fire by pouring on it oil, as attempt to allay the fears which exist in Congress against the Bank by petitions, which show that the Bank is able to coerce such multitudes into its support. Every petition is a new monument of the power of the Bank, and an additional argument against its continuance. Rather than this, let the people of every State call on their Legislatures to remove our pecuniary difficulties. New-York alone has but to will what it wishes, and the wish will be accomplished. With an ability to create, at a moment and without cost, a stock that is equivalent to gold and silver, let the State not stand idly by, while an infuriated enemy is ravaging the country.* The ground on which the Bank advocates stand, in at least our State, will be thus removed from under them, and they will be left suspended as monuments of disappointed malice.

THE BANK PANIC AND PRESSURE.†

How wonderfully the goodness of Providence, in the abundant harvests of the past summer, contrasts with the wickedness of man in the afflictions of the last winter! Heaven, by a dispensation of more than ordinary general health, tranquillity, contentment and prosperity, seems to rebuke the imprecation of war, pestilence and famine, which an infuriated statesman dared once to utter, and which the events of the last winter sought to produce, as

On the 19th day of the ensuing month, the Legislature of New-York passed an act to raise six millions of dollars on State Stock, and to loan the money to the people of the State. The aid thus furnished was of essential service in restoring public confidence. ↑ Published October 6, 1834, and addressed to the Hon. Nathan Williams.

far as mischief so gigantic is placed within the power of

man.

The cruel acts under which the country suffered, may have been commenced without concert, but they resulted in a daring conspiracy to obtain, by a sort of Sabine rape, the suffrages of the people. An organized party became as intent to rule or ruin, as a band of mutineers who should hold a torch to fire the powder magazine of a ship, if the captain would not yield to their control. We beheld a reversal of the common principles of human nature. Men rejoiced at their own embarrassments, and merchants proclaimed commerce at an end. Notes of the most solvent Banks were denounced, in the same breath that cried, like Sarah of old, "give us money or we die!" Bankruptcy no longer excited pity, but undisguised gratification. The more meritorious the victim, the louder was the shout of triumph; the more stable the fabric that sunk before the storm, the more diffused became the exultation. Malignity emulated death in its love of a shining mark.

While these events were transpiring within every man's observation, falsehood and exaggeration filled the opposition newspapers, and made terror and distress epidemic. A sort of friendly cross-fire was carried on between distant cities. The North published lies in aid of the panic at the South, and the South published lies in aid of the panic at the North. A run on banks for specie was recommended, and for the avowed purpose of producing ruin. Like skillful Inquisitors, who are said to know the parts of a human body that are most sensitive to torture, editors directed the panic with equal skill to the Banks and individuals which were the most accessible to injury.

A more infuriated moment no country ever exhibited. Mechanics dismissed their journeymen for exercising a

freedom of opinion, and merchants dismissed their laborers. A sloop load of wheat was willfully precluded a market in the city of New-York, and willfully returned to Albany. Multitudes of men, under the name of Committees, were poured into Washington to intimidate the President, and to debate, personally, with him on the discharge of his constitutional duties. Legislation in Congress ceased, and the speeches of the members were directed to the people. Its sittings were declared interminable, and the country was declared in a state of revolution.

So systematic were the efforts which I have barely enumerated, so furious was the onset, and so specially was our State the object of attack, that great and general interests escaped unscathed by only the majestic efforts of the State itself-which nobly opened its veins to our exhausted mouths, and revived credit at its expiring gasp; and this, too, while tumult and multitude, ravenous for our destruction, clamored, like disappointed demons, at the act which was snatching us from their grasp.

We had all heard of the power of money, but, till last winter, we possessed no conception of its actual power. We now understand why, in every nation, political power has ever existed on the side which preponderated in wealth. We understand why the Commonalty of England (the richest private individuals that the world ever saw) is more than a counterpoise to the King and Nobles. The potency of money was as unexpected a discovery to our enemies as to us. They found it pertaining to the Bank, as accidentally as Aladdin discovered the power which pertained to his magic lamp. The use which our enemies made of the discovery we have seen, but what use shall we make of it? This question gives to the approaching election its importance. If we shall be defeated in the coming contest, poli

tical power exists only nominally in the majority of the people, but substantially in the majority of wealth. The engine which shall prove too strong for the people in this contest, will continue in the hands of our enemies for all future occasions, and renewed with, perhaps, a double potency. If we yield to any imaginary expediency, and permit the enemy to triumph, expediency will; compel our compliance hereafter. The deliberate sentiments of the people will never be more repugnant than they are now to the objects of the enemy; the Government to be sup. planted will never possess more strongly than the present the affection of the nation. With not as many representatives in our last Legislature as Columbus carried to Spain for specimens of a new race, if our enemies can now out. number us, what hopes can we indulge in any future contest? If such a revolution has within a short year been effected by means of a pecuniary pressure, our elections are useless; let us abandon the empty ceremony, and forgetting, if we can, the glories that are past, prepare our children to endure the loss of their birthright.

I even care not whether the Bank last winter produced the pressure voluntarily or involuntarily; whether it warred. against us offensively or defensively; enough for us is the fact that, like the enraged elephant which was recently shot at Exeter 'Change, the Bank is subject to paroxysms, and possessed of powers which render its preservation inconsistent with public safety. The showman killed his elephant, though on it depended the sustenance of his wife. and children; and we must kill ours, how occasionally soever it may administer to our convenience, and how kindly soever it may occasionally employ its huge strength-but especially must we kill it, since its trunk is influenced by our enemies, who have shown that they will wield it for our destruction.

Preceding elections have presented to us no greater calamity than the temporary misrule of our opponents; but the present election is to deliver us to them in perpetuity. The game is great, and desperately have they played it. If, as they openly assert, the people will rather part with principles than with money, we are indeed lost. The experiment will be tried effectually. The seeds of distress and ruin were sown widely and liberally. We have been ploughed with affliction and harrowed with anxiety. The exhausted laborers, as they travelled homeward from their seats in Congress, could exclaim with Thomson's farmer"Be gracious Heaven! for now laborious man Has done his part."

They are waiting for the crop. With the people is the increase, and the people owe them an abundant harvest. Our opponents have enjoyed their usual feasts of anticipation, while the reality, to which the people are accustomed, is hastening forward. Come it must, and these tyrants in will, but impotents in power, will stand exposed, like a gambler who has shown his cards, and been found to have bragged on an empty hand. Let them again close their shops,* and marshal their dependents; burst open again the arsenal, and dragoon the New-York voters; the great inquest of the nation is approaching. They, who had no eye to pity, who laughed at our calamity, must be rebuked. All the interests of the State, agricultural, commercial, and mechanical, cry for judgment. All that is honest in politics, all that is lovely in patriotism, all that is desirable in selfgovernment, call on the people to scatter the discordant factions, who, uniting for no common end but the destruction.

The shops in the City of New-York were closed, that the occupants might attend a Political Meeting held at " Castle Garden."

+ The Presidential election was to be held in November.