Burlington Free Press

From an editorial article in the Washington Globe of
the 30th Sept. 1834.
WHAT IS HE AT?
Senator Leigh has written a letter for publication,
which has been ushered forth in the Richmond Whig,
with a view of explaining the "awful alternatives" of
supporting an unconstitutional Bank or something
more unconstitutional presented to Virginia by one of
his speeches in the senate. If any one, on reading it,
can come to any other conclusion than that this dignitary
intends ultimately to vote for the re-establishment
of the Bank of the United States, organized essentially
as it now is, as a depository of the public moneys, and
for no other place or substitute whatever, his perceptions
are different from ours. Mr. Leigh does indeed
say:
"In my opinion the framers of the constitution had
no thought of any Bank agency whatever, state or
federal, either for facilitating the operation of the
Treasury, or for regulating the currency! and that to
administer the government in the true spirit of the
constitution, and according to the intentions of its
founders the Treasury ought to be divorced from all
connexion with banks, state or federal."
What then? Why the public moneys from the
time of their receipt to the time of their disbursement,
amounting, as they often do, to ten or twelve millions
of dollars, must remain in the hands of individuals
APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT AND REMOVABLE AT
His will! And this comes from a man, who has
leagued with scores of others to denounce the President
as a usurper and contemner of the constitution
and laws, because he claimed from the executive the
custody of the public money in a much more limited
sense! He has now claimed that it should be retained
in the actual keeping of executive officers, but only
that it must be at their credit and within their control,
under such restrictions as congress may impose, in
some bank or banks, or other place of deposit. But
Mr. Leigh thinks that according to the true spirit of
the constitution, it ought to be kept in their pockets.
chests or vaults, where they can approach it every
day, and use it without the checks of warrants, drawn,
countersigned, registered and recorded, and passing
through many hands without which not a dollar can
now be touched by any public officer not even by the
President himself! We do not agree with Mr. Leigh
in the opinion that it was the intention of the constitution
to leave with the executive the most dangerous
control over the public money. If we did, not having
the flexible political conscience of the wise senator,
we should be obliged to insist that on this subject, also,
the constitution should be restored to its original
meaning, and the unauthorized constructions which
have been grafted upon it, lopped off. But Mr. Leigh
feels himself under no such necessity. Thus does he
excuse himself for his abandoning his reading of the
constitution on this point, viz:
"At the same time I have no expectation that this
principle will ever be acted on to its full extent. The
friends of the state bank, the friends of a national bank,
and the supporters of the executive claims to power,
will all combine against it, and the nation, most probably
will never agree, that the immense sums yearly
paid in for revenue, shall between the time of collection
and the time of disbursement, be wholly unemployed
and unproductive."
If Mr. Leigh has reference to the friends of President
Jackson, when he speaks of "the supporters of
the executive claims to power," he may be assured
that they will to a man, be united against any such
monstrous accumulation of power over the public
money-which such a plan would throw into the
hands of the executive. And we venture to allege
that had such a suggestion come from Gen. Jackson,
it would have been rung through the Old Dominion
with the reiterated falsehoods about the proclamation
and the protest, as conclusive proof, of all the aspirations
which have been charged to the Hero of Orleans!
"See (they would say) how he wishes to put the public
money directly into the hands of his friends and partisans,
instead of keeping it in deposit in Banks
where it cannot be drawn for other than public purposes,
without certain detection." In such a case we
should feel that the people had yet cause of alarm, and
ought to give their most watchful attention to such
an effort to enlarge executive power, and put in its
hands the means of corruption! &c. &c. &c.