its bond may be taken why may not its notes Does the seal make it constitutional, and If this great change is to be brought about, leave it to individual sagacity, interest and capital. Let it be the work of time, gradual, silent, and salutary? like the changes m our language, not seen at the time it is going on, but only after the lapse of years, when it is accomplished. We have no right to force ^it by legislation. I have shown how small is the amount of ou> money transactions to ihose of the whole country : not less striking is /he acraregate intelligence of the country com pared to ours ; and of all bodies of the same number, we are the least qualified to judge ri^htlv upon it. I feci myself that I am not free from political bias, nor do 1 believe oth ers are. I will only add in conclusion that i am thoroughly satisfied, that although the Government may, at the cost of infinite suf fering to the people, collect and keep its ley enue in gold and silver, that it is absolutely, impossible to transfer and disburse it without the agency of banks; and that the inevitable effectTof such a system will be to make every disbursing officer a dealer in exchange on the Government fund3, and at the risk ok the Government, but for his own profit, lake a single case for illustration. Fifty thousand dollars are required to pay troops in Arkan sas or in Maine. How is the money to be ! transferred there 1 By a draft most probably on New York, where the public funds most accumulate. The draft will be at a premium. The pavmaster sells it, say at 10 per cent., who has the benefit of this premium. I he officer is protected by his receipts from the I soldiers for the $50,000 ; and has pocketed j 86,000, as it is said has actually been done. I If you exact of him the premium, he may charge himself with a less amount, and ! detection is impossible. Such temptations ought not to be offered, for they will not, they cannot, be resisted. In other cases the only modes of transfer must be the bills of ex change. Your officers must buy them from merchants or banks, at premium or discount, as the case may be. Suppose both drawer and drawee fail. Who bears the loss . due care has been exercised, the Government j ought, and whether there has or not, the Gov ernment will bear it, as the celebrated Pur veyance claim proves. I am satisfied, thoroughly satisfied, that the public funds cannot be transferred and disbursed without the agency of banks, aud when another measure comes up, I will pro pose if no one else does, a plan of special de posites, which will place xhe money in the custody of the banks, but without their hav ing the power to use one dollar of it. 1 am, and always have been opposed to the pet bank system as dangerous and corrupting, and 1 am prepared to show that the plan of speci deposites, diminishes patronage to absolutely nothing, and has advantage over any other proposed in every point of view; and that it would be adopted, I do not doubt, if it were not for the extreme zeal of ultras on both sides? on the side of a United States Bank? and of the Sub-Treasury ? for neither of! which will I vote. There i? another branch of this subject, and to me by far the most important, which I now approach. It is said that this hard money policy will benefit the South and re lieve it from its commercial thraldom to the North. This is said on high authority, and is vouched by names in which the South re poses a well earned confidence. I do not doubt their sincerity ; 1 just as little doubt the error of these opinins; I have heard no argument from any quarter in support of I them. When I ask for argument, I am an swered by declamation, or some of those broad and general abstractions, which in politics I have generally found to be either truisms, or things that are not true. My own settled convictions, candidly, not hastily, arrived at, and cautiously and deliberately re-examioed, with 3n ardent desire to arrive at the truth, is that whilst this policy will be injurious to all sections of the country, it will be ruinously, fatally injurious, to the South. It is due to those who sent me here, it is due to myself, to give the reason? that have forced these conclusions upon me. After what has pass ed in my veTy humble public life, I had suppos ed that it was not necessary for me to declare my devotion to the South. But even I, sir, all of whose interests and affections are indis solubly connected with, and who have pe riled all that man values in defence of the South and its interests, even I am suspected. It is my duty to defend myself, by giving the reasons for my opinions. Although this selfish and sectional policy has not marked the ancient character of South Carolina, although it has been from a high, generous, and patriotic disregard of her pe culiar interests, and the readiness with which she has on all proper occasions sacrificed them to the honor of the country, that she is mainly indebted for her high character, and the moral power which she has exerted in the confederacy, I am forced to say, that in the present condition of the politics of the ; country, \ regard It to be my imperious duty to look first, if not mainly, to the interests of