The Spirit Of Democracy

The following letter from the Representative in Congress from this Congressional District speaks for itself We ask our readers to give it an attentive perusal:

Washington CITY, Feb. 26, 1846.

To the Editor of the Spirit of Democracy:

SIR-- In compliance with the request of a friend, and for the purpose of placing myself in a proper light before my political friends, I have forwarded to you the following, for publication, if, in your judgment, it would be proper so to do.

The issue between the two great political parties of Ohio, on the currency question, is now fairly made; and the important consequences, either for weal or woe, resulting to the country from a decision of this issue, render it a matter of deep and lasting interest to the people, and should be well considered before decided.

If the whigs, with the aid of the softs, are successful upon this issue, in the coming contest, the inevitable result will be that the entire control of the currency, and the pecuniary destinies of the people of Ohio, are yielded into the hands of a few stock-jobbing bankers, who will, having the power so to do, build up for themselves splendid princely fortunes out of the hard earnings of the people.

But, say the whigs, this is all demagogueism. Before, however, this assertion be taken as true, let it be first shown where the banker, or set of bankers are to be found, who do not use all the money within their control with a view of promoting their own interests, exclusively, regardless of the interests of others.

Who believes that stock-jobbers, (who flock about the Legislative bodies of the country, like carrion crows around a dead carcass,) when seeking bank charters for themselves, are prompted by pure patriotic motives and a sincere desire to promote the welfare of the great body of the people?

No one--'tis pelf these gentry are so warmly in scent of. If, then, the conclusion be correct, that men generally, and bankers in particular, seek their own interest, without regard to the interest of others, it then follows, as a matter of course that the bankers, who have the control of the money of the country, will use it for their own benefit; and consequently, sooner or later, they will have the control of all the profitable business, and finally become the owners of the most valuable property in the country; while the great body of the people will be reduced to the necessity of becoming the mere tenants at will--the slaves and serfs of heartless, stock-jobbing bankers;--our government, republican in form, only--in practice, a moneyed aristocracy

It is beyond the scope of the powers of my mind, to bring to view all the evils the people are subjected to by the existing villanous system of banking, and especially as it is practiced in Ohio. The General and State governments cannot be kept in existence without the use of money, and their existence, almost, as well as the prosperity of the people, are now made dependant upon the will of the bankers who have the control of the money of the country. Who desires to see his country and the people, for the benefit of bankers, reduced to such a humiliating condition of dependence as this?-- Certainly, no one; unless he cares more for the "almighty dollar" than the good of his country.

All history proves that we have more to fear from the money power, than from any thing else. It is the most deadly enemy the democracy have to contend with--it is the bane of republicanism, and its most efficient auxiliary is the whig press.-- The base servility of the whig press of Ohio to bankers, is, beyond doubt, without its equal in the history of any country. He who ventures to say aught against banks and bankers, though he be otherwise as guileless as the angel Gabriel, is at once assailed by them as if he were the most God-forsaken wretch in creation. I am aware that I will be censured by some, (whose good opinion I would at all times be pleased to have.) for the manner I have here expressed myself; but when I reflect upon the unceasing; the unmitigated abuse heaped upon the democratic party by the whig editors, and their readiness to attack, in the most scurrilous manner, any and every body who differ with them about any matter, and especially upon the subject of banking, I, on this account, feel myself fully justified in what I have said in relation to them:

If the democratic party succeed, in the coming contest, in electing their candidate for Governor upon the Constitutional currency issue, it will be the most glorious victory ever achieved by them in Ohio. They will have driven from power a clique of the most corrupt politicians that ever infested the Capital of any State in the Union They will teach Mr. Kelley and his party, that the capital of bankers, (while banks exist) shall be taxed as well as the property of farmers and mechanics, and to an equal extent--that special legislation must cease to be enacted in Ohio--that bankers must, hereafter, submit to the general laws, and no longer be the pets of government-- and that all laws, hereafter, shall be so shaped as to bestow, " like the dews of Heaven, equal blessings upon all."

The propriety of the policy of our fathers adopting gold and silver, as the constitutional currency of the country, has never been questioned by democrats; but as to the measures necessary to be adopted, to rid the country of banking, (an admitted evil,) there has been a difference of opinion among them. At different periods, in the history of this country, banks have failed and inflicted upon the people ruin and distress to an alarming extent. Upon all these occasions, some of the best men in the country have exerted themselves to the utmost extent of their power, to restrict and to reform them, believing they might be made useful in facilitating the trade of the country; but as all the exertions used to accomplish this object have failed, they have been abandoned as worthless, and all attempts to reform them, useless.

The members of the democratic party, in Ohio, have been laboring for the last 10 or 15 years, to have bank charters restricted in such a manner as would secure the people against fraud and loss; but finding all their efforts, heretofore, unavailing, they have, at length, deliberately resolved, in the late Convention at Columbus, to go for; and sustain the Constitutional currency of the country, to the exclusion of bank paper and shin plasters. To this determination I most cordially respond, and now pledge myself to my democratic friends, never to cease uniting my exertions with theirs until victory is inscribed on the Democratic Banner, and our efforts crowned with success; or else overwhelmed by defeat, which is more desirable in a good cause, than success in a bad one.

Respectfully, your &c.