Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850Benton, Thomas Hart
History
Thirty Years' View (Vol. 2 of 2): or, A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850
Benton, Thomas Hart
United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861
"There is yet another course, unembraced by either branch of the
alternative presented by the senator from South Carolina; and that
is, to establish a bank of the United States, constituted according
to the old and approved method of forming such an institution,
tested and sanctioned by experience; a bank of the United States
which should blend public and private interests, and be subject
to public and private control; united together in such manner
as to present safe and salutary checks against all abuses. The
senator mistakes his own abandonment of that institution as ours.
I know that the party in power has barricaded itself against the
establishment of such a bank. It adopted, at the last extra session,
the extraordinary and unprecedented resolution, that the people of
the United States should not have such a bank, although it might be
manifest that there was a clear majority of them demanding it. But
the day may come, and I trust is not distant, when the will of the
people must prevail in the councils of her own government; and when
it does arrive, a bank will be established.
"The senator from South Carolina reminds us that we denounced the
pet bank system; and so we did, and so we do. But does it therefore
follow that, bad as that system was, we must be driven into the
acceptance of a system infinitely worse? He tells us that the bill
under consideration takes the public funds out of the hands of the
Executive, and places them in the hands of the law. It does no such
thing. They are now without law, it is true, in the custody of the
Executive; and the bill proposes by law to confirm them in that
custody, and to convey new and enormous powers of control to the
Executive over them. Every custodary of the public funds provided
by the bill is a creature of the Executive, dependent upon his
breath, and subject to the same breath for removal, whenever the
Executive--from caprice, from tyranny, or from party motives--shall
choose to order it. What safety is there for the public money,
if there were a hundred subordinate executive officers charged
with its care, whilst the doctrine of the absolute unity of the
whole executive power, promulgated by the last administration, and
persisted in by this, remains unrevoked and unrebuked?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account