the South, and of Charleston, and I shall not hesitate to do all that I may honorably do to that end ? all that I can do consistently with the obligations of duty and of honor to the other members of the confederacy. More than that I trust I would not do to advance any interest, sectional or selfish. Further than this, I do not think it either right or prudent to go. We, sir, are, and are destined to be, the weaker interest ; and to say noth ing of -the obligations of an honorable patriot ism, it is not thd most wise in us to avow a policy selfish and sectional. If we do, it will be with an ill grace that we shall coinpla'm of it in others, who wield the power of a majority. Will this policy benefit the South ? I would not vote for an expunging resolution because I should be told it would benefit the south ? and I might be told so with as much truth as that this gold and silver policy will ? nay, sir, with more truth ? for that would be harmless, and this would be injurious. Amongst the aphorisms on this subject ? and no one has descended lower than an aphorism ; is that the banking; system has given the North its commercial ascendency over tiie South. If any thing is meant by the North, it must be New York: for it is New York that imports exclusively for the South all that is not im ported in southern cities. With just as much truth may a fly on a coach-wheel be held responsible for the dust that is made ? the fly is on the wheel, and the dust is made, but the poor fly has very little hand in it. The banking system is in existence, and New Y ork has this ascendency ; but it is no more attri butable to the banking system than is the dust to the fly^jrfTis I will show ? and I do not vaunt whfen I say that I will put it beyond the reach of refutation or argument. One hearing a proposition of this sort stated, would naturally suppose that the banking capital of New York was much greater in proportion than that of Charleston, or other southern cities. But what will gentlemen say when they are told that it does not amount to one-tenth ? I might say one-twentieth ? of that of any one of the cities of the South. I suppose they will say as did the ardent Frenchman when he was told thafthe facts did not support his theory ? so much the worse, said he, for the facts ? tant pis pour les fetes? the facts may or m?y not be true, the theory must be. ^ The following is the statement of the SeV cretary of the Treasury of the amount or bank capital and circulation on the 1st Janu ary, 1837,Jn round numbers: Cnpilnl. Circulation. State of New York $37,000,000 $24,000,000 City of New York 20,000,000 9,500,000 South Carolina (9,500,000 ,000,000) Charleston 8,000,000 6,000,000 Pennsylvania 58,500,000 25,000,000 Philadelphia 45,000,000 20,000,000 Georgia 11,500,000 5,000,000 Alabama 10,000,000 7,500,000 Louisiana 37,000,000 8,000,000 Mississippi 13,000,000 5,000,000 ^Massachusetts 38,000,000 10,000,000i ^ These facts and figures speak for them7 selves. It will not be pretended that a small city or state, with little commerce, requires as much currency as those which are larger, and have greater commerce. Upon what ra tio will you regulate it? That of population or commerce, or what is the nearest approx imation to a just ratio, a combined one of pop ulation and commerce New York has ten times the population of Charleston, and is en titled on that principle to eighty millions. It has twenty. It has forty times the commerce ; and on that ratio, to three hundred and twenty millions ? on a compound ratio of numbers and of commerce to twenty-five times as much, which is two hundred millions. It has twen ty. And so of all the southern cities. New Orleans, with one-tenth of the trade, and one sixth of the population of New-York, has one-third more of banking capital. It is still more strikingly shown in the cases of Phila delphia, which, with one-third of the popula tion, and less than a fifth of the commerce of New York, has three times the bank capi tal. Not less striking is the case of Boston. Why has New York so far outstripped them both? Will anyone, in the face of these facts, hold up his head, and attribute the pow er and prosperity of New York to the bank ing system ? But it is to tlv deposite of pub lic funds that the great prosperity of New York is owing. How much has been, on an average, deposited there at iny one time? Not more than three or four millions. Add that to the capital and currency of that city, and how strikingly unequal still is the state ment. I do. not suppose that it will be pretended that public money has any peculiarly re freshing and invigorating quality any more than so much private capital. This whole notion about deposites is a sheer and down right fallacy. The money is not deposited in New York unless collected there. No bank issues to the whole amount of its de posites ; a portion ofit, generally half, remains locked up, aBd is, to that extent, a diminu tion of currency, and therefore an embarrass ment instead 01 an aid to commerce. Of all the extravagances that ever have been broach ed by intelligent men this is the greatest, to attribute the commercial power of New York to causes so obviously insufficient. What