he did not think the loss, on the coming crop of cotton alone, from delay of action here, would be less than one or two cents a pound, more than a million and a half on the whole crop.

But there was another reason, to his mind still more powerful, against the postponement. We are on the eve of a great revolution in regard to the currency. The first step in this revolution is, the separation of the Government and the banks; which, he sincerely believed, the good of both required. This, once effected, and each left to move in its own proper sphere, unembarrassed by the other, the change in the credit system, which he held to be inevitable, would, in all probability, be gradual, and without shock or injury to any of the great interests of the community. But, if the question of separation be left open,-if it is to run into the politics of the country, and be made an engine to act on the Presidential Election, there is no answering for the consequences. A direct issue will be made; and, when passions were roused, there would ensue a conflict between the Government and the banks which may become violent and convulsive, and shake our system to the centre. For these reasons, he deemed it highly desirable on all sides, that the motion to postpone should not succeed.

The Senator made a remark which had a personal bearing, which he (Mr. C.) could not pass unnoticed. He expressed great abhorrence at the declaration that he (Mr. C.) would not (if there were not other and powerful reasons against it), agree to employ Mr. Biddle's Bank as our fiscal agent, because it would give that institution a triumph over the Government-and go far to make it the Government itself.

There was, said Mr. C., no disputing about taste. We were so dissimilarly constituted, that what was sweet to one was sometimes bitter to another. But he was inclined to think that, in this case, the difference did not result so much

from any organic dissimilarity between him and the Senator, as from the different aspect in which they regard the controversy between General Jackson and the Bank. The Senator regards it, as is manifest from the whole tenor of his remarks, as a mere personal affair between General Jackson and the President of the Bank; or, at best, between the Executive branch of the Government and the Bank; in which, let either side prevail, would be but the triumph of one individual over another-or, of the Bank over the Executive, or the reverse. Thus regarding it, he was not at all astonished that the Senator should indulge himself in the strong expressions he did; but he must say, that he was not a little astonished, that the Senator, knowing him and his past course, as he did, could for a moment suppose that he (Mr. C.) regarded it under that aspect. When did he ever utter a sentiment, or do an act, which could, by possibility, give countenance to the imputation that he considered General Jackson, or the whole House-or the Executive Department, as the Government ? He would suppose that he was the last man to whom such a sentiment could be attributed. In making the declaration referred to, he viewed the subject far more comprehensively. He regarded the controversy under all its circumstances, and looked to results as testing the relative strength of the Government and the banks. He saw the most popular and powerful President that ever filled the chair of State-with boundless patronage-and sustained by a well-formed and compact majority in the Union and both Houses of Congress (of which majority the Senator was one), waging war against the Bank, and striving, with all his influence and energy, to put it down. Whether right or wrong (wrong he had believed, and still believed him to be), he was backed by the entire power of the Government, and a great majority of the people.

Now, Sir, said Mr. C., I ask if, after all this, the Bank should prove to be so indispensable to the Government as

to force itself on it-notwithstanding all these powerful opposing obstacles-greater than can ever again be arrayed against any similar institution-would not the fact prove, that the Bank has become stronger than both Government and people? And would it not go far-as he himself confessed to make the Bank the Government? It was under this aspect that he obviously regarded the struggle; and he must say, that, if the Senator, looking on it in the same light, did not regard it with similar sentiments, he could neither envy him his feelings nor his patriotism.

REMARKS

On the Amendment proposed by Mr. Clay to the Resolution of the Committee on Finance, made in the Senate, September 26th, 1837.

[MR. WRIGHT, from the Committee on Finance, called up the report relative to the petitions for the establishment of a National Bank, which was:

"Resolved, That the prayer of the respective petitions ought not to be granted." Mr. Clay, after some remarks, moved to strike out all after the word " Resolved," and insert, "that it will be expedient to establish a Bank of the United States, whenever it shall be manifest that a clear majority of the people of the United States desire such an institution."

Mr. Webster, after assigning his reasons, moved to postpone the question until Monday next; which, after some remarks from Mr. Preston, in opposition to the report of the Committee, was negatived by a vote of 30 to 15.

Mr. Tallmadge then moved to amend the amendment, by inserting after the word "Resolved" the following: "that in the opinion of the Senate, a clear majority of the people of the United States are oppos

ed to a National Bank, and that it is inexpedient to grant the prayer of

the petitioners."

After some further remarks from Messrs. Clay, Preston and Wright, Mr. Calhoun said:-]

THAT the course which he intended to pursue was, first, to vote against the amendment to the amendment-and, if that succeeded, then to vote against the amendment itself; so as to bring the question nakedly on the report of the Committee on Finance-viz., that the prayer of the petitioners ought not to be granted. He was not prepared to say what the opinion of the people of the United States is, at this time, in relation to a Bank; and much less was he prepared to commit himself in favor of one, in the contingency contemplated by the amendment. Where the constitution or important principles are involved, his only guide was his judgment and his conscience, and not the popular voice.

If there was any trick or management (as intimated in the remarks of his colleague, Mr. Preston) in bringing forward the report to entrap any Senator, who may not have made up his opinion definitely as to the necessity of a Bank, he was wholly ignorant of it. He did not know that the Committee on Finance had reported until this morning, nor that it was intended to take up the report, till a short time before it was called up; but he did not doubt the propriety of taking the sense of the Senate upon the subject of the Bank. The memorialists had petitioned for the establishment of a National Bank, and it was due to them as well as the country at large, that there should be an explicit declaration of the sense of the Senate on the subject. He considered it, in fact, among the measures of relief, that the sense of Congress should be fully known as to what ought, and what ought not to be done. There is a vast amount of capital now locked up awaiting our decision, which would flow out, as soon as it was known, to stimulate business, and

VOL. III.-7

relieve the money pressure, at this important season, when the fall trade is about to commence.

Mr. C. said, his colleague (Mr. Preston) had made some remarks which he could not pass unnoticed. He understood him to say that, to assent to any important part of the President's message was to support the whole-and that it was, in fact, to become a partisan of the administration.

[Here Mr. Preston dissented, and stated that what he did say was, that, according to his impressions, the support of the leading measure of the administration, seemed to him, as necessarily involving an entire support of the administration.]

Mr. C. resumed: He was gratified to receive the explanation of his colleague; and he now understood him as merely stating his impressions of what ought to be the effects of supporting any of the prominent measures recommended in the message. He must say that his (Mr. C's.) impressions were wholly different. No one knew better than his colleague, that he never acted but in relation to an object, and that object usually one somewhat remote; and that he advanced towards it with a steady step, regardless of the difficulties and party combinations around him. He was master of his own move; and acknowledged connection. with no party but the State Rights party,—the small band of nullifiers, and acted either with or against the administration or the national party, just as it was calculated to further the principles and policy which we, of that party, regarded as essential to the liberty and institutions of the country. It was thus he acted in the present instance. He knew his latitude and longitude; he had not neglected his log-book, but had kept an exact reckoning,—and knew the precise point where he was, and in what direction he was moving. The object for which he and those with whom he had acted had united with the Nationals, had been accomplished-Executive usurpation had been arrested. The treasury was empty-and