latter, by their
insinuations and the influence of their ledgers; that they are advancing
fast to a monopoly of our banks and public funds, and thereby placing
our public finances under their control; that they have in their
alliance the most influential characters in and out of office; when they
have shown that by all these bearings on the different branches of the
government, they can force it to proceed in whatever direction they
dictate, and bend the interests of this country entirely to the will of
another; when all this, I say, is attended to, it is impossible for us
to say we stand on independent ground, impossible for a free mind not
to see and to groan under the bondage in which it is bound. If anything
after this could excite surprise, it would be that they have been able
so far to throw dust in the eyes of our own citizens, as to fix on those
who wish merely to recover self-government the charge of subserving one
foreign influence because they resist submission to another. But they
possess our printing presses, a powerful engine in their government of
us. At this very moment, they would have drawn us into a war on the side
of England, had it not been for the failure of her bank. Such was their
open and loud cry, and that of their gazettes, till this event. After
plunging us in all the broils of the European nations, there would
remain but one act to close our tragedy, that is, to break up our union;
and even this they have ventured seriously and solemnly to propose
and maintain by arguments in a Connecticut paper. I have been happy,
however, in believing, from the stifling of this effort, that that dose
was found too strong, and excited as much repugnance there as it did
horror in other parts of our country, and that whatever follies we may
be led into as to foreign nations, we shall never give up our Union,
the last anchor of our hope, and that alone which is to prevent this
heavenly country from becoming an arena of gladiators. Much as I abhor
war, and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as
I wish to keep out of the broils of Europe, I would yet go with my
brethren into these, rather than separate from them. But I hope we may
still keep clear of them, notwithstanding our present thraldom, and
that time may be given us to reflect on the awful crisis we have passed
through, and to find some means of shielding ourselves in future from
foreign influence, political, commercial, or in whatever