t is emphatically the Government of the people, and where this
respectable portion of our citizens are so proudly distinguished from
the laboring classes of all other nations by their independent spirit,
their love of liberty, their intelligence, and their high tone of moral
character. Their industry in peace is the source of our wealth and their
bravery in war has covered us with glory; and the Government of the
United States will but ill discharge its duties if it leaves them a prey
to such dishonest impositions. Yet it is evident that their interests
can not be effectually protected unless silver and gold are restored
to circulation.

These views alone of the paper currency are sufficient to call for
immediate reform; but there is another consideration which should still
more strongly press it upon your attention.

Recent events have proved that the paper-money system of this country
may be used as an engine to undermine your free institutions, and that
those who desire to engross all power in the hands of the few and to
govern by corruption or force are aware of its power and prepared to
employ it. Your banks now furnish your only circulating medium, and
money is plenty or scarce according to the quantity of notes issued by
them. While they have capitals not greatly disproportioned to each
other, they are competitors in business, and no one of them can exercise
dominion over the rest; and although in the present state of the
currency these banks may and do operate injuriously upon the habits of
business, the pecuniary concerns, and the moral tone of society, yet,
from their number and dispersed situation, they can not combine for the
purposes of political influence, and whatever may be the dispositions
of some of them their power of mischief must necessarily be confined
to a narrow space and felt only in their immediate neighborhoods.

But when the charter for the Bank of the United States was obtained
from Congress it perfected the schemes of the paper system and gave
to its advocates the position they have struggled to obtain from the
commencement of the Federal Government to the present hour. The immense
capital and peculiar privileges bestowed upon it enabled it to exercise
despotic sway over the other banks in every part of the country. From
its superior strength it could seriously injure, if not destroy, the
business of any one of them which might incur its resentment; and
it openly claimed for itself the po