made Amsterdam so long the commercial metropolis of the continent ; London, of all Europe; Glasgow, of Scotland; who can tell, or what sane man would have attributed either to any one cause. The advantages of New York are vast and innumerable. The most perf set local position, enormous accum ulation of capital, regular packets, and ships without number, and, more than all, facilities of inland transportation, unequalled and per fect, by which goods imported there are dis tributed all over the United States. If New York had Dot a single bank, the currency of other States would accumulate there more than at any other point. I met in New York, a few days since, a friend who had gone there to obtain funds to set on foot a bank in Ark ansas. I asked him ifhe wished gold and silver, hr said no ; that, for the greater part, he pre ferred exchange on New York. He was right, sir; and the fact is the most conclusive refutation of all these fallacies. There are means by which the trade of the South, and of much of the West, may be brought back to our own city of Charleston. But it never will be done if reliance is placed upon every new theory, more political than commercial, that is started. One, and the chief of these means, is our great enterprise of communi cating with the West; by that, and similar works, this, to the South, great end, may be attained, & I hope and believe it will be. I hope so, sir, from every consideration of interest as well as every feeling of affection. I should love that venerable old city, if for nothing else, but that it held the bones of the Rutledges, the Lanrenses', and the Pinckneys; and now, in her day of calamity and suffering, that feeling is almost one of devotion. But I will not support every wild and impracticable theory, because I am told, on any authority, that it will benefit Charleston, when I have no shadow of doubt that the effects will be directly the reverse. I called some time since, for a report showing the receipts and expenditures in each of the States. The Secretary has not responded to the call ; and I must, therefore, take the report of 1834, the last that has been made. In that, the amounts received and expended, in the sev eral States, were as follows in round num bers : Collected. Expended. Vermont $179 $232, 000 New Hampshire 16 418,000 Khode Island 119,000 381,000 Connecticut 47,000 305,000 S361,000 81,336,000 Louisiana 1,000,000 346,000 Mississippi 1,000,000 316,000 Alabama 721,000 374,000 ?2,721,000 $1,036,000 The four New England States receive more than a million more than is collected. The three Southern States collect one million seven hundred thousand more than is re-ex pended. The three middle States collect two millions, and reccive three. Now, sir, that the fiscal operations of the Government operate injuriously to us I do not doubt, and have often asserted here. But in a demand of specie, for Government dues, I see onlv an aggravation of the evil. Whilst bank paper is the currency, and the banks pay specie, the pressure of these unequal disbursements is less severely felr. It is arranged and allevi ated by the silent operations of trade and com merce. But adopt the specie system, and the specie must be transported, or kept wheie it is collected at an equal cost, and it cannot be evaded. Suppose there was now in Mobile a million in specie belonging to the Govern ment, how would you use it? I have been answered in conversation, by prominent ad vocates of this policy, by transporting the specie. That is my opinion. If the Govern ment does not do it, the officer or employee, to whom a draft is given, or the merchant or bank, into whose hands it falls, will; or he will only allow the specie to remain by being paid for it. In the last five years two millions and a half have been collected in Charleston? certainly less than a million and a half paid out in the State. Suppose that amount collected in specie, and transferred, does it not una voidably diminish our currency, not one million only, but three? For one million of specie is a safe basis for three of cutrency. Does it not add just that much to the curren cy of the place to which it is transferred ? Mr. Crawford, in 1817, saw this, and saw Hso that any peculiar currency, being adopted by the Government, would tend to the advan tage of that section east of this city, where Government disbursements were chieflv made ; and this effect is infinitely increased, when that currency is gold and silver, which pis the basis of a three-fold paper currency. Again, in New York, the money paid into the Treasury is almost immediately paid out again, and is available to pay duties twenty times in a week. Not so in Charleston ; it is locked up, and only unlocked to be transfer red. New York not only retains what is paid there, but much that is paid elsewhere flows into New Y ork. Take the case, stated before, of the paymaster in Arkansas who sells the Government draft on New York. It gets into the hands of meichants ? what for? To draw the specie ? No ; but to pay to the im porting merchant in the city. It moves there in a contiaual circle, and circulates like the blood, one moment in the head, the next in the feet. But as to