Alexandria Gazette

Mr. Benton.—A number of Mr. Benton's constituents having invited him to a public dinner, enabled him, in reply, to go into a general detail of his position. He still holds on to the Gold and Silver humbug, and the destruction of Banks, and the adoption of the Sub-Treasury

To guard the country from this invasion of inferior paper, and to save the people from the losses which it must inflict upon them, and especially upon those who have no benefit from banks at their best, it should be a fixed object with the citizens of Missouri to pass a law to protect and regulate their own currency by expelling from the State all paper money under twenty dollars, and every description of depreciated paper. Gold and silver will immediately flow in and take the place of every dollar of paper money which is expelled from the State. Our State is large and rich and may be as well off for gold and silver as France, Holland and Cuba are, if, like them, we would cherish specie by discouraging paper. My own limit would be one hundred dollars; there should be no notes less than that amount in my opinion; but the Democracy of the country seem to have taken twenty for the limit and if Missouri will clear out all below that amount, she will save the body of her citizens from a large part of the evils and calamities of the paper money system.

With respect to federal politics, the great question of the age is the Divorce of Bank and State and the restoration of hard money payment to and from the federal Treasury this, or a National Bank! The alternative lies between an Independent Treasury and National Bank: The local Banks and their notes will not answer for the federal government.— They were never intended for it by the constitution of the United States; they have been tried repeatedly and have repeatedly failed, and will continue to fail as long as they continue to be tried.