ate in the profits of capital by means of a safe and convenient
substitute for capital; and thus to diffuse far more widely the general
earnings, and therefore the general prosperity and happiness, of
society. Every man of observation must have witnessed, in this country,
that men of heavy capital have constantly complained of bank
circulation, and a consequent credit system, as injurious to the rights
of capital. They undoubtedly feel its effects. All that is gained by the
use of credit is just so much subtracted from the amount of their own
accumulations, and so much the more has gone to the benefit of those who
bestow their own labor and industry on capital in small amounts. To the
great majority, this has been of incalculable benefit in the United
States; and therefore, Sir, whoever attempts the entire overthrow of the
system of bank credit aims a deadly blow at the interest of that great
and industrious class, who, having some capital, cannot, nevertheless,
transact business without some credit. He can mean nothing else, if he
have any intelligible meaning at all, than to turn all such persons over
to the long list of mere manual laborers. What else can they do, with
not enough of absolute capital, and with no credit? This, Sir, this is
the true tendency and the unavoidable result of these measures, which
have been undertaken with the patriotic object of assisting the poor
against the rich!

I am well aware that bank credit may be abused. I know that there is
another extreme, exactly the opposite of that of which I have now been
speaking, and no less sedulously to be avoided. I know that the issue of
bank paper may become excessive; that depreciation will then follow; and
that the evils, the losses, and the frauds consequent on a disordered
currency fall on the rich and the poor together, but with especial
weight of ruin on the poor. I know that the system of bank credit must
always rest on a specie basis, and that it constantly needs to be
strictly guarded and properly restrained; and it may be so guarded and
restrained. We need not give up the good which belongs to it, through
fear of the evils which may follow from its abuse. We have the power to
take security against these evils. It is our business, as statesmen, to
adopt that security; it is our business not to prostrate, or attempt to
prostrate, the system, but to use those means of precaution, restraint,
and correction which experience has sanctioned, and whi