HAVING reached a point in the history of the United States which is too nearly contemporaneous to authorize our treating public affairs with any fulness or critical examination, we shall not undertake more than to present a concise summary of events during the of events during the last fifteen or twenty years; leaving the just historical estimate of our era to the historian of a later day, when time shall have set its seal upon the past, and when history can exercise its proper office in describing the progress of our national career.

The inauguration of Martin Van Buren, as the eighth president of the United States, took place on the 4th of March, 1837, with the usual ceremonies; and, after he had delivered his Inaugural address, the oath of office was administered to him by Chief-Jus

he expected to be governed in the dis charge of his duties. He renewed the pledge which he had given before his election, viz., "I must go into the presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt, on the part of Congress, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, against the wishes of the slave-holding states; and also with a determination equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the states where it exists." And he closed his address with invoking the choicest of blessings upon our beloved country.

The condition of commercial and business affairs, at the beginning of Mr. Van Buren's presidency, was critical and alarming. The removal of the deposits, the specie circular, and the distribution of the surplus reverue, had, it was believed, brought about this distressing state of things; and mercantile men, in general, gave expression to the

opinion, that the only effectual remedy for the evils affecting the currency and commercial exchanges was to be found in the establishment of a national bank. Failures began to occur in every quarter. During the first three weeks in April, two hundred and fifty houses stopped payment in New York. In New Orleans, during two days' time, houses stopped payment, owing an aggate of $27,000,000; and in other cities similar evidences were given of the storm that had burst over the country. The demands upon the banks increased rapidly; they could not keep their notes in circulation; the alarm grew into a panic; and a general run was made upon the banks. On the 10th of May, all the banks in New York stopped specie payments; and on the 16th, the legislature authorized this step on the part of the banks, to last for one year. The banks of other states speedily followed the example of those of New York; and all classes of the community gloomily anticipated widespread ruin and beggary as the result of this distressing state of commercial affairs.

On the 3d of May, a numerous meeting of merchants and bankers in New York, appointed a deputation to proceed to Washington and request the president to rescind the specie circular, to defer commencing suits upon unpaid bonds, and to call an extra session of

Congress; and the committee 1837. stated, that, "under a deep impression of the propriety of confining our declarations within moderate limits, we affirm, that the value of our real estate has within the last six months de

preciated more than $40,000,000 ;* that within the same period a decline of $20,000,000, has occurred in our local stocks; that within a few weeks not less than twenty thousand individuals, depending upon their daily labor for their daily bread, have been discharged by their employers because the means of retaining them were exhausted; and that a complete blight has fal len upon a community heretofore so active, enterprising and prosperous."

Other towns and cities followed the lead of New York, and sought relief at the hands of the executive; but Mr. Van Buren declined acting upon their petitions, and only consented, with reluctance, to the calling an extra session of Congress. His proclamation to this ef fect was issued on the 15th of May, and Congress was summoned to meet on the first Monday in September, on account of "great and weighty matters claiming their consideration." The interval was largely occupied in criminations and recriminations, by the opponents and upholders of the administration, as to where the blame rightly rested for the deplorable state into which the currency and business of the country had fallen.

The extra session was begun on the 4th of September, and it became evident at once, from the tone of the president's message, that no relief was to be looked for from the government. He ascribed the state of things to overtrading speculation, fostered and stim

* A great and destructive fire occurred in New York in December, 1835, when five hundred and twentynine buildings were consumed, and property was destroyed to the amount of more than $20,000,000.

CH. III.]

ulated by the banks, and avowed his belief, that all the government could do, or was designed to do, was to take care of itself; and that it could not be expected to legislate with reference to the monetary affairs of the people. The most important recommendation which Mr. Van Buren made, was, that the government should for the future keep its money in its own hands, by the instrumentality of the scheme of a subtreasury, or, as it was called by its supporters, the independent treasury; so that there should be an entire and total separation of the business and funds of the government from those of the banks.

The finance committee of the Senate presented four bills; one, for suspending the payment of the fourth instalment of the surplus revenue to the states; a second, for authorizing the is sue of treasury notes equal to any deficiency which might be felt in the treasury, with an addition of $4,000,000, by way of reserve; another, for the extension of the indulgence in the payment of revenue bonds; and a fourth, for the organization of the sub-treasury system.

1837.

This last proposal caused no little excitement, both in and out of Congress, for it was looked upon as a direct assault upon the entire credit system, and a scheme to destroy all the banks. Yet it passed the Senate by a vote of twenty-six to twenty; but in the House, it was lost by a vote of a hundred and twenty to a hundred and seven. Oth

er matters were debated, but nothing of moment was done, except authorizing the issue of $10,000,000 in treasury

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notes, for the immediate wants of the government. The session closed very unsatisfactorily, on the 16th of October. On the 4th of December, Congress again assembled, and the president sent in his first annual message. It contained various matters of public interest and concern; but, as was to be expected, the chief matter which came under discussion, was the sub-treasury scheme. Mr. Calhoun, in the Senate, supported the views of the administration, while on the other hand, Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster exerted their great powers against the plan proposed for a treasury bank. In the progress of the debate the bill was considerably modified, and a clause prohibiting the receipt of bankpaper in payment of government dues was struck out; and thus amended, it passed the Senate, in June, by the scanty majority of twentyseven against twenty-five. No sooner, however, was it presented in the House, than it was met by a motion to lay it on the table, which in the end prevailed, by a vote of a hundred and twentyfive to a hundred and eleven.

1838.

Among the acts of the session, we may note here; the granting pre-emption rights to actual settlers; establishing the territory of Iowa; authorizing several works for internal improvements, in the way of light-boats and beacons, the navigating of certain rivers in Florida, and the like; appropriating money for suppressing Indian hostilities; authorizing the printing the Madison papers; etc. The establishment of a national bank was suggested, but not so as to bring on a debate concerning it. And the following resolution, respecting the