the cities of the South it is blood taken from the arm ; and, under such a system, it is demonstrably true that the more goods we import at the South the worse for us. The more duties we should pay, and the more specie withdrawn from us, I need not be told that such is, and always has been the case. To a certain but an infinitely less extent it has. Under the system of re ceiving convertible bank paper, the vix medi - catrix of commerce and trade has greatly di minished the injurious effects. It has been said that the South is to be benefited by the exchange on the North being against us. How benefited ? By forcing a direct trade to our own ports. This looks mightily like the tariff policy. It is certain ly true, that if there was a total non-inter course with Northern cities, the people of the South would be forced to trade at South era seaports, and that in proportion as im pediments are thrown in the way of such in tercourse, will this effect be produced. But at whose cost? At the cost of the consumer, if there is any thing true in the anti-tariff argument ? that the effect ^pf cutting off competition is to increase prices. Ask the farmer to which market he prefers that his merchant should go, to Charleston or New York ? His reply will be, to that where he can lay in his goods cheapest. F or he knows that the cheaper he buys the cheaper he can sell. Ifhe can buy as cheap in Charleston, there is no need of artificial checks to com petition; if he has to pay higher prices, the consumer ultimately pays the difference. Now, sir, if any state of the South wishes to force the increase of importation in their own cities, nothing is easier. Let the legislature provide by law, to pay one half the duties on all goods imported ; my life on it the importa tions there will be enormously increased, and, if I am not mistaken, at some risk of dissatis faction when the people come to be taxed to pay the money. v The South, it is said, raises the staples which are needed in foreign markets, and has therefore the command of foreign specie. A greater fallacy never was uttered. We raise these staples it is true, but they are market able commodities and are any body's who can pay for them. How, but in cotton, do we pay? How can we pay for the immense amounts which we annually purchase of Northern commodities ; such articles as we are obliged to have and which the Northern people can furnish us on better terms than any one else ? negro cloth, shoes, hats, car riages, furniture ; all articles of wood, leather, furs; in short, all articles of which the raw. material constitutes the chief element of value? Then they have cotton as well as we have, and the same command of foreign spe cie as we have. Let us state a case. A new bank is about to be established, and every body wants spey cie from Europe to take stock. An enter# prising yankee comes to the South with h cargo of the articles I have enumerated.^ Has he any difficulty in obtaining our cotton ? But a New York merchant wants a hundred thousand dollars in specie from England; so does a merchant of Augusta. They both have the money in bank notes of their respec tive cities. The New Yorker deposites his money in the Manhattan Bank; goes to Au gusta and sells bills at 10 percent, premium. He has then ?110,000, whilst the Augusta merchant has $100,000; so that he can ship his cotton to Liverpool and bring back his specie with the same amount with which the Auf "*a merchant has his cotton in the ware house in Augusta. And this is the command of foreign specie which our staples and an adverse exchange give us ? another case I suppose where the facts and theory not agree ing. Sbmuth the worse for the facts. But, sir, I go further, and do not hesitate to say, | that if specie in large amounts is brought in to the country, it is done exclusively at the cost of those who furnish the staples of for eign commerce; Such always has been the case and always will be. Specie never is im ported without a depression at the same time in the price of cotton. It is a melancholy in stance of party infatuation to see Southern men chuckling at the importation of specie, attended as it ever has been by the fall of cotton. Suppose we determine on a metal lic currency, or what is equivalent, bank pa per representing specie, dollar for dollar. No one will say that we have too much currency now. I think it demonstrable that we have never had enough. France, with double our population and less commerce, has eight hun dred millions of dollars ; and prices are not swollen in France. It is one of the cheap est countries in Europe. We then are enti tled to four hundred millions, whilst we never have had the half of it. But even take it ft what it how is, whence is the hundred mil lions to coine. It must come chiefly from England, our great customer. It is too mani fest to need argument, that whilst the whole country receives the beuefit, we pay the ex pense in the diminished prices of our sta ples. England has about thirty-five millions sterling. Suppose half of that is withdrawn; will not prices fall ? Cottoa twith every thing else. Will not the manufactories dismiss their workmen ? Cotton accumulate and de maud diminish ? Is not a fall in price the inevitable effect ? I have no earthly doubt that it is the interest of the cotton planter that specie should be sent from this country to England, and not that it be brought from England-to this country. That we are more interested in the currency of England being abundant, than that it should beso here, for the obvious reason, that the more abundant money is, the higher will prices be, and the more animated all commercial and man ufacturing interests; and it is the price in England which fixes the value of cotton in this cov ry. The fable, sir, of the boy, and his goc- e, does not represent greater folly, than for a cotton planter to desire an increase of our own currency at the expense ofdiminish ing tiiat of England. Again, if convertible bank notes are as good as specie, there can be no leason for a discrimination. If they are not, and duties are paid in specie, and the goods sold for bank paper, the price is en hanced to the consumer to that extent. ? This is too obvious to need argument. Is it forgotten how fiercely, and to the last, we resisted the demand of cash duties? How near the compromise of 1832 was being de feated by the tenacity of Southern men on that ground ? What was the difference be tween cash and credit compared with the dif ference between specie and bank paper ? Spe ceie is to be imported, and can only be paid for in our staples. It will not be pretended that the same cotton will procure both specie and merchandize too. If specie come, merchan dize cannot ; and we are forced to buy ar ticles of American manufacture at an en hanced price at the same time that there is a deficiency of revenue from a diminshed im portation. But, sir, this idea of receiving payment for our staples in gold and silver, is not a new one. It has been advanced before, and scouted by Southern statesmen as an impracticable ab surdity. Literally trampled into the earth. Strange that Southern men should be the first to take it up out of the dust. If, sir, I have not been in error as to all the principles of trade and political economy, it is of infi nitely more importance to the Southern plan ter, that there should be large importations, than it is at what particular point those im portations shall be made. I have always be lieved and now do, that a nation cannot for any length of time, import more than it ex ports, nor export more than it imports; that all commerce is an exchange of equivalents ; that the larger the amount imported the greater the necessity of equivalent exports ; and of consequence the higher the prices of the articles exported, and the greater demand for them in foreign countries, from an in creased ability to pay for them ; and that of necessary consequence, all impediments on foreign commerce are at the expense of those who furnish the articles of that commerce. Believing all this, sir, I look with anxiety and alarm to the consequences. The coun tries ofEurope are obliged to have cotton, it is true, but they arc not obliged tohaveours. It becomes us to look well to the conse quences, before we make it necessary for our customers to look elsewhere, by putting it beyond theirjjower to buy of us. In the now trembling balance of demand and supply of that great staple, we should be cautious how we throw the weight of a feather in the ad verse scale. No commercial event in the his tory of the world has produced such conse quences, as would the destruction of the val ue, or that great reduction in the price of cot ton, which a large surplus would cause. In conclusion, sir, allow me to say, that io all respect for distinguished men who differ with me, I cannot look at the great changes in our fiscal, monetary, and commercial sys tems, of which I regard the present measure as an important part,' in any other light,than as injurious to the whole country, and especial ly to the South ; and that if adopted, when it is too late, that section in particular will repent the infatuation, and with emaciated frame and limbs, stiffened by the long paraly sis, will awake to curse the itiustoa. I take this occasion to say, that in the course which I have left it my duty to take upon this subject, I h?.ve been influenced by no vain glorious confidence in my own judg ment, still less by an ostentation of firmness in opposing what is supposed to be the opin ion of the State. No, sir, no. I value my seat on this floor very little indeed ; but I do value above all earthly honors, the confidence and approbation of those who sent me here? and I declare in all truth and sincerity, that the loss of these would not be compensated by the approval of the world besides. My relation to my constituents is not the ordina ry one of constituent and representative. But, sir, I should be unworthy to represent them,, Sf I could .hesitate one moment in choosing whether I should sacrifice their interest, and? mjnown firm and clear conviction of duty, or theiAapprobation and confidence, highly as I value^them. Constrained to take the course which I have, it was due to my constituents that I should present fully the reason^ that have influenced me. I sincerely thank the committee for the opportunity it has givea me