Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 1 (of 2)Curtis, George Ticknor
History
Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 1 (of 2)
Curtis, George Ticknor
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
No doubt you will have many political enemies to criticise your oration,
but you must take the consequences now. It is a strong mark of
approbation to have so many copies of it published. I hope to see one of
them.
I am busily engaged with my harvest. I am very glad I did not purchase
goods as I proposed, as they have fallen greatly in price.
September 1, 1815.
...... Myself and the family are very anxious to see you, yet I am glad
that your business is so good that you cannot, with propriety, leave it,
yet you must always make your calculations to come as often as you can.
Have you agreed to your nomination for the Legislature another session?
You know your own situation best. If you think proper to take another
seat, it has my approbation. I have read your oration, and I think it
well done. Perhaps it is a little too severe, and may hurt the feelings
of some of your friends, who have been friendly, independent of
politics. I have lent it to a few people who have asked for it, and they
all speak well of your performance.
Oct. 19, 1815.
...... It appears from the Lancaster Journal, you are again elected. I
wish you may end the next session with the same popularity as a
statesman that you gained in the last session.
Mr. Buchanan’s own account of his second term of service in the
Legislature is thus given:
I was again elected a member of the House of Representatives in the
State Legislature in October, 1815. The currency at that period was in
great disorder throughout the Middle, Western, and Southern States, in
consequence of the suspension of specie payments occasioned by the war.
On the 20th of December, 1815, a resolution was adopted by the House of
Representatives, instructing the Committee on Banks, “to inquire into
the causes of the suspension of specie payments by the banks within this
Commonwealth; and also, whether any or what measures ought to be adopted
by the Legislature on this subject.” This committee was composed of Mr.
McEuen, of the city; Milliken, of Mifflin; Stewart, of Fayette; and
Dysart, of Crawford. On the 12th of January, 1816, Mr. McEuen made a
report which concluded with a recommendation that a law should be
passed, obliging the banks to pay interest on balances to each other
monthly, at the rate of six per cent. per annum, after the 1st of March;
also, obliging the banks refusing to pay specie for their notes after
the 1st of January, 1817, to pay interest at the rate of eighteen per
cent. per annum from the time of demand; and forfeiting the charters of
such banks as should refuse to redeem their notes in specie after the
1st of January, 1818. A bare majority of the committee had concurred in
the report. The minority had requested me to prepare a substitute for
it, and offer it as soon as the report was read. This substitute
concluded with a resolution, “that it is inexpedient at this time for
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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