of doing so. The following remarks were made in replj to Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, and Mr. Hoffman, of New York: ' It is with extreme pain that I again ask the indulgence of the house. But exposed as I am to a cross-fire from my colleague, and the gentleman from New York, lam forced to do so. I have been unavoidably absent from the bouse for a short time this morning, and have not heard all that has been said. But I am informed that my colleague, (Mr. Khett,) has attributed to me a purpose to stop the Government by withholding the necessary supplies. Now sir, I said no such thing, but directly the reverse. What I did say was verbatim this : " That if the great conserve tive principle of English liberty of withhold ing supplies, until, there was a redress of grievances, was in any. case applicable to our institutions, that the present was such an oc c;rsion. But that I would not do it. That howsoever and by whomsoever administered, I eould not forget that if was still the Gov ernment of my country, and entitled to all proper aid from me of money and of every thing else. That I would vote for raising the ! money to the full extent asked for. Butthat i I must be allowed to choose the mode of rais ing it, and could not and would not do so by the plan proposed, regarding it as I did as a violation, a dangerous violation of the Con stitution/' This was what I did say. So understood by the whole house. So in sub stance reported in all the papers. So taken down at the time by the reporters, and so explained to my colleague. How much of justice or propriety there is in my colleague again attributing other language, I leave to the house and the country. My colleague says this is a loan, and only as a loan is it CO#; stitutional. I propose to raise the same amount by a loan in another wa?? not a permanent fund ed loan, but a loan, reimbursable at the will of the Government, and payable whenever it has the money. Now, sir, what is the differ ence ? Both are loans ; both create a public diebt ; both payable whenever the Government can pay, with these differences only, that the plan which I propose will save half a. million / of dollars; and what is far more important, will save the Constitution ? and this is to stop the Government, because, although I am as willing a9 my colleague to grant the supplies, I will not do it in the particular mode dictat ed by the Executive ? violating, as I believe it does, the Constitution ? which opinion I supported in an argument, which the gentle man has not even attempted to answer. One word to the gentleman from New York ? not by way of breaking a lance in defence of my colleague ? no, sir, I shall not do that, it does seem, that now-a-days, every orator, of every grade, who has nothing else to say, as sails South Carolina and the Nullifiers, aa* certain c! ss of preachers in a like predica ment, ever and anon repeat their texts. Now, sir, to all such, I owe it to myself to say, and I owe it to myself to say no more, that into whatever political associations I may be here after thrown, whatever titles of honor I may hereafter acquire, this world has none to give which I shall regard with the same pride and affection as I do the designation of that partv to which they so habitually allude. 1 shall never again know a political feeling of as much strength and devotedness. I am ready at any moment in- vindication of the patity and honor of that gallant and devoted party, to break as I would a pack-thread, any ties of political attachment, as I have in the same cause disregarded the nearest and the dearest ties of blood and of kindred. "Whilst I have a tongue or an arm to use in their defence, it shall be done with the ?ame promptness and devotedness that I would defend the mother that bore me. However humble, I was not the least ardent of that glorious band of patriots and gentlemen, by no act of mine, scattered to the winds. Long, sir, very long, will it be, before I expect to see another of equal intelligence, patriotism*, courage, and disinterestedness; and I tell gentlemen, that in that greatstruggleto which the future patriot wiH look with wonder and admiration, there was no one man engaged* from the highest to the lowest, whose mean est thought was not virtue, honor, patriotism* compared with the very highest of tke wholo host of their revilere. In (he Court of Ordinary. RICHLAND DISTRICT. George W. E . Green, by" I s?? ***?? of Elizabeth Green, dee'd J due examination it is ordered and decreed, that V the real estate of ELIZABETH GBBBN.bte of Colombia, deceased, consisting of one acre of Land in Colombia, known by the Lota nombei seventy owr and seventy -twos on Medium-street, be sold by the Sheriff of Kkhknd District, on the first Monday in Jnlv next. Cash will be required sufficient to pay erp*ns?*^ and for the balance a bond with good aeenrity, (anp a mortgage of the property,) payable twelve montba after date, with interest. Purchaser to pay for titles and all necessary papers. JAMES S. GUJGNARD, Ordinary. Columbia, 7th May, 1838. ? In obedience to the above order, I wfll sell tha above Lots on the first Monday in July asst. JESSE DEBRUHL, 8. R. D. May 12, 1838.